Crazy mountain Run!

Yesterday I made a series of very poor choices. I left for a run at 7:30 not realising how far away my objective was, nor bothering to look up how much climbing would be involved. Didn’t pay attention to the temperature high for the day. Didn’t take enough water with me. Didn’t eat breakfast. Just put on my shoes and headed for the mountains. Great idea, right!?

Here’s my handy graph to show the climb!

Yeah. That’s yuuge! The five kilometre stretch leading to the peak had eight hundred meters! I have never taken this route before, just kind of skirted around it a couple times checking it out. Got a little bit lost trying to find the right trail but I found a nice guy walking his dogs and he actually knew a short cut that saved me time. That was fun as it took me off a “major” path onto a narrow footpath through the woods with beautiful views. 

On the steep part I was passed by a guy (gasp!) And I asked him if he knew how much farther it was to the top. Just over one k at that point so I figured hey I can’t stop now. A couple hundred meters later I saw that he had stopped to talk to somebody who has coming down the hill and at that point I saw that they were both wearing t shirts for the UT4M which is the ultra race I have been building up for the last year! How cool!! 

Turns out he is the volunteer coordinator for the race and I was like sign me up! I can’t run it this year, but it would be so awesome to be a part if the race. He sent me a link and told me he still needs some help so I will figure out a way to get there!

Anyway, after taking a short rest at the top I started the long trek back. I took the last few drops of water from my camel back and wondered if I would be ok. Yeah, not so much…

I did alright for a while as the temperature was cooler at the higher altitude and the tree cover was thick but the temperature eventually reached 37°C and my water was all gone. I was sweating buckets. My throat was so dry the muscles were contracting to the point that I was having difficulty breathing. I would stop to rest for a few minutes but when I stood up again I got dizzy! Dehydrated. Dizzy. Difficulty breathing. Of course I crossed no other living beings who could possibly help me.

At one point I drank water from a small stream that was coming out of the rock. I figured it was ok as I was still high up in the mountain and it was very cold. The temperature reassured me because it meant it hadn’t been in a stagnant pool. I didn’t drink too much because, well, you just never know. It was probably the best tasting water of my life! Unfortunately I needed more than just water, namely salt but no luck there. 

Anyway, no longer able to run it took me forever to get back home and I had a 3k stretch that was in full sun before reaching my final descent. 

The last km or so my entire body was shaking. I could barely speak. I just kept moving. Don’t stop, don’t stop… 

I made it home, leaving a trail of dirty stinking clothes through the apartment, grabbed every beverage in the fridge and fell to the floor my legs twitching crying out to my cat it’s ok kitty, don’t worry, I’m fine! She was a little frightened, poor thing.

I had just enough time to take a shower before having to make a couple calls to do student evaluations (testing the oral level of new students). I could barely speak! My muscles kept twitching and I had to plug the phone in to recharge it so I couldn’t even pace back and forth to deal with the twitching. I am laughing now, but oh my it was horrible at the time! 

Never again. At least not until next week! 

Lessons are learned the hard way. Fortunately I made it back but there were a few moments were I was worried I would just fall over and pass out. I feel fine today but might not run for a couple days.

~silly mountain goat.