MONKEYS

A few weeks ago we joined forces with Stonegate and her family and had a garage sale. As often happens when you have a garage sale, you find things that you forgot that you had. While searching through boxes and closets I came across the following book ….

This book brought back a sea of memories for me. You see, years ago my friend Sally Edwards reached out to me and told me that a friend of hers was writing a book about women conquering triathlons.  She wanted me to contribute a story detailing my very first attempt at a triathlon. So I did. My story in this book is called The Monkeys on My Back. When I found the book, I reread my story completely forgetting what I had written.

Essentially my story was about all the doubts in my head (aka those monkeys riding my back dragging me down) and how I defeated those monkeys and doubts, tossing them to the side as I completed my first challenging race.

Since my last post, I debated even writing another blog post. That race left me pretty beat up physically and mentally. Months ago, when I was feeling super strong and invincible, I signed up for the American River 50 mile race (again). Then Salmon Falls happened and I was left cursing myself for signing up for 50 miles after feeling how I felt after that last 50k.

The monkeys were back. Clearly.

I took a week off from running trying to nurse some aches and pains and I saw my miracle worker Dr. Lau. I didn’t know what to do. How did I think I could run again in four weeks?

The time off was good. I focused on stretching, foam rolling, eating well and catching up on lost sleep. The latter is hard to achieve with two little ones. 🙂

When yesterday came about, Pigeon had wanted us to go run our last long run before AR in the canyons. As much as I love the canyons, those monkeys were telling me I was crazy. We have done this run before (you can read it here) it was hard and it hurt. Yet we needed the hours on our feet and in the back of my head,  I kept telling myself that the canyons are way harder than AR despite AR being more than twice as long (my brain works in mysterious ways).

Pigeon and I left town in complete darkness and arrived just as the sun was rising. We parked at Michigan Bluff and got ourselves ready. We both knew it was going to be a warm day but it was pretty chilly to start.

I didn’t know what to pack for fuel. I wanted to test out a bunch of new things so my pack was pretty jammed with all kinds of new to me fuel for the day.

As we were about to embark on the trail, another car arrived and out popped three other runners and a Doberman mix. Of course, another doberman encounter. Luckily, this dog was well trained and did not bother us too much.

This run starts out with a nice long two mile descent. It is rocky, technical and pretty steep. Dr. Lau’s advice kept ringing in my ears (“Don’t run down hill, save your knees”) but of course did I listen? Not really. I was careful and hesitant. I made sure my foot placement was good and I worked really hard on my form as I was going down, but I didn’t walk.

Of course in typical Trailmomma style, I had to make a quick pit stop not more than two minutes into our run. However, that would be the last of my tummy troubles the entire day.

Once you get to the bottom of that descent, you cross a nice little bridge and then begin a super long four to five mile climb. I had forgotten how much “up” this side of the trail had until I was hands on my knees hiking step after step.

The climb seemed to move pretty quickly though because before I knew it, we had reached the fire road section by Deadwood Cemetery. We caught up to the other runners that were out on the trail and had a nice chat with them.

Those runners stopped at the water pump to refill their bottles while Pigeon and I continued on towards Devil’s Thumb. The last time we ran this route, we stopped at the thumb and turned around. Today, we sat there debating back and forth as to whether or not we should climb down Devil’s to the swinging bridge. I’ve climbed Devils a few times. It is not an easy section. I have never run down it however.

My left knee had been only slightly making itself known on those earlier miles but I was afraid that the steepness of Devil’s would send it spiraling into a sea of pain. I took two Advil as a sort of preventative measure and down we went.

Last year’s massive fire has destroyed quite a bit of this beautiful land. Seeing all the charred tree stumps and branches was very heart breaking. It also however brought a bit of mystery and danger to the scene.

Without all the trees to provide shade, this was a very exposed section of trail and the temps were rising.

The terrain was also very difficult to run on. Tiny seas of pinecones were everywhere causing you to slip. Rocks, branches and debris were everywhere. I slowed more than a few times to try and prevent myself from tumbling down the trail.

When we made it to the bottom, we were greeted by shade and the brand newly rebuilt Swinging Bridge!

Last year the fire had destroyed half of the bridge making it impossible to pass.

A bunch of trail volunteers and angels did an amazing job rebuilding the bridge.

We decided to spend some time here and refuel a bit so I took quite a few photos.

Last year during the western states training run, since the bridge was not complete, we had to cross by going into the river.

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They had a rope tied across the river in the above photo and we had to cross by wading through. It was pretty awesome.

But today, we were able to use the bridge and after some fueling decided it was time to start the dreaded climb up Devils’ Thumb.

As were making our way across the bridge, Pigeon told me I should take a photo of the waterfall. I never even realized there was a waterfall here before. I pulled out my camera and took a photo of it and I have to say, it was one of my favorites from the day.

The climb back up Devil’s Thumb consists of 36 switchbacks. THIRTY-SIX!!!???? It isn’t easy and it can be quite demeaning.

As I was climbing my right knee and lower back decided to say hello and by hello I mean “what the hell are you doing?!” I tried not to focus on it. One foot in front of the other. Climb.

Pigeon as always, was pretty silent on this climb. I tend to go in spurts of chatting and then conserving energy.

I don’t know exactly how long it took, but we finally reached the top. Normally we stop at the top but Pigeon locked her sights on those earlier runners who were running back towards the pump and started running. Okay, I guess we’re running. 🙂

We passed the runners again as they stopped at the water pump. As it turns out, they had a friend meet them with a truck full of aid-station fuel. They offered us coke and brownies and a ton of other things, but we passed and continued on.

As we were running we heard the sounds of dirt bikes and sure enough, just like the last time, two guys riding dirt bikes on the same trail we were running, passed us. Luckily we had more room this time to jump to the side.

I was internally dreading the next section. The four/five mile descent down El Dorado Canyon. This section is steep and fairly runnable making it tough on a bum knee.

I settled in behind Pigeon and tried going easy. Watching my form. Watching my steps. It surprised me that my left knee, the knee giving me trouble at Salmon Falls was fine and instead my right knee was the one barking at me. It didn’t matter if I was running down or up, it hurt but it let me continue. It didn’t stop me, yet.

At some point during this decent, Pigeon had to peel off and make her own pit-stop. I decided to play it smart and walk ahead. Walk the downs. Not run.

Before I knew it, I was a the bottom of the canyon. It seemed to have flown by this time. Pigeon had caught up and we started our climb back up to Michigan Bluff. Normally we stop at the bottom and refuel but it was pretty crowded with some hikers so instead, we climbed.

Some how I think it is more than a two mile climb up because it is never ending.

One foot in front of the other again. Climb. Repeat. At some point, I took the lead. I was focused. I could feel the finish, or a least I thought I could. Every time I thought we’d reached the top, I was mistaken.

Oh well, climb and climb again. At one point, decided to wait for Pigeon to catch up, just to check on her. I am kind of glad I did. She asked me where we were mileage wise which is always a red flag for her. She knows her distances pretty well. I asked her how she was doing and she told me her pack was empty. She had no water.

This is a constant joke between us. Pigeon has run out of water quite a few times on some of our runs and since I am a camel and always have more than enough, I usually give her mine. I had my whole 10 ounce bottle completely untouched so I poured it into her pack. We laughed and continued on. I knew that near the top of this climb, the sun would be out and we would be totally exposed which is not a good thing when it was a warm as it was outside. Water was a necessity on this climb.

I just powered on. Despite the pain searing through my knee at times, I felt okay. I felt that I was able to climb. A few times I even ran a bit to break it up and release the pressure in my low back. I had juice in the tank so to speak, which helped me fling those monkeys off my back about AR50.

It was on this climb back out that I thought again about that book. I had some how distanced myself from Pigeon and was just climbing and thinking – one foot in front of the other. If I could climb and handle this day and these canyons, why couldn’t I handle AR50 in two weeks? I have the strength. The race may not turn out what I had originally hoped when I initially signed up, but I know I can do it. The monkeys were being thrown. I was hiking and tossing those monkeys off my back and bringing myself back to a place of positive thinking. A place I have been missing lately.

When I reached the top I felt whole again. I felt like my old self. Sure my knee was screaming at me but I felt like my inner-self had been reset.

When Pigeon arrived, we made our way back to the car and tried our best to remove all the poison oak that may or may not have been all over our legs. It was pretty nasty out there.

Overall, we had run 19.5 miles or so with 7,583 feet of elevation. That’s a lot. Our first canyon run of the season was behind us. This isn’t an easy run at all but it definitely is one of my favorites.

When I arrived home I got word that Vans had a daddy day like no other!

The girls’ faces look exactly like mine when I have to go to Home Depot with Vans. 🙂

Overall, it was a great day. We had spent more than 6 hours on the trail. That’s a long time but it was the time I needed to get my confidence back.

Now I taper. Now I work on the aches and pains. Foam rolling. Eating well and hopefully trying to get better sleep. AR50 will be what it will be but I know a lot of what makes a race a great race, is where your head is on race day. For me, I am going to ride this positive train for the next two weeks.

Happy Trails!

~Trailmomma