my first ultra style long run

I've run 20 miles before, but that was for marathon training.

You know, where you run on roads.  Just eat gel.  Try to go fast.  Well, sorta fast.

This was nothing like that.

First, I brought enough gear to outfit a small army.

The stuff on the left was actually for after, but that still leaves a whole lotta gear I was carrying in my backpack. I wanted to try out different food to see what would sit well.  It was raining hard so I wanted a jacket. I thought extra socks might be too much, but hey, I had a backpack, right?

Second, note the muddy shoes.  They are a precursor to this run.

I met two running buddies at the far end of the Wildwood Trail.  Wildwood is 30 miles long one way - a real Portland treasure. (Apparently we even have bear, bobcat and mountain lion living in there.) The great thing about Wildwood is that it is marked on the 1/4 mile, so you know exactly how far you've gone.  The rain was very light at this point, and we were excited to be breaking new ground.

We stopped to take a couple of photos, which is also a great excuse to take a breather:

But then the rain decided to really start falling.  

Mean rain.

We slipped and we slided, and we sang goofy songs like "Slip, sliding away" (yeah, we're clever like that).  We walked up the hills.  We did a lot of walking actually.  It was slow going out there.

I learned that peanut butter sandwiches agree with me.

We didn't complain.  This was a rule.

We saw our friends on the trail.  Which, of course, meant more stopping and chatting.  And resting.

We met lots of dogs and soaked hikers.  Which we often stopped to meet.

I made mud pies in my shoes.  My friend Deb, in Vibram Bikilas, did not.  But I had extra socks, so I changed them.  While I rested, of course.

We passed a huge group of what I thought might be Boy Scouts.  They looked very young.  One of them made a cat call to us.  We found this very funny.  Seriously?

As we ran past their leaders, I took a moment to fall on my face.  Superman!  It was my proudest moment.  Okay, not really.

Five hours later, we made it back to our cars.  Don't do the math.  We were quite slow.

Did I mention we got muddy?

The best thing about this run.  I know I could have gone another 11 miles.  So I'm feeling good already that I will finish my first 50k.  I might not be the speediest person out there, but I think I can go the distance.