30 by Sunrise, 70 by 9am

After last night's storms it was a drizzly, soggy and debris-ridden 4am. Wheels down by 4:45 with a single Petzl headlamp. Clouds blocked any moon and threw thick blankets of fog and drizzle at me. Within the first 100 yards I slammed into a full body downed branch. A good thing, it got me paying attention to the trail. I had to go painfully slowly as I watched down a narrow tunnel of fuzzy light barely able to discern branches until they were upon me. My fear was an imaginary branch I called The Widowmaker... sturdy, covering the trail from side to side and sitting at about neck height this thing could do some damage if I didn't see it in time. And I see them from time to time out on the trail in the early morning as trees naturally fall.

Bugs are attracted to the light so I got slapped constantly. The worst though was the bat which swerved out of the way about two feet in front of my headlamp. It was like somebody took a flash photo of a bat, crazy claws, fangs and all.

Out to the Big Tunnel took 2 hours! Crazy slow but shortly thereafter the sun came up. Can't tell you how happy I was. From there I took on a more regular pace and covered a little ground.

Out to mile 35 and then back to 0. Lickety split. Soaked and muddy by the end.

Tons of triathletes headed west as I came back in. Tons of them. Saw Ashley and a few others that I think I recognized.

Why the 4:45a start time? Family in town... needed to get the ride done before breakfast. Mission accomplished although sans run.

• 

  phone camera pics

• 

  phone camera pics

• 

  phone camera pics