Countdown to Annihilation! Week of 5-12 to 5-18

an·ni·hi·late

  [uh-nahy-uh-leyt]  Show IPA

verb (used with object), an·ni·hi·lat·ed, an·ni·hi·lat·ing.

1.

to reduce to utter ruin or nonexistence; destroy utterly: The heavy bombing almost annihilated the city.

2.

to destroy the collective existence or main body of; wipe out: to annihilate an army.

3.

to annul; make void: to annihilate a law.

4.

to cancel the effect of; nullify.

5.

to defeat completely; vanquish: Our basketball team annihilated the visiting team.

(Definition courtesy of Dictionary.com)

This should be fun...three weeks to go, and the serious mind games have already begun.  I got an e-mail from race director Ian Golden yesterday, which read, in part:

"The gorge took a really hard hit w/ the creek flowing through up over 10 feet last August. It went up and over several bridges, taking them out of commission, and tearing away the most scenic spot on the course which was the upper gorge. They've been hard at it but just not enough time. I had to reroute the course up what's called the Red Pine Trail near the top of the gorge, and taking it back down the Rim Trail. On the Buttermilk side I'll shift you to the other side of a low reservoir. Upside is it's got some runnable terrain. The downside is (and there wasn't a way around this), it took your elevation up a bit more, from somewhere around 8,500 to somewhere around 10,000. I can't get an accurate read as even solid GPS units lose their signals in the gorges."

Awesome, my mental victory over finding out the vert was more like 8K vs. 10K just got wiped away like the bridges in the gorge...but then I think, well, you did sign up for it when you thought it was 10K of vertical, so that's nothing different, and I got some encouraging words from a runner named Yoshihiro Nozaki, who's done some monster races in the 50-100M range, saying how much he liked the course.  The meet and greet Friday is at Ithaca Brewing, where they're putting together a special "Ultra Brew," Saturday has a screening of the Trails In Motion Film Festival (http://trailsinmotion.wordpress.com/), and there are a bunch of cool activities going on to distract me from Sunday morning's reality...although, I have to say I'm looking forward to it.  I haven't been to Ithaca in over 30 years, and I'm going to try to find my family's cottage on the western side of Cayuga Lake.  We even had a gorge behind it, with a trail that led to a waterfall.  If I can scope it out, I'll make that my Friday run and get pictures...

Here's a recap from last year:

Monday, 5-12 - 2.5 Miles (Trail) - Post-karate run at Green Falls.  Thanks, Muddy!  Spider season has kicked in, and as I friggin' hate spiders, the post that Muddy made on Strava about eating webs made my run decision for me.  I had a smallish window to run, and the technicality of Green Falls was the ticket.  Besides, I'd set a goal a few weeks ago to run the "Dam to Road" segment in 4:45 or less.  Got it in 4:31, scrambling like a bastard.  Even at a downhill run it's a bitch, but at least the water crossing has been fixed!  So good times there, and I saw people on the trail!  I love this time of year, the trails are such an underutilized natural treasure around here.  On the west side of the pond, I even found a stream/spring/waterfall hidden underneath a cluster of boulders?  Need to get out there again with a headlamp or a flashlight, because it looked pretty damn cool, from what I saw!

Tuesday, 5-13 - 10 Miles (Trail/Dirt Road) - Arcadia run.  I'm still getting used to Arcadia.  The trails there are awesome, and I did a 10 mile loop today that could have been extended a lot (including the Mount Tom section), given a bigger time frame.  Some technical sections, but mostly just really runnable single- and double-track trails,  I did the Frosty Hollow to Breakheart to Penny Hill run, threw in a stretch of dirt road, before finishing up on the Root Trail (aptly named), and back to the truck.  Good 10-miler on a perfect weather day for running.  Still haven't ventured much yet into the southern part of Arcadia...plenty more to explore there as well!  And wear lots of orange!

Nice pine forest to run in...

Awesome single-track North of Breakheart Pond

Wednesday, 5-14 - 2.6 Miles (Trails) - Short window Lantern Hill run.  Had to make a trip to the transfer station, so Lantern was the choice.  Besides, I wanted to get some vert, and take a shot at beating my "Lantern Top to Bottom" segment, with a stretch goal of getting below 4 minutes.  Took it easy on the way up, then hammered the downhill for a time of 3:56, pretty stoked about that as it's almost 30 seconds faster than my best time.  Meanwhile...some dude from New York and his friend were taking one of my uphill segments by about 8 seconds, so I'll have to go get that back at some point...perfect weather today, sunny and breezy and mid-60s.  Great short run!

Thursday, 5-15 - 6.5 Miles (Trails/Dirt Roads) - Humid Pachaug trail run.  Muggy miles in the woods, saw a couple of hikers and some campers today.  Overcast and started to rain just as I was finishing up, beautiful day!

Easy singletrack section...Nehantic Trail

Friday, 5-16 - 0 Miles - Spent the day with my better half, and we even managed an impromptu date night at Mohegan Sun, where we grabbed a pizza at Pepe's and ice cream at Ben and Jerry's, and walked around the casino doing some people-watching.  Great day!

Saturday, 5-17 - 5+ Miles (Road) - Warmup/cooldowns, and the 5th Annual KIAI 5K road race.  My friend Julie Conte is the race director for this race, which is permanently on my schedule.  It's also the only race I've done since its inception, which makes me a streaker?  Not the cool kind that goes running through the quad, sadly...

Ahhh, college...what an experience...

Changes for 2014?  A completely different course.  And tech shirts!  20 bucks gets you a race entry, great shirt, fed, and (in my case) a $25 restaurant gift cert.???  Sign me up!  I knew from research that the new setup was near the "Gear and Beer" 5K course, and was thinking about the hill...that hill.  Mercifully, the hill was cut from the equation, but there was still a rolling course which seemed more hilly than the Strava elevation profile would lead me to believe.  Great volunteer/police coverage all along the course, too!  FYI, ya'll, the prizes went three deep per age group, and there were tons of awesome raffle prizes, I was blown away by how much there was, actually.  The Foot Pursuit didn't have nearly the same amount of swag!

So I woke up early to pouring rain, made coffee and watched it clear up quickly.  Relief.  The Sun came out, and I hit the road to pick up friends Jim and Ben.  We chatted on the way over and I was glad to have some conversation and company.  Jim and I did a short warmup after we checked in and we got ready to race.

My race was a no expectations, cruise at a moderate pace type of race.  Rolling streets, and my first road run in a while so kind of weird.  Awesome downhill to the finish.  Nothing to write home about time-wise, not a PR, but a good effort and good for 14th place and 2nd in my age group at a 23:02.  I got a $25 gift certificate to Applebee's for 2nd in my age group?  That's how deep the awards went.  The raffle awards were even better, from what I saw...Awesome.  This is a great cause in South County.  I've been there every year, and I'm glad to be a part of it!

Sunday, 5-18 - 0 Miles, just an all day yardwork affair, followed by a Southern-style BBQ dinner at my in-laws...perfect weather...