Dios, dame fuerza.

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.     -August Wilson

Single loop = 7 miles.

27 miles down on paper Sunday morning.  Woke up at 0430a and officially had dirt under my feet by 0515a.  I actually woke up BEFORE the alarm, which is always a great sign.

Since I was out before 0700a, I had a good hour and a half of night running, which I've been trying to incorporate as much as possible.  The hour or so of running in the dark is always interesting and full of exciting, spooky, heart pounding fun, let me tells ya!  I don't wear music as I try to keep all my senses about me since my field of vision amounts to just what of the night is cut by my flashlight.  Tree roots, branches, even the animals seem to be more abundant in the dark.  Speaking of animals, Sunday morning was actually the first time I've run into a bat on the trail.  Literally.  I ducked down under a low hanging branch, and when I came up I felt my pack pull something with it from the tree.  Something moving.  He seemed to be stuck on my pack before flying off in a fury of high pitched screeching.  Oh, and it just about made me piss my pants.

The sun started peaking through the trees around 0645a, which made me kick up my jets, to the point that I had to remind myself that I was in for a long haul.  Being able to see where your running really does wonders for moral.  I've started bringing de-fizzed Diet Mountain Dew in an extra water bottle just to see how much of an effect the caffeine would have.  I had a few swigs (maybe half a can) after my first loop, which I've extended to 7 miles.  I'm going to have to start bringing 2-litre bottles of de-fizzed Dew as it seemd to help much more than I expected, I'll just have to be careful not to drink too much.  I'm even considering bringing the 5-hour energy shots in case of severe emergencies.

Had the usual arsenal of Cliff Blocks and Shots, along with my gallons of water, but am still on the lookout for a good electrolyte replacement drink besides Gatorade.  I've been reading up about the miracle of coconut water, but as my local market didn't have any (the store associate wondered if it was in the produce section beside the coconuts, and even offered to walk me over) I'll just leave it for next time.  I am glad I didn't bring any so I could isolate any negative effects on myslef to the Diet Dew, thankfully there were none.  The only thing I did forget was gum.  I usually bring a pack as another way of keeping my mind from wandering too much.

I had originally set out to hit between 28-30 miles but stopped short at 27 as I started to bonk super hard.  I had told my GF I'd be back before noon and I think, on a mental level, my body started to shut things down as it was getting closer and closer to my cut off.  I did up my pace as it got closer to 1100a so I could squeeze in as many miles as I could, even though I know better, which I'll also blame the sudden downgrade of energy to.  After I got back to the car and had a couple swigs of ice-cold water and some more de-fizzed Dew in my system I felt I could have pumped out the last 3 miles if I wanted to.  Hell, I felt I could have gone further, a lot further.