Dirty Duo 50km

Here's Craig and I finishing the Dirty Duo 52 km (course was re-routed and a little longer) than the original 50 km of previous years

It was a beautiful spring day. A little cold at 7:30 am for the early start. There was a small group of us for the early start. I was feeling a little apprehensive until I heard that one of my fellow runners had just returned from Sierra Leon (and completed his quarantine time) working with people living and dying from Ebola. Now that put the entire under taking into perspective! 

We were about to spend the day on the trails, in nice spring weather! How thankful I should be that I can come out and play. I had a bit of a rough start as we ended up running through a cloud of smoke from a close by burning fire of some sort. It made my breathing difficult. Craig and I were running together and he was very patient. He was looking for a good long run and time on his feet both of which I promised him I could deliver! 

After an hour or so I started to settle into the run. I found my airways opened up and I was doing much better. I even had some firsts like actually passing a runner on "Ned's Atomic Dust Bin". It is a downhill mountain bike trail that is super rough and technical. In this event you actually do it 2x's! Yah Ned's! 

Craig was stopping for a few minutes at the aid stations chatting to friends and then would run to catch up to me. After a couple of hours he said "Princess you are speeding up" - he was working hard to catch up to me! Better stay with me partner I replied! 

In this event you have to complete a 25km route and then repeat it for the last 25km's. Repeating anything is not fun but on Saturday Craig and I seemed to embrace the day and we tackled the second loop no problem. I think on some sections I was much stronger on the second loop. My feet started to cramp so I took some electrolyte tablets and guzzled the electrolyte drink at the aid stations and it took care of the cramping. 

The Dirty Duo has many events going on simultaneously. There are mountain bikes on the route and various distances of running. We had a very peaceful journey and didn't see too many people along the way. Perhaps because we took the early start and that we were near the back of the pack. It made for a very relaxing day on the trails. We were proud to complete our first 50 km event of 2015 feeling good and even made plans for dinner that evening where we had some good discussions about the upcoming Vancouver 100 in June. 

Longer days are here with the clocks turning this weekend. Looking forward to more midweek outings! 

Thank-you Heather and the Mountain Madness crew for putting on a great event. I really appreciated the excellent marking of the course especially with multiple events and having different bike and running routes. Thank-you Craig, hope the journey was as much fun for you as it was for me!