Ultra?

Last Sunday's long run got me up at 4:30 and running in the dark with my crappy Wal-Mart headlamp that I got as a prize at a 10k.  That was a big run-on sentence.  I headed south from the swanky Sylvan Park apartments in Southwest Raleigh to the NCSU ag fields, which contain the only stretch of real gravel road I've been able to find around here.  It was just as spooky as running in the boonies at home.  Stuff was jumping in the trees and livestock was lowing in the fields.  The headlamp gave me about 10 feet of visibility.  When I was a kid, my mom and I would run with enormous rechargeable flashlights the would wear out about 20 minutes in.  This was only slightly better.  Perhaps I'll head to REI to get something better, probably not.  Anyway, my goal was to get on the trails at Yates Mill and/or Lake Wheeler.  Unfortunately the "Park is closed, no tresspassing" signs were quite locked.  Apparently people don't start fishing around here until 8 a.m.  My grandpa is loading up the truck to go back home by then.  So I continued down the road (now blacktop again) past the lake.  Eventually I just turned around and ran back through the new NCSU golf course, since nobody was there at 7 to yell at me and back to the house.  Somewhere around 23 miles, a little under 7 min. pace as far as I could tell.  I did not get my cup of generic coffee before I started, and I could tell for about the first hour.  I choked down a nasty flavored GU (I prefer ClifShot) and chewed up some shotblocks with a little caffeine and a tabby of Nuun.  It all got me through.  During the week I'll be spending some more time at the rec working on my technique on the elliptical machine, trying to perfect a way to get real excercise out of one of those things and get a little time off my joints.  This weekend I plan on heading up to Falls Lake to attack some real trails (I think)  and maybe try to procure a comfortable waist pack (hey, I'm new at this) to carry some emergency stuff for when I get myself lost.

Best of runs to all!