Family paddle

Morning float

Group run with short threshold-ish segment

Extra easy morning group run

Group run

Bike, run, kayak, run, bike, run(ish), bike. 


Holy cow, what an adventure. I stepped wayyy out of my comfort zone for this one. I’ve ridden less than 400mi this year, and around 1,000 lifetime miles. My original goal was to break 7 hours, but I revised this after my rides last weekend. 

When I was feeling good in sight of the lead pack (after a very brief loss of momentum due to a wrong turn) I switched my goal to try to be competitive at the front. Then I missed a nearly-unmarked turn which added a good 10 minutes. Then another not much later, this time poorly marked, but I should have seen it. A bit later also on the first bike leg, I had a brief wrong turn at an ambiguously-marked intersection that we’d gone through before. Apparently that was mentioned in the pre-race meeting that I had to miss due to work. All that adds to course knowledge if I do it again! 

I picked a few people off on the 1mi run leg to the kayak leg, but then got passed by four people in the boat. Apparently runners don’t have arm strength... who knew? The kayaking was definitely the most memorable part of the adventure. Heavy winds whipped the lake into 3-4ft whitecaps, so I felt bad for those with little kayaking experience. My only issue aside from getting lapfuls of water, was the fact that the paddle couldn’t be feathered. Finished the kayak leg a little defeated, but rallied and caught those four people on the 1mi run leg back to the transition area. 

Then it was back on the bike for what really made me nervous, the Cohos trail traverse. This was the leg that made me question whether to use a cyclocross bike. It’s a lot of bony and muddy grass “trail” climbing, followed by a very technical rocky trail descent. It turned out fine; I would have been just as miserable on my FS MTB going up, and would have had only slightly more fun on the sketchy descent. 

After that bike leg, it was off for a double leg on foot, and the steepest trail I’ve ever “run,” the Table Rock Scramble. I’m surprised I didn’t see any warning signs at the base, because that was insane. If it were above treeline I’m sure it would see tons of deaths. You’re hiking up, and the trail at eye level is a foot away from your face. The good thing about steep is that it’s over quickly, and then it traversed and headed down. I was able to run the whole descent really quickly; not bad after 4.5hours of effort!

Then I started up Sanguinary Ridge, another 800+ ft climb, but much less steep. At this point I was pretty much just hiking, but I was also able to run the descent very well. 

Finally, it was just 4 miles of biking to the finish. I finished in 5:38, feeling great. Switching activities really helped my legs. 


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Josh Fields

4th at Metallak: the extra miles, extra adventure edition

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Family paddle

Morning float

Group run with short threshold-ish segment

Extra easy morning group run

Group run

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