This run is a classic Central Oregon long run. It’s starts at Ogden Trailhead and climbs up 9 miles to Paulina Lake, then you run the 20 mile rim loop around the caldera with good views of East Lake, Paulina Lake and the Cascades. There’s been some forest fire smoke in the area the past few days, so we ended up not getting the Cascade views due to the haze, but it’s still a great loop. Lewis Taylor from Eugene came over and met Krissy and I at Ogden Trailhead. He came early, as he’s peaking for Leadville 100 and he had already run 18 miles at 8am.
The 3 of us headed up to Paulina Lake where we’d pick up Chris and Darla, as they wanted to run the 20 mile rim loop only with White River 50 coming up next weekend. After a quick water fill up at the store we headed out on the loop. To gain the rim, you have to go from Paulina Lake at 6,300 feet to the summit of Paulina Peak at 7,985 feet in about 3ish miles. Good climb with great views. From that vantage point, you can see the entire rim at average elevation of 7,000 feet below you and can see the route your are about to embark on. This is a classic and I try to run it at least once per summer.
It proved to be really hot and I underestimated water and most of us ran out with about 6 miles to go (from Paulina Lake’s store). I pushed ahead of the group and got there about 10 minutes earlier. I immediately went to the bar, filled my bottles with ice and ice water from the bartender, chugged a Corona with a lime…can’t forget the lime…I’m sure I looked like hell. No shirt, sweaty, salt crust all over me, two fisting a corona and water bottle, downing a gel, salt tab, paid the barkeep and went to the store and drank a soda, ate some chips and cashews to try and recover from the bonk.
It worked okay, but once you go to bonkland for 45-60 minutes in a run, you never fully recover. Soon Lewis and Krissy showed up after dropping off Darla and Chris at their car, and we hung out and recovered for about 15 minutes. After that its the final 9 miles down to the trailhead from the lake.
Lewis, Krissy and I: Mile 29 for Krissy and I, Mile 47 for Lewis, after the store aid station, post-Corona and coming back from the bonk.
Lewis tacked on another 5 at the lake to get in 60 miles for the day (strong work, Lewis!), while Krissy and I headed for the car and the creek soak at the trailhead. It was a slog to get back. We both had run out of water on the rim loop and were groaning a bit on the death march to the car.
However, the creek soak was good, a little ultragen for recovery. A good day of hard training. One more hard weekend and taper for Waldo 100k.