This weekend I had a good bike ride along the Bosque trail that turned a little interesting, but only for a moment.

I saw this
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It was coming down a very dry, dusty embankment and crossing the asphalt bike trail. I saw it enter the trail and I had no time to stop, but was in no danger. It was at least 4-5 feet from me when I passed. I did see some bicyclists headed the opposite direction and declared “Snake in the trail!” as we passed each other. They looked at me as if I was crazy and then grabbed some serious brakes when they realized I was not.

Ran La Luz from top to bottom today. Ran actually is not the right word. It was more like attacked at a vigorous pace with spurts of running mixed with a majority of fast hiking. I started at the trailhead and went all the way to the top in a respectable 1:40 with an additional 15 tagged on to make it from the Crest House to the Tram. When I was at the 4.6 mile mark I almost turned around until I bumped into a woman that reassured me the Tram was running. I was worried that I would “summit” and find the Tram not running which would have meant another couple hours of making my way back down. I am very glad I did this before race day and now I have a little more info that will be very helpful. Most notably, the last two miles are KILLER! Those two miles are referred to as the Rock Slide and it is exactly that. The trail is lost under boulders of many different sizes and in no order. I felt like I was climbing wobbly stairs at some points as my knees came close to my chest. Due to the knowledge of the Rock Slide I will not necessarily reserve myself in order to make it, but there may be a couple of hills that I ran up which will turn into fast hikes. Should be fun!

Met another runner at the top who gave me a ride to my car (Thanks Darrell!) and was glad I did. He had completed the La Luz a couple of times and reassured me that if I completed today in 1:40 that the additional road start (extra 2 miles) will not make as big of impact as I would think. The insight I gained today and the insight gathered from Darrell was a big plus.

La Luz trail run is coming up on August 6th. I have been working towards getting ready, but a busier than normal schedule has thrown off the ideal conditions. Not a complaint, just an observation.

The trail had been closed for a good portion of the summer and just recently reopened. I will be taking on the full trail, slowly, in the next week or so just to get a good sense of the time it takes to hike at a good pace. Of course, I will be running most of the course and it would be nice to know for sure the areas that deserve more attention and respect. The beginning 1.8 miles is pretty much all asphalt which will actually be harder on me. Running the trail will be better as the pace seems faster. The fast the preceived pace then the better I will be mentally.

Check out more on the La Luz trail by clicking this … LA LUZ.