Mt. Hood circumnavigation

Against my better judgment, I decided to run around Hood, only one week after my 100k effort. Mike Hall and I slept at timberline the night before. Mike is a colleague and friend from work. He is a man of few words. He is an Ironman and marathoner but a ultra neophyte. We ate at the brew pub, Ice Axe, the night before. I fell asleep after two stouts assisted with the carbo load. We woke at 4 AM. I slammed a recovery drink and diligently slirped down some Wasp vomit. This “new” Japanese product is amino acids cultivated from WASP gastic juices- called VESPA. These wasps are known to fly at high speed up to 50 miles a day. I thought it was worth a try to see if it truly led to glycogen sparing and increased fat burning. At 5 dollars a slurp though, I was very skeptical.
I felt strong from the beginning physically. No sore or tired muscles. My lower abdomen did not hurt very much. Mentally, I was not committed. I felt like my focus was not there. If Mike had not been with me, I would have probably not started or would have turned around very early. I got a little motivation when I ran into Mike Burke at Timberline. I got a little excited, thinking about future runs and races.
Mike and I made fairly good time to mile 15. Once we passed the meadow where I took a wrong turn two weeks ago, I finally was content running. The meadows were gorgeous despite not being at their peak. We made excellent time to Elliot. We lost at least 30 minutes while we scoped out a safe descent. We attempted to take the original descent. It cliffed out with a scrabble on loose rock and dust. It probably would have been safe to ascend, from the CCQ direction. We finally found the Mazama rope and got down safely. I suddenly lost my umph and got pretty tired at the marathon mark. I think I used up some mental and physical energy with the Eliot crossing then it started to heat up. Oh, that and I had run 27 miles already and 100k the week before!

Mike and I slogged on. Making reasonable time. We finished at 12:30. Mike did a wonderful job for his first 40 miler. He never complained. For me, I was reacquainted with the humility that can only come from doing something exceedlingly arduous.