FANS 12 ??, Afton
Well, my plan to check out the FANS course didn't work out very well.
On Thursday I wanted to stay up after work for a presentation at Midwest Mountaineering, and I figured I'd kill time by running around Lake Nokomis. I wanted to see if I could get around a couple times and try to project forward to June to see if I could do that for most of 12 hours. What I've heard is that the course is really quite easy and the hard part is in going around and around and around and around (you get the idea) on a flat, hard surface... hour after hour... in the heat of the day, and for the 24-ers all night long.
Turns out I killed most of my time in stop-and-go traffic on 94. And then the course turned out to be quite difficult and amazingly cold. Not at all what I was expecting. My thought about FANS 12 is that maybe I could use that to bridge the gap between 31 miles and 50 miles. Seems like it would be a good experience and good for my confidence if I could pull off 40 miles without injury. After Thursday I'm looking at maybe 12 miles. I'll need to think about this some more.
Things probably would've gone a little better if I had done Thursday's run in snowshoes. Thankfully I was able to do that on Sat, at Afton State Park. Thank you to Alicia, Tom and Nancy for hosting a Fat... um, an informal snowshoe and potluck event on Sat. The sun was out, there wasn't much wind, and thanks to Thur there was plenty of good snow. And then eating and hanging out afterwards was great as you would expect. I thought my snowshoeing days were over for this winter, but I'm glad this worked out. Thank You to the organizers and everyone that showed up.
On Thursday I wanted to stay up after work for a presentation at Midwest Mountaineering, and I figured I'd kill time by running around Lake Nokomis. I wanted to see if I could get around a couple times and try to project forward to June to see if I could do that for most of 12 hours. What I've heard is that the course is really quite easy and the hard part is in going around and around and around and around (you get the idea) on a flat, hard surface... hour after hour... in the heat of the day, and for the 24-ers all night long.
Turns out I killed most of my time in stop-and-go traffic on 94. And then the course turned out to be quite difficult and amazingly cold. Not at all what I was expecting. My thought about FANS 12 is that maybe I could use that to bridge the gap between 31 miles and 50 miles. Seems like it would be a good experience and good for my confidence if I could pull off 40 miles without injury. After Thursday I'm looking at maybe 12 miles. I'll need to think about this some more.
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Things probably would've gone a little better if I had done Thursday's run in snowshoes. Thankfully I was able to do that on Sat, at Afton State Park. Thank you to Alicia, Tom and Nancy for hosting a Fat... um, an informal snowshoe and potluck event on Sat. The sun was out, there wasn't much wind, and thanks to Thur there was plenty of good snow. And then eating and hanging out afterwards was great as you would expect. I thought my snowshoeing days were over for this winter, but I'm glad this worked out. Thank You to the organizers and everyone that showed up.
posted by Wayne at 4:00 PM
4 Comments:
FANS is in the summer right - no snow to battle. That may change your outlook on how many miles you could complete.
Something about taking one step forward and then sliding backward - or not having any push off can be a bit demoralizing after awhile.
Sounds like Afton was a good time. I figure we are due for at least one big storm in March and remember snowflakes falling the first week in May, so never really put the winter toys away until late May.
The hardest part of FANS is the long concrete bridge. After 10 laps or so, it gets to be really hard on the legs. The multiple laps just means you get to store everything in one place and you see people all day, rather than run alone.
I came very close to going to Afton for the snow shoe FA, but ended up sleeping in and heading to RTA instead. Great day to play in the snow!
As for FANS, running around Lake Nokomis for 12-24 hours sounds about as exciting as running on a treadmill to me ;) If you're looking for a race to bridge the gap between 31 and 50, doesn't Kettle have a 38 mile fun run the night of the 100?
FANS is great. Do it- it will be fun- not like being alone on a treadmill. There will be lots of people to run with and talk to. It is really one of the best running times of the year. You get to run as much as you want!!! No pressure to do more than you are able to do. Great breakfast the next morning too. Great cause too.
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