The Pipeline kicked my butt this morning. As I was running staggering along in the first mile I was thinking to myself "I used to run ultras, how can I not be able to run the Pipeline?" But, then the trail leveled out, I found my pace, and I ground out another five miles. Amazingly, I've never been on the section of the Pipeline Trail from Burch Hollow to Elbow Fork, so I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I figured it would be like the rest of the trail, but it turns out the only significant elevation change on the trail takes place on the first mile of that segment. A few years ago I would have just tucked my chin down and charged the switchbacks. This morning, yeah, not so much. This section of the trail is different from the rest of the Pipeline. The trees are thicker and the trail is narrower. For about a mile I ran through thin single track, with long grasses whipping against my shins. It was spectacular. After turning around at Elbow Fork I had an awe-inspiring view of the clouds swirling around Mt. Raymond as the sun broke through the clouds behind me.
The trail marker says that from Burch Hollow to Elbow Fork is only 2.0 miles, but my GPS tracked it as just over 3 miles. (6 miles R/T). I'm leaning towards the GPS distance being closer to correct because I don't want to believe that me close to an hour to run 4 miles. Splits:
- Mile 1: 13:06
- Mile 2: 11:04
- Mile 3: 8:37
- Mile 4: 8:15
- Mile 5: 8:33
- Mile 6: 8:30
- Total: 58:38
Note: the "total" above includes 30 seconds that's attributed to the 1/10th of a mile after the 6 mile mark.
GPS output: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10735785
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