Day 4,368—Testing out the Salomon Advanced Skin 12—

 

    It was painful to spend $ 165 plus tax on a hydration vest, but my last one had finally given up the ghost. One of the strings broke during my last run, but it hadn’t been working normally for a while. During my last two 100-mile runs, my back was irritated by the vest. When I got home this time, my wife said it looked like a red pattern on my back. I could feel it, but I didn’t know what it looked like. I remember it never bothering me before, so the sudden pain the vest was causing me was a shock. Generally, I cannot stand the feeling of something moving when I am running. This vest used to feel so much better on my back, but something happened.

    I had been pricing the Salmon hydration vest for a while, and I realized the Active 8 I had last time was made with a cheaper material than the Advanced series. I thought I could get the Adv 12 for cheaper, but I decided it was more important to get the right one before the weekend before my next ultra, rather than wait for a deal that might not materialize. Getting it now also lets me train with it, so that’s what I did today at Lone Elk.

        I got there much later than I wanted. It was 9 a.m. The vest felt great. It didn’t move at all. My back felt fine. The fit was snug and secure. I wondered what all I could fit in the vest if I wanted to. It is supposed to fit a total of 12 liters of stuff, so I wondered if I could carry something to camp with from what I had. I thought about how it would be to run and camp, carrying only this. Making my way through some famous trail system. It would be amazing to be back in the Grand Canyon. I know you’re not supposed to camp there without a permit, but I saw plenty of camp sites. It was so fun running there. I thought about how much fun it would be to do that run again. I would love to run in Yosemite. 

I thought, because it was Easter, I might not see many people out. There was no one in the parking lot, but it didn’t take long before I saw a group of hikers, two different couples, and two other runners. The hikers all had their backpacks on, so I imagined they were training for some future backpacking trip. The couples were going slow, taking in the scenery, and the other runners were carrying water but no packs, so I guessed they weren’t going that far.

   There is a spot in the middle of the trail where I saw the most cars, so I am never sure what everyone does when they go out there. I almost always just do the Chubb Trail because it is the longest and the most balanced challenge. There are plenty of other trail systems that you can add, but only one of them is in the more technical section, so it always feels like a cheat to add some in the flatter areas of the park, but I guess it shouldn’t. I am getting to know the trail so well. I almost just go into an automatic rhythm when I get there. I felt good about my pace. I wasn’t moving fast but steady, and I was barely winded, which is what my goal was for the weekend. I could go long but not fast.

  As much as I disliked spending the money, the vest worked amazingly. They had this other feature that kept the water bottles from jostling, which was especially helpful because mine usually do. I believe stuff like this shows some type of weakness that I get annoyed by, stuff like jostling water bottles, but when you’re running 100 miles, you don’t have a lot of luxeries, but usually your hydration vest is up there. This will be my 3rd Salomon hydration vest, and by far the best. The other ones weren’t bad, but this one had more room and fit better. The other two I wore until they stopped working. I am trying to remember what happened to my first one, but I wore both a lot and got every cent out of them.

        Even though it was cold, the sun was shining, so I stopped to enjoy taking pictures. It looked like some new trees had fallen, and in some areas, the fallen trees had been cut up. I like seeing the slightly different scenery, looking over at the Meramec River, and seeing how much stronger the water is moving than it has been recently. It must be all the rain we got recently. Then I saw a turkey run across the path in front of me after a train roared by to the right. I tried to remember if I had ever seen a train before all the times I had been out here. I had heard trains plenty of times, but this was the first time I saw one. I thought about the Thunder Kiss as I carefully jogged on a path right next to a steep drop-off. It wasn’t as high as the Thunder Kiss, but it made that run a lot easier, feeling like I had done something like this before.