From owner-ius-l@AMERICAN.EDU  Thu Oct  3 15:35:28 1996
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 1996 12:56:38 -0700
To: ius-l@AMERICAN.EDU
From: Eric James Robinson <ericjr@garnet.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Angeles Crest

My roomate Karin got a great intro to crewing.  She shows a
lot of potential -- i.e. was not even grumpy getting the 3:30
am wake up call.  In a nice bit of coincidence, she soon
encountered Stan Jensen and Miryam Kadkhodayan, who were
crewing for Mike Palmer.  I was pleased she was able to meet
a lot of great individuals, and come away from the experience
eager for more (instead of, say, cursing my name).

By toting around a 30-pound cooler, she enabled me to implement
my ever-evolving food selections.  On the trail I mostly consumed
GU and water plus gatorade.  Pretty normal.  But at the checkpoints
I consumed refrigerated pudding, cottage cheese, chicken and cheese
sandwiches, ensure, milk, and later, the usual chicken noodle soup.

By most standards, this diet was quite high in protein and fat, and
perhaps a little short on carbohydrates.  However, I never experienced
an energy low (though I did have other problems), and for the first
time ever, I experienced no exotic food cravings in the days following
the run.

Stan has already related what happened at Bloodburst -- I mean
Cloudburst checkpoint.  The nosebleed was brought on by the dry
air, dust, heat, and the effort of climbing a hill.  I must have
left quite a trail of evidence.  One runner passing me asked if
I was ok after my apparent faceplant.

Eventually the thing stopped, I crested the hill, reached
the checkpoint, and got cleaned up.  Not so bad.  But if I
ever "volunteer" to mark a course in the future, I hope it
is under different circumstances :-)

My only other major problem was a fit of nausea climbing up to
Newcombs pass.  At the bottom of the hill, I drank two bottles
of gatorade and soon felt ill.  I pulled over to sit a couple
times, but the problem continued.  Fortunately, I spewed shortly
after reaching the checkpoint, and was able to start over with
pudding, water, tums, and chicken noodle soup.  I kept clear of
gatorade for the remaining 32 miles (and hope to continue doing
so for several thousand more).

I enjoyed the downhill finish (even if it was made possible by
the interminable climb up Idlehour).  It was the first downhill
that I actually pushed a bit on, and by far my fastest section.
The early downhills I had run at a very comfortable, normal pace
(i.e. moderately fast).  On two downhills I struggled a bit:  the
Gabrielino trail after Newcombs pass (narrow, tricky, and rather dark),
and the Wilson toll road down to Idlehour (I spent the first half of
this descent recovering from the climb up Mt. Wilson, and the second
half walking off another nosebleed).

All in all I had a lot of fun on the course.  The high country
and the Lodgepole pines were inspiring.  And I'd like to see the
streamside forests near Chantry Flat and Idlehour in the daytime.
They were fairly pleasant at night.

I assume the only way to get more downhill on a course is to
try either Hardrock or Barclay?

# Eric Robinson
# --------------------------
# ericjr@garnet.berkeley.edu
# --------------------------
# Berkeley, California