Trail Monster Running

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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Adventure at Twin Brook

Last night's run at Twin Brook turned into a bit of an adventure, more in just getting there than the run itself.

Before I left work I knew that I was running low on diesel (you can see where this is going already), but since I recently installed a GreaseCar vegetable fuel system in my Jetta I knew that I had plenty of veggie oil to get me from Portland to Cumberland and back. So after a few minutes of driving I flicked the switch to go from diesel to veggie oil and noticed an uncharacteristic and distinct loss of power, this was followed by the feeling that my car was going to stall so I switched back to diesel. I then noticed that my diesel fuel level seemed to be dropping at an abnormal rate. I usually get about 40 mpg with this kind of driving but my gauge had dropped in just the few miles I had driven already. Just after turning from Rt 1 onto Tuttle Rd. the car stalled and wouldn't start. Conveniently there was a police car right behind me who stopped to help me out. Since I didn't have a cell phone on me the police officer called Erik who was already waiting at Twin Brook and he bailed me out with a few gallons of diesel.

After getting going and then filling up my tank Erik and I got a late start to our run. The trails turned out to be in good condition despite the recent rain and snow and we had a good time running and chatting about upcoming races, those that we're organizing and those that were planning to run.

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time: 53:51
distance: 5.8 miles
pace: 9:18
heart rate: 157/173

On my way home my fuel gauge dropping at a noticeable rate and when I tried driving on veggie oil I had the same problems as earlier. I'm guessing that I have a leak or disconnect somewhere in the fuel lines that I was messing around with when I installed the GreaseCar kit which is causing diesel to leak out and veggie oil not to move at all. Looks like the TRLRUNR Grease Car will be out of commission for a while until I can find the problem and fix it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yikes. Good thing diesel has a lower flash point than gasoline.

Sorry I missed you kids. Katy and I knocked off some repeats early Tuesday morning and I was not able to rally enough to get over to Twin Brooks.

May see you Saturday, but all depends on what my running buddy Katy on tap other than our planned seven mile recovery run.