Views from Scoutland: Interesting Running

Spring yields interesting trail running here in Maine. Just pulling into the parking at Bradbury was interesting. I saw a large group of runners assembling, but only recognized a few of them. Once I got out and joined the group, I saw a few more familiar faces and some that I knew I seen before, but maybe hadn't formally met. I was surprised later to read Ian's blog and find out he was in the same boat.

Ian was going to do 20ish, 10 on the east side, then 10 on the mountain side. The large group followed his lead to run mainly the Bruiser course backwards without the O trail. We fairly quickly fractured into a few smaller groups. Ian, Stephen, Brent, Four's cousin, and maybe two others (with two energetic pups) were the faster group that pulled away. I was in the next group with Four, Mindy, Martin, Brett, Rachel, and another woman I can't recall the name of (sorry!).

Four was the lead runner the entire way. His pace was faster than I would have gone on my own, knowing I was doing 14, but....Mindy stuck with him, so I stuck right with her. I think maybe a little too closely. At one point, she asked if I wanted to pass. Not at all! I was really working to keep up. Then I stumbled a couple of times and twisted my ankle. I was running so close to her that I couldn't see what was coming. I hate tailgaters! I paid more attention to spacing.

I had run with Martin when he lost his O trail virginity. Then he, Yana, and I ran the O trail together during the Bruiser. I think we were both happy to be running an O-less Bruiser. We chatted a bit about Pineland plans; he's running his first 50K! Bret is also doing the 50K, but it'll be his 2nd.

The group started to stretch out. Periodically, I yelled to Four to rein it in. I also was yelling up where to turn. It occurred to me that I should be at the back of the group; Four would stop if he came to an intersection he didn't know and I could make sure no one got dropped.

On the Bat Cave we met up with Erin and Christine with Susie. Then helped Mary and Ruby rejoin with them. They were all going the opposite direction from us, perhaps running the Scuffle.

I think it was around here that I notice a tree with large holes carved out. Mindy and I stopped to investigate (we knew the group couldn't get too far ahead; they wouldn't know where to go!). At first, it seemed unbelievable that a woodpecker could have made the big holes with the large wood chips on the ground below. Then I notice the ants still in some of the holes and Mindy looked for, and found, bird poop among the chips. Maybe a pileated!

Woodpecker's Work

Ants

When we got to where the Ginn crosses the Snowmobile trail, the women (who I didn't get a chance to talk with) asked how much farther we were running. I could tell they'd like it to be a little shorter and gave them the option of running back down the snowmobile trail instead of finishing up what would be the first part of the Bruiser with us. They opted to head back. I hope they found their way easily. I forgot to tell them to take the Link back.

Back in the parking lot, we were short of 10 miles. Bret and Martin heard Mindy and I talking about going out for another four and decided to join us. Four didn't have the option cause his ride was ready to head out. We went back to the east side for our added miles. It was amazing how much muddier it was just since were ran it the first time. I actually lost my shoe in one big mud pit! I think Bret pulled it out for me. It was full of mud! I swished it around in the little water that was over the mud and was able to get most of the slop out.

Mindy and I seemed to share leading on the last four. Her pace was not much off what Four was running (where the mud didn't totally have us all almost at a crawl). So nice we were able to reward ourselves for our efforts at Edna and Lucy's : )

Today, I thought I'd run the roads since we had an amazing amount of rain overnight. Driving home from the grocery store, I noticed streams running through places where there never was any water. I couldn't help but want to run my fields. If I fell, I could probably swim! I got in five soggy, muddy miles. I even found some new trails on the hill side of the road. I'll find out where they go when I have more miles to run.