Roads, Roads, and More Roads

I ran Thursday from the house.  If I had the time, I would have headed back to run Bradbury.  We had gone there in the morning to walk the mountain with Ryan's girlfriend.  The trails would have been very runnable with screw shoes on.  At the summit, a guy was doing a raptor count.  He had a big tally board up.  Had no sightings yet that morning, but had some good totals from the day before.  Oh, yeah, running... I knew that we were in for a big snow storm Friday so was a little bummed that I couldn't squeeze in a run on the trails.  But, after our walk, I had to get Sam to Portland for a class.  So it was the roads near the house for 6.5 miles.  That was even shorter than planned, but time...

Saturday I headed to Bradbury to meet up with the Trail Monsters.  Ian, Jeremy, Emma, Andy, Mindy, Sarah, and Mary Beth were all in the park lot by the time I pulled in.  Right after Blaine and Erin pulled in.  I didn't know it at the time, but Jim was already on the trails.  Ian and Jeremy seemed to have a plan; they would snowshoe a 3 mile loop a couple of times to pack the trail and then switch to trail shoes and run.  The idea was to do 5 laps in a nod to James on the Barkley course.

Maybe if I had gotten my long run in last week instead of being sick, I would have considered trying the trail.  I really was intent on getting in my miles.  Mindy also wanted to get in her 14 without dealing with mashed potatoes and post holing.  We settled on running the roads to start and then checking back to see how the trail packed.  We could always switch over.  Both of us had packed every shoe and gear necessary for any and all conditions.  Someone seeing me load the car would have thought I was leaving for at least a week.  The rest of the TMs did variations on Ian's plan.

Mindy and I set out down Rte 9 to Elmwood.  From there, we turned onto a dirt road.  The sloppy snow still on the very hilly dirt road made it seem like we were trail running.  It was quite a beautiful day with pretty scenery and good conversation.  Before we knew it, we were pretty much too far to easily get back to the park to check on the trail condition.  We were both good with the run we were enjoying. 

On one of the roads, I expected to be popping out back on Rte 9.  I was debating weather I could make it back to the park outhouse or not.  Then we came to an intersection that I recognized; we were a long way from Rte 9.  It was the bushes for me.  Even when we finally joined up with Rte 9, we were way further down the road.  Mindy got in nearly 16 miles instead of her planned 14!  She hadn't even brought her hydration pack since we were supposed to check back into the park after a few miles.  She never complained or took my offered Gatorade.  I forgot to take a Gu or drink till nearly 10 miles in.  I've been meaning to pay more attention to calorie and liquid intake.  Guess our runs are too fun to think about that stuff!

Back in the park, Ian, Jeremy, and Andy were back at their vehicles.  Turns out the snowshoes were lots of work.  The loop was good running for about one lap and then was turning to mush.  Ian said he took a couple of falls.  I quickly revised my plan to get my last 6 miles on the trail to heading back out on the road.  I gobbled a strip of a PBJ, drank some Gatorade, hit the outhouse, said bye and was off.  I went back the way Mindy and I had started.  Somewhere near the end of the first dirt road we'd taken, was my turn around point.  The hills seemed a lot bigger than at the start of the day.  Back in the park, my Garmin turned exactly 22 miles : )  I'd learn later that I'd done 2,172 ft of elevation gain.  Explains the tired quads.

Emma was just finishing up her run.  I said I'd see her at Edna and Lucy's and headed to change all the while trying to hack up a lung.  My coughing was way better than other runs, but, at the finish...YIKES!  At E & L's, I joined Mindy, Jeremy, Ian, and Emma.  I had the best curried sweet potato soup.  It may have been the best food I could have put in my body at that time.  Mmmmm.