Beware of Bridges

Since TMs were everywhere, running cool races or testing out the Stone Cat course, I was the only one at the Brad.  Well, me and another runner, Brian, who was running for there for the first time.  I planned to run 3 to 3.25 hours.  Brian said that was fine with him.  I figured we'd do a loop of Mindy's 40 for 40 to start.

Being the good little guide, I warned Brian that the bridges were slippery when wet.  Oh, and things were wet.  It might be the wettest the Brad's been all year.  Well, I warned him just before the high bridge on Ragan.  I've never been on a bridge that slippery.  It had a thin layer of something (moss?, mud?) on the down slope.  Yikes.  I'm not really sure how I managed to stay on the bridge when I fell; I kept skidding after the fall.  I made myself get right up and get moving so nothing could stiffen up, but...Ow!  Both Brian and I were ultra cautious on the rest of the bridges.

Back at the car, I refilled my two Fuelbelt bottles and took a GU.  It was very muggy and very buggy (mosquitoes have comeback in a big way).  I decided to take a different route.  We went out the start of the Scuffle, but, when we got to the Snowmobile Trail, went right onto the place where the Bruiser would pop out and ran that backwards till it met back up with the Snowmobile Trail.  There we picked back up on the Scuffle till the short cut across to Ginn West on to Fox West and back on the link. 

My Garmin's battery had died in the first loop, but I knew that wasn't quite enough so we ran on the mountain side, where we saw Joe heading in from the loop he repeats.  We exchanged quick hellos, but didn't break stride.  Brian and I pushed up the Ski Trail to the summit and down the Switch Back.  A good way to finish up the hours. 

Later, I really felt the fall on my right side.  The hip, knee, and ankle all have complaints.  But I'm pretty sure it was just impact and nothing is really injured.  Rick and I are heading back to the Brad this morning, so I'll check it out.