Scouting Report

The plan was to meet up with the TMs to run the BL on Saturday.  Ian said it couldn't be any worse than the Saturday before.  I always rush to get there on time.  I don't know how that happens; I am always up early.  Spot needs to go out.  Ally doesn't get enough love.  The dishes are still in the sink from the night before.  I get distracted.  I was happy to be out the door with at least a minute or two to spare.

I was about 10 minutes away from Brad when a wave of panic hit me; had I brought my shoes?  No!  Crap, crap, crap.  I looked through my contacts, but couldn't find Ian's number.  At least I remembered seeing Jamie was going to run the BL.  I had his number.  He could tell Ian for me so they didn't hang around waiting for me to show.  Jamie picked right up.  Crap, again.  His yes to the BL was for next weekend.  OK, did he have Ian's number.  No.  Let's see.  Snowman would.  I looked for his number.  I didn't have his, but I had Danielle's.  She said she'd call Ryan who was on his way to the Brad anyway.  Definitely need to remember to get numbers.

Well, it didn't make sense to drive home get my shoes and head back to Brad.  I was going to be running for enough time without adding more travel time.  I would run from home.  I knew it would be hard going.  I didn't think any snowmobiles had been out after our 10 inches of snow the day before.  I drove home, told Rick my tale, put my shoes on, and headed out.


Well, one snowmobile had been through.  It did nothing to pack the trail.  Well, at least, it marked it.  I figured this was proper punishment for forgetting my shoes.  I was sure the conditions must be better from the park.  Still, though very happy not to have a heart rate monitor on (I'm sure I'd have been scared), I was enjoying the day.  Equipped with my camera, I planned to capture the beautiful,winter scenes I was seeing. 

the path less traveled

 

that's a good up even though it doesn't look it

The color doesn't do this scene justice

I was amazed by the amount of coyote tracks.  One guy followed the snowmobile trail for quite some time before jumping off in what must have been pursuit.  Some scattilogical evidence.  Notice the hair in there. 

Crap

The dark, dark green of the spruce and pines against the brilliant snow backed up with dark skies, it was incredible.  Then I started noticing the tops of some of the trees belonged in a Dr. Seuss book.  You would see it too, but the camera battery died.  Some of my enthusiasm for the scenery died with it.  Weird.  I did have fun watching the various tracks that crossed my path or that I ran along with.  I saw hare, which I rarely see, deer, various rodents, and more that puzzled me.  In some areas of the power lines lined with juniper it was obvious that a coyote(s) were running around looking for some of those rodents.  They were just running around; there was evidence of digging into the snow around the junipers.

I was disappointed to see the path I took last year had no travel.  I wondered if the landowners had withdrawn permission or if it just hadn't been ridden over yet.  Well, new direction then.

After three miles in, the trail was a little more traveled.  It didn't make the traction good, but it was better than the single sled.  My pace might have gotten down to 12 min/mile.  Woohoo!  I didn't even have a mile of that before the trail split.  It should have been easy for me to choose the more traveled, but there was a sign indicating Topsham following the path where, again, it would just be a path of a single sled.  I really want to find the way to the Triffitts.  This was a recon run of sorts.  The thing that tipped the scale in favor of the harder path was the more traveled one went practically in the backyard of someone who has rottweilers.

The terrain became hillier.  I struggled.  My Nuun was freezing and hard to get out of the bottles.  Still, there's something inherently exciting about exploring, about the struggle.  When I finally reached another road, I'm pretty sure I let out some naughty language.  I couldn't believe I was only to Gould Rd.  Ugh!  I plodded on.  The woods started looking familiar.  At an intersection of snowmobile trails, I recognized where I had run the year before.  I made a mental note to try that way on the return.

Finally, 6.7 miles and 1:40 minutes in, I decided I better head back.  I took spur I was pretty sure I recognized.  Yup.  What a beautiful stretch of woods!  I was still able to appreciate it.  Even more, I appreciated how quickly I popped out onto route 9.  It's not like this path would be all that much shorter, but I knew where I was.  That helps when you're as tired as I was.  There were a few little tweaks of change on this stretch, too.  I almost opted for running along the road, fearing that I wouldn't be able to join back up with the path I wanted (remember the one I knew from last year was not used).  I started along the sidewalk.  It wasn't plowed or shoveled, but snowmobiles had gone over it - a lot.  It felt good to get the legs stretched out a bit.  My pace dropped below 10mpm.  Till I looked over the pasture across the way and noticed the hill I should be running on.  If I retraced my steps back to the place I'd jumped off onto the sidewalk, I think I could link up.  It took some effort to force myself from the easy running.  I was on a mission.  I had to stick to it.

Sure enough, it connected back. I made it home in 3:34:xx with 13.5 miles charted.  I felt good with my effort, good with my reconnaissance, but a bit bad about my knee.  The one I fell on continues to swell after long runs.  I cannot kneel on a hard surface.  It even hurt when I fell in the fluffy snow on this run.  Bad knee.