When I woke up Saturday morning, I thought I was back home in Florida in the middle of a hurricane. We had 40-50mph winds all day and into the next morning. There were trees knocked down, traffic lights out and cows flying through the air...ok well maybe not flying cows, but it was windy. I was lucky that my long run would be on Sunday and not in the middle of the crazy winds. John however rode his bike in this, and I was expecting to get a call saying he was in the hospital, but fortunately he came home unscathed!.
Sunday was my 20mile run. I was running with Kayla and Ed from the Moorestown Running group. I was so excited to have people to run with, and both of them are great runners. We met at Lloyd Hall and headed out to the Wissahickon. The "Wiss" as we call it, is part of the Fairmount Park system. It is 1,800 acres comprise of mountain bike trails, rock climbing, running paths, horseback riding and beautiful views.
For the 20 miles we were going to do an out-and-back course. From Lloyd hall to the begining of the Wis, it was 5 miles, then we would run 5 miles inside the park, taking us to the red bridge as our turnaround point, and back 10miles. I wasn't sure what the conditions of the trail would be, but we were hoping for the best. The first mile is paved, but once you start on Forbidden Drive, it turns into compact dirt/gravel/trail. As we entered Forbidden Drive there was a orange detour sign indicating a closed section, not sure what to expect we still moved forward. The closed section wasn't to bad, had to crawl under some stuff and go over, but nothing we could handle. There was still tons of ice and snow on the trails. Not much sun gets in, so not much had been melted. The worst part of it all would be the embeded foot prints. After we had run for a couple of days, people were back out on the trail on foot and bike and their foot prints had frozen, leaving craters all over the path. It was hard to get your footing and my knees and ankles were not happy.
Running is such a mental sport. When I run, I break it into sections. For this run it was comprised of 8 sections. Llyod Hall to bridge, bridge to concrete entrance, concrete entrance to forbidden drive, forbidden drive to red bridge and then loop it back. So you mentally know how far you have to go and have left. My watch can tell me that stuff, but I like to rely on my surroundings more instead of technology.
The run ended on a high not with a finish time of 2:44:00 for 20.75miles. That was an avg pace of 7:54/mile. I took it easy the rest of the day, epson salt bath and several meals and renting Sex and the City II. It was the perfect end to the weekend.
This week is a recovery week and a trip to DC for a baby room decorating extravaganza, baby shower and marathon course scouting. Can't wait!
More later on my workouts for this week!
Great post! Have fun in DC!!
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