Single Track Trails

We live across the street from a large natural park.   We can run out the entrance of our neighborhood and enter the park onto one of the big trails and then run, bike, walk, stroll for miles.   I’ve been in the park many times since we’ve moved to this house.    I trained for my first 5K by running in and heading left along the trail.   I tried right but there were mild inclines, known as mountainous hills when you first start to run, so I stuck to the left.   That right direction I nicknamed, “the hateful route” and to this day we still refer to it that way.

Each year there’s a marathon held in the park.  It’s a small marathon, run by one of the local track clubs in the area.   The children and I went out one year and watched the runners go by and I thought, “look at those crazy fools running all that way.”

So guess what?  I’m going to be one of those crazy fools this year.   The date of the race is always about my running partner’s birthday and we’ve talked about it several times as a fun birthday run-thing.   This year we decided to do it.   We aren’t overly concerned about making the distance of a marathon run, but this race is more challenging.    We’re also not worried about running in the changing elevation of the park, which is fairly significant in comparison to some marathons.    What we were worried about is the single track trails.

We’ve always run on the bike and bridle trails, not the small, windy, nature trails that branch off from the wide, main trail.    These trails are “single track” because they’re really just a path in the woods that’s well-marked.   There is enough room for you to walk side-by-side some of the time, if you’re close and want to hold hands.   Otherwise, you walk (or run) single-file and admire the view while trying not to trip on the roots and rocks that are just everywhere.

My neighbor and I wanted to run the single-track trails and ultimately run the distance and trails of the marathon beforehand so we had an idea of what to expect.    We ran a good portion of the seven miles of single-track trails two weeks ago and had a whole level of tired and sore legs the following day as a result.

Today was our second pass.   We had intended on doing all the side trails and then getting in as much of the other main trails as possible.   We had to do it out of order because we enter the park trail system from our neighborhood, which is about five miles from the race starting point.  

Once we got going we decided it would be good to get the run completed today at the full distance because of schedules and other factors.    I called my husband, she called hers and we kept running.   Dinner plans were rearranged and we kept running.   The sun started to get low in the sky and we kept running.

It was a fairly tough run, especially some of the single track which was so rooty, rocky and muddy I was scared of gashes and head wounds.   I fell down three times, but caught myself.   Thankfully the running gloves Uncle Bob gave me a while back kept my hands safe.    We’re ready for the race in a few weeks.   We’re hoping for no rain, snow or freezing March temperatures.

The Big Boy Update:  My daughter’s music therapy teacher came to the house today for a class with my daughter.   My son was excited and joined in too.    At one point he got distracted and went over to pick up the teacher’s phone.    She said she couldn’t figure out what he was doing as he held her phone up to his face.    She asked him and he told her, “I’m smelling the electricity.   I’m a robot now.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   I came in from a run today and grabbed the mail before coming in the door.   My daughter greeted me at the door and was interested when she saw I had a package in my hands.   She asked me where I got it from.   I told her China.    She then said, “did you run all the way there?”

Fitness Update:   We ran a marathon distance today in preparation for our upcoming marathon race held in the state park across from our neighborhood.   I am tired.   I am going to bed.