Simpson's Point

Yesterday, after a mellow morning of hanging out with Sam while Ryan went down to cheer on our friends on in the Maine Marathon and Half Marathon (congrats everyone on some awesome racing, especially Jeff for a wicked fast time!), we went over to the Foreside fields for a walk along the trails there and to play for a bit on the playground. I've run on some of the trails before, using them to make up a 6-mile lollypop route on the powerlines, but haven't been across the street on the trail that go down to the river. It's a short stretch of trail, but quite nice, and it was a beautiful afternoon to be out. Sam enjoyed being in the Ergo, and Ryan said it was super comfortable too, so hurray!

A walk in the woods

Fun in the Ergo

Whee!

It was a nice rest day, leaving me feeling more than ready to get out today for a longish run to test out the left leg after my layoff last week. I decided to head over to the Commons for the run, both for a change of scenery and to have the chance to run some flat terrain, which I figured would be good for the IT band. I headed out around 9am after Sam went down for her nap. It was only 49 degrees out with a good breeze blowing. I was hoping it would warm up while I was out there, so I suited up in shorts anyway, but wore a long sleeve shirt and brought my gloves, just in case!

I haven't been running in the Commons in months, and enjoyed the quiet trails. Although there is a little bit of singletrack to be found, most of the trails are flat and wide, with only a few roots to avoid. Very nice and fast trail running. I got to the end of the Commons with my Garmin reading 3.5 miles, and was feeling good, so I headed onto the roads through Pennelville out to Simpson's Point. This is one of my favorite areas to run through. Pretty fields line the country roads. Purple aster, rose hips and thistle were notes of color amongst the grasses. A cardinal sang from one of the roadside trees. Cattails swayed in the breeze in the marshy spots. Sparrows and goldfinch flitted across the road from one bush to another. The tide was high as I got down to the point, and the wind was creating little waves on the bay.

As I hit 6 miles coming back from the point, I realized I was running pretty quickly, but I felt great, and didn't feel like I was working hard, so I figured I would just go with it. For the return trip, I looped around on Merepoint Road and back into the Commons. I ended up with 11.25 miles at 8:36 pace. Wow! Haven't run that quickly for a long run in ages. I guess a summer of running technical, twisty turny trails makes road running seem like a breeze! It was a nice run, and a good confidence booster to not have my leg hurt at all while I was out there. Woohoo!