Thursday Twenty

I get a paid holiday tomorrow for 4th of July on a day I don't normally work, and well, since I'm hourly, I figured what the heck, I would take today off to balance out the paid hours from tomorrow :) I know, life is rough! ;) Sam had a field trip with her camp to the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, so that left me most of the day to get in a long run. I planned to meet up with Mindy at Bradbury at 9:30 but with the field trip, Sam had to be there earlier than I had originally anticipated, so I was able to get in a few miles starting a bit before 9:00 am.

It was sunny and breezy, but by the time I got done with a 3-mile loop up to the summit, around on Tote, back up to the summit and down Terrace, I was soaked! Very humid. Mindy and I set out to run the Scuffle. The trails were pretty slick with big patches of mud, slippery roots and lots of puddles, and we saw a cute little garter snake, maybe 6" long, all cocoa-colored, sunning himself on one of the rocks along the way. It was fun to catch up with Mindy and have someone to share a few miles with! Thanks, Mindy!

My Garmin was reading exactly 9 miles back at the lot so I took off onto the west side. I had originally thought about running the mountain side of the BBU loop, but it was warming up and I really didn't want to be out on the dirt roads and in the fields in the middle of the day. I did the same loop as I did before meeting Mindy, but added on Krista's in the middle. Of course, I took a huge digger in the middle of a muddy stretch, covering myself with dirt, mud and leaf matter. Oh yah! ;) I ended up deciding to go back to the car at the bottom of the Terrace, as it was driving me nuts having my hands so dirty. After cleaning off a bit and having a snack, I felt much better! I decided to just make the day two loops, so set off to run the Scuffle again. Not as much fun without Mindy around, and I was feeling a bit tired by then, but I kept on chugging, perhaps at not quite as peppy a pace. I ran out of water by the time I turned onto the snowmobile trail, so was feeling a bit withered by the time I got back to the car. The Garmin still indicated I had a mile to go, so I dropped my empty pack, took a swig of Gatorade and headed back out up the Link for a short out-and-back. Finished up with 20 on the dot and very sweaty! ;)

No photos today as my hands were either too sweaty or too covered in dirt and mud ;)