Running the Scuffle Course

It was pouring so hard this morning that Ryan asked if I was planning to bring my snorkel gear to Bradbury for my run, but luckily, by the time Sam went down for her nap at 9:45, the skies has closed back up and I was able to head out with just my regular running gear :-)

I realized a few weeks ago that I had not run at Bradbury in a very long time (and looking back at my blog, it appears the last time I ran there was in fact March 23, 2009) and as I did not get the chance to run the Scuffle last year, I really wanted to get in at least one scouting run of the course before the 11th. In fact, when Ryan asked me if I knew the course last night, I realized I had been thinking of the Bruiser route, so I'm glad I got a refresher! Otherwise, I would have been out wandering around in the woods on the wrong course :-) Ha!

Of course despite my desire to get over to Bradbury, with our crazy schedule and with Sam in the mix, it has been hard to figure out exactly when I would have the time to get over to the park to run the route before race day. Lucky for me I have a great hubby who nicely agreed to watch Sam this morning assuming I could get her to go down for her nap. These days she's been taking a pretty decent morning nap, so we gambled that he wouldn't have to do much except keep the monitor on for most of the time I was gone. And thank goodness, she slept for 1:45, so Ryan was able to work for all but 20 minutes of the time I was gone, which worked well for all of us!

I pulled into the lonely parking lot around 10:15, quickly hit the bathrooms and headed across the street. My plan was to try and run pretty hard on the course, in an effort to figure out how fast I might actually be able to run this thing on race day. With all the rain, things were pretty slippery, and there certainly was no shortage of puddles and mud! I'd forgotten how nice the woods were on this side of the park, and also how twisty and turny the single track was. With all the twists and turns, it was hard for me to keep up a good rhythm, but I just tried to run quickly whenever the course allowed, and to pick things up on the wider snowmobile trail sections. I did have to stop at a few intersections, just to confirm that I was keeping on course, but otherwise, I just enjoyed wandering through the woods, splashing through the puddles, running the bridges, maneuvering the corners, and trying to power up and down the hills. I was soaked by the time I finished - it must have been 99.9% humidity out there! - and muddy too. I rinsed off at one of the spiggots, did a few quick stretches and hopped in the car to head home and take back over on Sam duties. I had a great run, and really enjoyed being back on the Bradbury trails! And I'm definitely looking forward to the Scuffle. Should be fun!

I wore the Garmin to see what mileage it would come up with, but at some point, I stopped the timer and thought I had started it back up, only to discover a while later that the time/distance were reading the same. Crap! So, no mileage data or true time data. I was, however, able to download things and at least get my elapsed time (which includes a few stops here and there to make sure I'm on the right route). I was out there today for 1:00:39, which I'm pretty happy with! Hopefully this means I can pick up the pace and run somewhere around 55:00 or so on race day...