Fourteen at Bradbury

Sam slept in a bit this morning, which was nice, but it meant her nap was later and so we didn't get out the door to head to Bradbury for our run until after 10:30. Mom and Dad nicely agreed to come over and watch Sam while we ran - once again, thanks guys! We really appreciate it! - and Morgan, who was spending the day with them, was a great helper while we were gone too!

The thermometer was reading 64 when we left, and it was nice and breezy, although the air was still a bit heavy. In fact, with the breeze and the dampness, it felt downright chilly! Nice. The plan was to run the Bruiser course, and then *hopefully* run another 6 miles. However, I knew going in that 18 was a bit ambitious - Sam has yet another cold so I was up a number of times with her last night, and due to various illnesses, etc, I haven't run more than a 12-mile run in this training cycle. So, while I had hoped to get in 18, I figured I'd just go with the flow and see what happened after the Bruiser.

Ryan was letting me lead today, and my plan was to run at a decent pace, just to get an idea of how the course would run. I haven't run this race since the inaugural race back in 2007, when I ran 2:04:11. I'd like to be able to run under 2:00:00 this year if I can, but we shall see... It was good to run the course again, as I had sort of forgotten the twisty, turny 1.5 miles on the Island Trail at the very beginning, which seem to go on forever. The middle section of the race is nice, with some good single track and some wider sections along the snowmobile trail where there is the potential to make up some time. And then, it is into the "O" trail. I remember running this trail for the first time during the race in 2007, and thinking it was just nuts. I kept seeing people running in all different directions all around me. How could that be? This trail is like an intestine, and it just keeps turning and turning and turning on itself. This afternoon, after we had already been running on the "O" trail for 20 minutes, my legs were starting to feel the burn. The twisting and turning, and the erratic nature of the trail, was making my legs pretty darn tired! Oh well, at least I now have a more recent vision of what I'm in for next month during the race, and boy, was I glad to pop out of that trail and know I was almost done with the course!

By the time we got back to the parking lot, I knew 18 just wasn't going to happen, and told Ryan that I wanted to just run another 3 miles, thinking 15 would be a decent day. He suggested heading up the Boundary Trail and then down the Tote Road, but by the time we started to turn onto the Boundary Trail, I was pretty much done. My legs were just tired. I took a minute to stop and gather myself up, and we decided to head up the Northern Loop and then down the Terrace Trail to at least get in a few more miles, but to spare me the ups and downs and roots of the Boundary Trail. I got a bit of a wind back going back up towards the summit, but by the time I headed down the Terrace Trail, my legs were feeling a bit wobbly. Not exactly how I had hoped to end the day, but in the end, I got in 14.0 miles in 2:28:04 (10:33 pace). Not the fastest run in the world, but reasonably respectable given the crazy singletrack on the Bruiser. I'll certainly take it as a good day of training, and hope that I can build on it. Regardless, it was a good day out in the woods, and great to be out running the trails with Ryan!