So with that in mind, I was up early to squeeze some miles in before the day got crazy. Ran the cart paths with a trip down to the river in the middle. Really beautiful morning and the Heath was just looking gorgeous!
Also saw a huge snapping turtle along hole #8; she had worked her way up from the pond on the right of the fairway all the way over toward the cart path. Neat! And hopefully she stayed safe.
Ended up with a nice 8 miles to start off the day. Then, Ryan took Sam to swimming while Amy and I headed south to Rebecca's baby shower; after swimming was over, the two of them picked me up there and we headed to MA.
Ryan got in a quick run and then it was off to his HS for a retirement party/celebration for his xc/track coach. It was a bit too much for me but I know he was happy to be able to be there. Luckily, his good friend Jon and wife Blake were also in attendance, so we were able to hang with them and catch up after the party over food and drinks, which was nice.
Nothing like a piece of pizza at 5:00 followed up by a few chicken tenders and a beer at 9:00 plus a late night to set one up nicely for a Sunday long run. Ha! Needless to say, we got a bit of a late start this morning but we're grateful to Irene and Dana for hanging out with Sam while we headed over to Willowdale for some Stonecat recon.
They've modified the course quite a bit and we had fun exploring the new trails. Some really sweet new singletrack sections for sure. It was warm but windy as we headed out at 10:00 am. Despite lots of cars in the biker parking lot, we didn't run into too many people out there. We did, however, have the pleasure of viewing two adorable baby Fischer cats up in a tree! Ryan was leading and saw one scrabble up the tree. A few seconds later, when I came upon him, we saw there were two up the tree and stopped to watch them for a bit before continuing on. Such a cool sighting! Wish my photos had come out but they just looked like blobs in the tree ;)
Willowdale is always a bit of a mystery, even though I have run there many times. A lot of intersections look the same, and with a lot of the new course running backwards on the old course, we had to stop many times to ensure we were enroute. Thankfully I had brought my phone, and thankfully they had posted turn-by-turn directions. Those helped immensely and kept us (mostly) on the right track. I think the new course is a bit smoother, and the new additions were really nice.
I could have done without the poison ivy all over the place but otherwise the woods were lovely, with much of the singletrack and carriage road lined by hay-scented ferns, which smelled heavenly. I had intended on more miles today but it didn't quite work out that way - the combo of yesterday, the late start, the time spent out there, oh, and the fact that we had a kid to get back to ;) meant that by the time we finished up with one loop plus a little extra, we were pretty much both in agreement that it was best to stop. Still, 13 miles chasing Ryan through the woods isn't a bad day's work ;)
Willowdale is always a bit of a mystery, even though I have run there many times. A lot of intersections look the same, and with a lot of the new course running backwards on the old course, we had to stop many times to ensure we were enroute. Thankfully I had brought my phone, and thankfully they had posted turn-by-turn directions. Those helped immensely and kept us (mostly) on the right track. I think the new course is a bit smoother, and the new additions were really nice.
I could have done without the poison ivy all over the place but otherwise the woods were lovely, with much of the singletrack and carriage road lined by hay-scented ferns, which smelled heavenly. I had intended on more miles today but it didn't quite work out that way - the combo of yesterday, the late start, the time spent out there, oh, and the fact that we had a kid to get back to ;) meant that by the time we finished up with one loop plus a little extra, we were pretty much both in agreement that it was best to stop. Still, 13 miles chasing Ryan through the woods isn't a bad day's work ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment