I had one of these runs last night. Shuffling along in the October heat along the trail and among the rocks. Constantly shouting at my 4 legged trail companion "back back back". She runs so easily even when bushwhacking. Various aches and pains that would come and go and shift from place to place. Stubbornly I slogged down to the lake anyway to extend the loop. A few anglers still down there at sunset seemed to looked at me strangely but hey I have a cool dog so there.
Going "down" to the lake of course meant I had to go back up and over Brush hill before ending my run for the day. I made awful time during the climb and it wasn't helped by sweat stained glasses, fading light, and blurry vision. Finally half way up I just stopped to clean up the sweat from the glasses with a dry part of my running shorts. I'd like to say cleaner glasses helped but that would be a lie. I thought maybe the long descent down the other side of Brush Hill back to the vehicle would be nice but by that time the light was very dim and I was on eastern side of the slope making it even dimmer. Rocks, roots, trail, leaves, all looked the same. I picked my way down slowly and still caught my toe three or four times during the descent but thankfully just staggered and did not fall. The very last part of the downhill was in the thickest part of the woods and I could barely make anything out. I thought about pulling out my headlamp but figured what's the point?
Of course I still had optimism. Bottoming out on the the hill, I took the longer way to the right instead of left. An old beat up closed park road is down that way. Maybe I can still get in a 1/2 mile of decent turnover. In the near darkness I missed the turn off the trail down to the road and had to backtrack among some fallen trees. Follow the dog you dummy. Hitting the old road I tried to pick it up but it still seemed to be slow going. One more stop for the dog to drink at the 6 Penny Creek, and finally back up to the car. I looked at my left wrist out of habit. Oops. Duh. I haven't been wearing a watch lately.
So there you have it.
SUKT.
Slowest UnKnown Time.
In dog beers, I've only had one.
Endless trails
It still beats the view from the couch, a crappy run is better than
no run in my book.
Sounds all too familiar, except for missing a 4 legged companion and I did have my watch on last night. Wished I could have remained in the dark, time-wise.
So do these runs help us enjoy the 'better' ones all the more? And, I do agree with Jon, it's always better than the view from the couch.
Faster Than Your Couch!
Oh, dang, I can relate. And to the stubbornness to take the long way home, after most of the run has been (comparatively) miserable already, that sounds just like me, too. There's always hope that that last mile will be a good one, right?
But, still a run! Kudos for braving it out!
Run for fun.
Oh, dang, I can relate. And to the stubbornness to take the long way home, after most of the run has been (comparatively) miserable already, that sounds just like me, too. There's always hope that that last mile will be a good one, right? But, still a run! Kudos for braving it out!
Optimism and a poor memory and a perfect combo for trail runners. When I'm starting a LR I've long since
forgot how hard the last few miles of the last one were.
Tim
Optimism and a poor memory and a perfect combo for trail runners.
Too true.
“Paralysis-to-50k” training plan is underway!