Notes
Sunny, kinda cold, started at 20 deg. a little bit of wind. Plan was a long run of 14 miles at the Riverlands. On call so I couldn't go too deep into the park. Figured I could do a couple of out and backs to get my miles. Took the CRV because I wasn't sure what the parking lot would be like. It was glare ice, you could literally skate on it. Put my spikes on before I got out of the car. I was a little cold starting out but soon warmed up. The trail was nice and firm, but some asshole had driven on the main trail with an ATV with trax while the snow was still soft and wet and rutted it all to shit. Also, not sure if it was groomed like this but there were like sets of ski tracks right down the middle which weren't good to run on. So I had to stay on the edge, where it was postholey in spots or in the middle if the tracks were kind of beat down. Felt good going out, tried to keep the pace around 11:00 minutes. I was almost to 4 miles when I got to the intersection down to the river, so I kept going to the field and looped around a couple times where a snowmachine had gone. On the way back I tweaked the outside of my right foot. If it rolled to the right it would hurt, but it felt ok on the flat. After a while it seemed to go away. After an hour I was starting to get low on energy so I took a GU. Once I got back I was a little short of 8 miles, so I ran down to the river to get it. Started back out again and my right foot was sore again for awhile, but then came out of it. Wasn't sure how far I wanted to go. I nervous about my foot and the uneven trail was getting tiring. Once I got back to the intersection, I was close to 12, so I kept going to get it. Turned around and worked to keep the pace up so the finish pace would be around 11. Took another GU at the 2 hour mark. I ran pretty hard on the smooth sections but had to slow down where it was rutted or ski track were high. Slowed some on the final few climbs as my legs were getting tired. Once back at the big intersection I looped around and did a short out and back to make sure I would hit 16 miles. The last mile was work but I was able to keep the pace up. This was a good long run, it would have been better if the trail wasn't so messed up. Legs were tired and hips and bottom of feet were sore after. Happy to get 16 in. Gear: Nike tights, short T, Brooks jacket, warm headband, orange gloves on and off.