Notes
Sunny cool morning, almost like fall. Much better than it has been this week. Plan was to try for 15-18 running the 100 course out but take some of the single track back. Drove over to Conant road and left a PB&J sandwich and a bottle of water in a bag behind a rock by the gate. Drove back to the North end parking lot. There was one car in the lot parked in an odd space like it was there all night. Headed carrying a bottle of water in my hand. Ran down to the big intersection at an easy pace. Left the water bottle by a rock at the end of the Fox Run trail. Looped around the sign and took the new single track down to the picnic area. Ran over to the picnic table and there was a tent set up there. Didn't stop and when I went by the tent there was a guy in there. Ran the rest of the Homestead trail out the main trail and continued on running an easy long distance pace and felt good. I felt a lot better than last week when it was more hot and humid. The trail was really dry and dusty, hardly any mud compared to last week. Got to the Bradford loop intersection and didn't stop. This next section of trail is really hilly. I walked the steep sections, not real fast like last week. At the tee to Rte. 4 I turned left and headed down the hill. After a little ways I could hear a machine running and lots of banging around. There was an excavator in the trail digging out big rocks. I went out in the woods around him. The rest of the trail had lots of places where he had dug up rocks and smoothed it out. The soft dirt was nice to run on, but the small roots were like trip wires. Caught my foot several times, but didn't go down. Ran into four ladies with 4 dogs who were walking in from the south end. Stopped and talked to them for a bit, then forgot to turn my watch back on. Lost maybe less than half a mile. The trail finally leveled out some for the last half mile maybe. I don't remember very much of this trail at all. It seemed like a long way from the sign at the tee. Sat down and had my sandwich and drank the whole bottle of water. Put the bags and bottle in my pack and headed back. I had a little more energy and my legs were refreshed after the break. Ran into the ladies and dogs pretty quick, they must not have gone too far after I left them. Found a side trail that I thought I'd run a little ways and then check the GPS track against the map. Turned out to be a pretty short trail out to the river. The river was pretty low and there was a nice beach here, but lots of trash. Also ran down the "Mud Trail" a little ways, it had a trail closed sign for ATVs. Looked like it hadn't seen much traffic. One of the ladies said it was a nice trail along the river. I'll have to try this one another time. Kept going and when I got to the excavator he stopped and let me go by. He said he was hoping to work his way up the sign tee intersection, he wasn't too far away. Met up with some ATVs and told the first guy to watch out for the excavator. Walked the 3 steep hills again on the way back. On the last downhill a kid on a dirt bike passed by me. A few minutes later he came back and I saw him pause at the exit of the Bradford loop, but he kept going. I could hear him at the Bradford intersection looping around and when he saw me he stopped and shut off his bike. He asked which way to go to get back to the parking lot. I said go right, don't go down the Bradford loop because of all the slash. I headed that way to hit the Deer Path and had a GU on the way. I was getting thirsty and wish I had more Tailwind to fill back up at Conant road, I was getting low. Took it easy on this trail and walked a couple of the hills until I got the intersection with the section from the Ridge Trail. My legs were starting to tire and I didnt' want to fall. Kept a pretty steady pace though and didn't stop at the bridge, however I was now out of Tailwind.. Made it out the end and stopped to drink half the bottle of water, pretty thirsty. I decided to drink the other half at the picnic area, which would only leave a mile to get back to the car and more water. I was just shy of 16 miles so I ran a little out and back before taking the new single track. It was only 3/4 of a mile to the picnic area. Stopped at the picnic table and drank the rest of my water. The tent was still there but no one around. Headed for the Homestead trail, running carefully although overall my legs felt ok. Looped around the old foundation and waking the steep hill. Walked most of the technical stuff so I wouldn't trip. Made it back to the car with no issues. Drank pretty much the whole bottle of water. Had lots of deer flies on my hat. I had put on plenty of bug spray so they didn't bother me too much. Stopped at Angello's and bought a Gatorade for the ride home. Good long run. I could've run 20 I think if I hadn't run out of Tailwind. I couldn't wrap my head around trying to run that loop 4 more times for the 100 mile race. Crazy. Legs tired later but nothing sore.
Gear: shorts, short T, hat with fly paper, waterpack full of tailwind