Notes
After some debate on where to run, we (Pollux, Rob, and I) settled on our original plan: Hewlett Gulch (renamed from Heulett Gulch for no apparent reason). It was another beautiful day and I went with pants and a long sleeve. Rob took the lead at first, which was a little fast for my liking. The first 2 miles were gradually uphill, not really noticeably other than feeling harder than it should. It also involved maybe 5 stream crossings that were a fun distraction.
After 2 miles, we reached the fork for our loop. The trail turned steeper here and climbed for about 600 ft with a good amount of switchbacks. I had the lead here, I think I set a solid pace, but also went gradually slower the whole time.
We took a spur to add on and were content with its gradual incline, but once it started to descend towards the unknown, we turned around. There was 1 more climb of 200ft to burn the legs before a long downhill back to the fork and trailhead.
A few add-ons!
1) New shoes! I stopped by the Runners Roost in Louisville to see an old Des Moines friend who worked there, and it turns out that Lauren Keller manages that location. So we all chatted for a bit when there weren't any customers. Then I decided to become a customer as I was considering some new trail shoes (Asics discontinued the line I liked, and I hadn't tried their new ones yet). It was weird trying shoes, something I haven't done in years and years. I settled on the Saucony's and they felt good so far.
2) I hit 2000 miles for the year this week. A nice milestone and something I've (officially) done for 12 years now. It will likely be my lowest yearly mileage in that time, but might not be my lowest # of hours running. Not sure what that means.
3) I updated my race record recently to put it in more of a database structure (NERD ALERT), and as of this writing, I have some 275 races under my belt. What is even more absurd, is that this does not include high school track as I have no documentation from that time. I would wager 50 more races could be added.