First trail run of the year...

Friday, March 18, 2011

After a really warm, sunny St. Patrick’s Day, I figured there was a good chance that the trails would be snow free and reasonably passable for a good run. I mean so what that a couple of feet of snow had fallen and melted in the last two weeks…oh and some of which had been washed away by three inches of rain, which had led to major flooding. None of those things would mean that the trails would be muddy, slippery or completely submerged in some areas…right?

I was actually thinking they’d be clear as I began the run. Me…someone who prides themselves on knowing the North Chagrin Reservation pretty well after running and hiking about 10,000 miles there over the last 30 years. Seriously…what was I thinking?

I guess I’m just tired of waiting, so off I went. I started on the Clear Creek trail knowing that I’d only do about 20 minutes of it and then reversing for my 40-minute run. Actually…the first part of the trail was reasonably dry. In fact, I made it to the 120-second mark before I hit the first section that attempted to suck my shoes from my feet. After that…who cares? I did skip a couple of sections by just running into the woods…and getting slapped in the face by saplings when I wasn’t tripping over them. On my return trip, I hit one particularly slippery section and faster than you can say “hey…that asshole is covered in mud,”… I was covered in mud. Which is really just something cool that chicks dig…especially when you mix in some blood as I did…so I was okay with it.

Bottom line? I did my first trail run and saw mostly dirt. There were some spots with ice, but very few. If you’re going to run them though…do it with shoes you don’t care really care about.

Run duration: 40 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 145 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 675.