Slatington and Walnutport Long Run

After some tough running yesterday, today was the time for the long run.  I couldn't figure out where to go.  I wanted to kind of run somewhere different.  I'm getting tired of running the D&L Cove Road Trailhead every week.  I thought about heading to Jim Thorpe to run the D&L through Lehigh Gorge.  I really want to do that.  However, that was just too far to go today.  I wanted to make it back in time to watch the IndyCar race.  When I was looking at a map of the Slate Heritage Trail, I stumbled on a section of the D&L across the river from Slatington, in the town of Walnutport.  I figured I would try running there.  I could run multiple places then.

I headed out there around lunchtime.  The weather was great.  I was actually going to wear a singlet, but it was too windy for that.  Luckily, I brought a regular shirt along.  It was actually the D&L Half Marathon shirt.

Starting from the Slatington Trailhead, I could run in 5 different directions.  I could run either way on the main D&L Trail, go either way on the trail in Walnutport or head to the Slate Heritage Trail.

I started off by heading south on the D&L.  I figured that I would just do a bunch of short out and back segments.  After the hard day yesterday, my legs didn't feel that great.  I was hoping that they would come around.  I decided to carry water today, so I brought along my Camelbak.  I haven't used that in about a year.  I figured I would give it a try for this planned 18 mile run.

The pack isn't fun to wear in the beginning.  It is full of water, bounces around a bit and is heavy.  It gets better as you drink water and it weighs less.  Still, I knew I wouldn't be wearing it very long.

I went out the planned mile and a half.  The pack slowed me down to a more reasonable pace.  It was right around 9 miles.  It was quite windy when heading back.  My legs actually started to get sore from the pack.  My Achilles was bothering me.  It wouldn't be the last time it would be a problem.  I got back to my car after 3 miles and just ditched the pack.

I next wanted to head onto the Slate Heritage Trail.  This trail is paved, so I wanted to make sure that I ran on it early in the run.  My calves were sore as usual and this section was tough in the beginning.  It goes uphill.  I wanted to get a little farther on this trail than I was on the first segment.  I hoped to get out 2 miles on this trail before turning around.

I have run this trail before and it is pretty nice.  It goes along the creek and has a cool covered bridge among other things.  It goes right through Slatington.  There were some people out on it, but I was surprised that more people weren't using it.

I went out about 1.5 miles on this trail and then encountered something interesting.  I passed a guy walking a puppy.  The puppy went crazy when I went by.  I saw a bike course next to the trail at one point.  On my way back, someone was riding a dirtbike on it.  That was kind of cool.

Shortly before going out 2 miles, the trail changed from pavement to stone.  The stone felt better on my legs.  I wanted to keep going, but right at that 2 mile point, I saw a dog with a family.  I'm not sure if it was on a leash.  After the barking puppy, I didn't want to mess with another dog.

The rest of the way back to the car was mostly uneventful.  I came to the puppy again and he went crazy again.  It was funny.  I also had to run in between two dogs on leashes.  I was 7 miles into the run when I got back to the car.  The truck next to me in the parking lot was getting fixed.  I saw those guys a couple times and they must've thought that I was crazy for running so much.

I was only 7 miles into the run, but my legs were already quite dead.  I had no idea how I could run 11 miles more.  I already felt worse than I did after 12 miles last week.  I had to just battle on though.

After grabbing some water at the car, I headed across the bridge into Walnutport.  The canal path there was supposed to be around 7 miles long.  I was hoping that I could run a lot of it.  I didn't know what to expect of the terrain.  The website I saw did say it was an earthen path.

There were a lot of people fishing in the canal.  The path wasn't hard on my feet.  It was better groomed near the town.  I headed out north because that would be into the wind.  I wanted the wind at my back on the way back.  I really wanted to get 3 miles out on this path, but it wasn't too long into the run that I knew that wouldn't happen.

The uneven terrain man it somewhat tough.  There were some small rolling hills as I got farther out.  It was getting quite remote as I got 1.5 miles out, so I just turned around and headed back.  When I hit 9 total miles, that was a big plus.  I was halfway toward my goal for the day.  I had to laugh though because I was thinking there was no way I could go 18 miles.

I continued to plug away and just took it 1 mile at a time.  I thought about all the people at the Boston Marathon tragedy and that helped me get through some of it.  Right before I got into Walnutport, there was a stick along the trail that I didn't see.  I really bashed my foot on it.  I was hoping that I would be sore enough that maybe I would forget about all of my muscle soreness. 

Finally, I was back to the Slatington Trailhead and into double digits at the 10 mile point.  I didn't want to head north on the D&L, because that section uses different stone and is always harder on my legs.  Therefore, I headed back south again.  Stopping at the car and restarting was always tough on my legs.  I also didn't know how far out to go.  This time, I took a snack that I had.  I ate about half of it, but I started having some gas, so I threw the rest of it away.

I would've loved to have made it 4 miles out and then I would've been forced to run or walk back to get to 18 miles.  I figured that just going out 2 miles was probably more realistic.  That is what I did.  I passed some goth teens on a bench before turning around.

I was just past 12 miles when I turned around and by now, my left Achilles was really started to bother me again.  I thought it would be a struggle just to make it another mile.  As I passed the goth kids again, they tried yelling something that they thought was funny, but it wasn't.

I guess I picked up the pace a little and maybe it was slightly downhill, because suddenly my Achilles was feeling better.  The rest of my legs were beat up too, but feeling better at this point.  I figured I would keep running until it started to get worse.  I made it through 13 miles and was still feeling good.

I continued on.  As I got near Slatington, my Achilles acted up again.  It was starting to get worse.  I was through 14 miles and figured that I would just run to 15 miles.  I changed directions several times on the trail, hoping that it would get better.  It kept bothering me though.

I didn't want to do any more damage, especially to an area that had not bothered me before.  I stopped at 14.5 miles.  A few miles short of what I had hoped for, but still a decent long run anyway.  Clearly running last night took its toll.  Maybe if I didn't run the 4 miles, I could've completed all 18 miles today.  I'm not sure.

I do need to get mentally tougher, because in the future I want to run ultramarathons.  In those races, I will have to battle through problems like this.  That said, today wasn't the day to take a chance and risk further injury, just for a couple extra miles.  I tried to stretch that area out afterward, but it is still pretty sore.

Tomorrow is supposed to be an off day.  I might do a short 3 or 4 miles shakedown run on a trail like Jacobsburg.  There is a track meet at the high school and I will probably bike there and back.  That would be 5 miles each way.  A decent, little workout.  I'd like to run a little bit longer in my mid week runs, but I'd also like to keep my overall mileage pretty consistent for the week.  I don't want to overdo it.  I really do need to look into a massage at some point in the near future.  That could be a big help before my half marathon a month from now.



14.50 miles - 2:05:25 (8:39 pace)