Covered in Webs

I decided to run and bike today.  I went out to run this afternoon.  The weather was perfect for summer.  It was cool and the humidity was low.

I headed to Nockamixon State Park to run the trails.  I often forget about that place.  It isn't too far away.  I haven't run there much.  My dad goes kayaking there all the time.  It's been over a year since I ran there.  I do remember liking it, but the terrain wasn't all that challenging.

Originally, I was going to start at the south side of the lake.  I had never run on those trails.  When I got there, they looked overgrown.  I decided to just run the trails on the north side. 

I was hoping to run 12 miles.  I didn't know how long the trails were, but I figured that I would need a couple loops.  I started off on a decent trail.  There were some woods and some grassy fields to it.  I knew that after a short loop I would get to a road crossing.  That was about half a mile into the run.

The trail was actually more up and down than I thought.  Some sections were a bit overgrown and that was annoying.  Other sections were good, open singletrack through the woods.  Early on there were some spider webs.

I could take a few of those, but after some time, it got really annoying.  I ran through web after web.  These trails must never be used.  I got tired of the webs all over my shirtless body.  It would be nice if I could at least see the webs coming, but I didn't.  It was frustrating because they weren't just in narrow sections, but wide open ones too.

There were some views here and there of the lake.  At one point, there is a clear opening and that is awesome.  Spots like that were rare though.

These trails were quite muddy.  I remember that from last time I ran there.  The tough part was that some sections had mud that wasn't even visible.  Other areas were impossible to pass without running through deep mud.  That was kind of annoying, although I do enjoy some mud.

The trails were steep, but they had a lot of rolling hills.  I ended up running most of it.  There wasn't much chance for recovery.

Some of the narrow sections had prickly bushes.  Those were annoying.  The worst was still all the webs.  Not only were webs sticking to me, but I had to pick off several spiders and quite a few of the insects that they had trapped.  That was quite gross.

I cursed over and over again, every time that I ran through more webs.  I guess the good thing is that I knew no one would be there since no one had gone through these trails in a long time.  I was so frustrated by now.  I was around 3 miles into the run and more run than happy to turn around.

I kept trying to find a way to a road or trailhead.  I didn't have much luck.  I changed directions a couple times.  Some of the trails seemed to be poorly maintained and difficult to follow.  I could hear cars on the road at one point, so I knew I had to be close.  I headed in that direction and eventually came to the road.

I ran on the road to go back.  I had enough of the spider webs and trails.  They were beyond frustrating.  Even though I hate roads, being away from the webs allowed me to enjoy the run more now.

A woman biked passed me.  The shoulders on the roads around the lake are huge.  It is great and I'll have to ride there in the future.  Maybe I can go when my dad uses his kayak.

It didn't take long until I was on to the trailhead access road.  I still wasn't close to my car though.  That ended up being quite far down the road.  I was running on the roads for over 2 miles.

When I was back at my car, it was around 5.5 miles.  I knew I wasn't going to run any more of the trails after I finished this segment up.  I ran another half mile and got to mile 6.  This was on the trail section that I ran earlier.  I ran this part hard.  I haven't run hard on a trail in some time.

I only did half of the distance I was hoping for, but I was just happy to be done and away from the webs.  I continued to pick them off of me when I was at the car.  Hopefully they are all finally gone, after my shower.

With my 15 mile bike ride in the evening, it was still a productive run.  My left quad seems a little beat, so maybe it is good that I didn't do too much.  I don't have a lot of time tomorrow, so I'll probably just bike in the afternoon.  I'll likely run again on Thursday.  Hopefully I can get into double digits then.

6 miles - 1:07:48 (11:18 pace)