I had a busy afternoon and evening as I went to a high school cross country meet and then took photos for the LVRR at their Twosome Relay to end the Summer Series 5Ks. I had some time before that for a run, but it was kind of a tight window, especially since none of my workouts are short. Therefore, I decided to run after both events. That meant a run in the dark.
If I would've rushed out to the trails after the LVRR race, I could've actually run most of the time in daylight. However, I ate some food first, so it was completely dark when I arrived at Lehigh's Mountaintop Campus. I was a little worried that there would be no cars in the lot at night and that Lehigh's security might check out my car closely. It was a big relief when I got there and saw cars everywhere.
I started off running on the road and under and around Iaccoca Hall. There were a bunch of people above the road on the walkway. They looked like they were dressed for a nice event. If any of them saw me running with my headlamp, they likely thought I was crazy. I ran onto the trail and followed Decker's Loop.
My headlamp isn't very strong, so I really had to be careful. I could only see right in front of me and couldn't scan the trail as far ahead as I normally do. It was also a little hard to have depth perception. Sometimes I couldn't quite tell out big the rocks were and there were plenty of rocks. My eyes did adjust a little better as the run went on.
I cruised downhill. At one point, there is a turn that is slightly difficult to notice in daylight. Since I could only see just up ahead and completely forgot about it, I missed it. I wasn't on this section before, so I was interested by it. Running an unfamiliar section wasn't the best idea in the dark though.
I kept going down and down, but I didn't want to climb back up. I was hoping I could cross the road soon. Some of the turns on the switchbacks are banked and that was kind of tricky in the dark. Finally, I had an option to go back uphill or possibly cross the road. I just decided to head back uphill. It was a tough climb, but eventually I came to the part where I missed the turn earlier.
This worked out great because it added around a mile to the run. I was at almost 2 miles now. I was across the road. Then, it was on to the uphill section. I ended up walking some of that.
I was sweating quite a bit. It wasn't that hot or humid, but I wore a shirt for the first time in a long time. At the top of the mountain, it was quite cool and windy. I wish I didn't wear a shirt when I was in the woods, but when I got back to the top, I was glad I had it. One thing that made this run a challenge was that I had no water with me.
Most of the ribbons that Decker put up in June are still there. However, it was really tough for me to see them. Luckily, I knew the course from running the loop about 10 times or more. I only screwed up a couple times.
After the top of the mountain section, the trail turns back into the woods. I did that and came face to face with a deer. I was probably about 10 feet from it. I don't think I've ever been that close to one. It had surprised me and had my heart racing a little. Right by that deer was another one, just sitting in the woods. It ran on the trail a bit.
I did end up missing one of the turns and I had to turn around. I knew I went to far when I saw parking lot lights. I was near the disc golf course. It is good that I know the area.
The part that had me concerned all along was up next. It is a lot of downhill and it is very rocky. I knew that would make it easy to trip. I did trip a couple times, but never fell. Because I couldn't see the rocks too well, I often landed my foot right on them. Usually, I do a pretty good job of prancing around them. Now, they were beating up my feet. I could've turned around, but by the time I was having issues, I was close to the road anyway. Because I had to be cautious, my times were definitely slow.
I really get a kick out of running the short road section. I figured that there would be people at the lookout and sure enough there were. They must've thought I was crazy when they saw me. A car saw me cross the road behind them and run up into the woods too. There was an area where people pitched a tent over the summer and I was very glad that no one was there tonight.
The downhill was a little tricky to follow the trail at times. A lot of it is just tall trees with no greenery and a lot of rocks. It can be difficult to see the trail during the day and is even worse at night. I did get lost going uphill. I came to a section with a ton of branches down. I thought that it was odd. We've had a lot of storms lately, but they couldn't all be from that. I was right, as I turned around and actually found the trail.
Shortly after getting back on track, I saw some green glowing eyes. I slowed down because they were just staring at me and didn't move. Then, I realized it was only 2 more deer. They ran off when I went by.
I could see the lights from the campus above the trail. I didn't realize the trail goes that close to the campus because I've only ever run it in the day. Finally, I came out at the road around the campus. It was around 5.3 miles. That was about an additional mile to the loop.
I still had 1.7 miles to go. I was going to just stick to the roads for the rest of the run. I ran the road to Iaccoca Hall and then ran around the loop. I figured this would give me some nice distance. My pace dropped like crazy too. It went from 12:21 when I came out of the woods, to 11:38 by the end of the run.
I ran basically one full loop and finished up just past my car. It was great to be done and this was a lot of fun. I'll definitely be running there a lot more at night, especially as we keep losing light in the evening. I just need to get stronger headlamp to make it easier to see. I put in a solid 10 miles yesterday and now added 7 more today.
I'll take a break from running until Saturday. Then, I'll do an easy 10 miler with the VIA Marathon the following day. I've really slacked with the biking, so I'll hop on it tomorrow for the first time this week. I hope I can ride 50 miles by the end of the week. That shouldn't be too difficult.
7 miles - 1:21:22 (11:38 pace)
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