I had a trifecta of running fun this weekend. First, I helped my friend Tom out by taking photos of his 5K/10K. It was good to volunteer. Then, this morning I headed up to Scranton to cheer on and take photos of 8 of my friends who were running the Steamtown Marathon. Finally, I ran this evening during dusk/dark at Trexler with a bunch of old friends and new ones.
The 5K and 10K was great and maybe the best part of that was seeing a group of Couch 2 5K runners taking on their first race. A couple of my friends are coaching and running with them. It is good to see some future regular runners in the making. Steamtown was awesome because just about everyone ran well. A lot of PRs. Of course I'd enjoy capping the weekend with a loop after dark around Trexler (my favorite place to run).
It is funny how a day can start and end so differently. After seeing everyone running road marathons and doing it so well and I started getting the itch. I was thinking that maybe I should push myself again and try to PR there next year. I may still do that, but the night trail run reminded me of exactly where I really wanted to be. I just love it out on the trails in nature and the nighttime adds to it.
Flo and Todd invited me to join them on a twilight into darkness Trexler trail run. Of course I can't turn down a run there that is at any time of the day or night other than the morning. They were planning on the run and then they were going to do some crazy Spartan training type of stuff. I'm not into that, so I was thinking of doing a second loop. I've never gone that far before.A lot of people were invited to this run, but only 6 of us showed up. In addition to Flo and Todd, there was a guy Kevin, another guy Mike (who I think I ran with last nighttime Trexler run) and a woman Miranda. The weather was actually perfect, so I was very happy about that. I love fall days like this.
Todd and Kevin decided they would hang back. They were waiting for someone else that might be coming. Mike and Miranda set the pace and Flo and I ran right behind them. I was very impressed that I ran up the first big hill without too much trouble. I haven't been to Trexler since Quadzilla in July. I guess I'm still in good shape.
I figured that Flo couldn't just hang back for too long and of course I was correct. It didn't take long before she went by them and I followed. I felt great, so I figured why not. I was a little worried though because I thought Flo would destroy me (even though she already ran a half marathon while pacing Tom in the marathon today).
We cruised along and things seemed to be going well. I was having no trouble with the hills. I did start to notice that Flo seemed to be lagging behind just slightly. Not the usual front running, push hard Flo that I know. She wasn't getting up the hills as fast as I expected.
I was actually grateful for this because she wasn't killing me. At some point around mile 2, I realized that I was probably talking too much. I decided to just shut up and we ran in silence for awhile.
We got to the awesome view around 2.5 miles right around sunset. It was pretty sweet. Then all of a sudden it happened, Flo just stopped and started walking. Not on a hill either, but on a downhill. I stopped with her and quickly learned that she was having stomach problems because she ate too close to the run.
We walked for some time and this was on flat/downhill parts of the course. It took longer than I expected, but Mike and Miranda finally passed us. They walked with us a bit, but then we told them to just go on. Flo suggested that I just keep running, but there was no way that I was happening. I'm not going to leave a struggling woman alone on the trail, especially with darkness coming soon. I might as well just have my man card taken away if that is the case.
I also wanted to stay with her because I knew the shortcut back to the parking lot through the zoo. I figured that if she was feeling that bad, I could take her back to the car and then maybe do another full loop on my own.
Somewhere near the big hills, it started to get quite dark. We had to turn on our headlamps. We thought it was odd that Kevin and Todd had not caught us yet with all the walking. Then, we saw some headlamps up ahead. It was was the two of them. We told them of the situation and Todd had a ginger tablet to help Flo's stomach. He's done so many endurance events and has a little bit of everything.
They wanted to get some running done, so we told them to go ahead. We were probably around halfway through at that point. We followed them for a bit and Flo actually got a little better. We all went through the creek pretty much together. It was a very cold crossing.
Around the zoo area, we actually caught right up to Kevin and Todd. At this point, I was thinking that Flo was back and was going to crush it and probably destroy me now. I was feeling good, so I was up to the challenge. She was back to hiking after not too long though.
Although I wasn't getting much of a workout, I was still enjoying the company. It was also fun trying to help a friend through a tough spot. It is kind of interesting because Flo's first run of the day was helping Tom out, now here she was needing help herself. You never know what the day will bring. She was looking for a tough workout and got one, but not the way she expected.
We heard some animal sounds that were slightly uncomfortable. Then the weirdest thing we heard were screams. It sounded like a child or young kid. At first I was thinking maybe at Kidspeace. That was a little worrisome since we had to run by there later. I was also thinking maybe we were somehow near some haunted attraction. I have no idea. We were by some houses.
We got to the top of the long hill. At some point around then, Flo asked how far we had left and I said about a mile. She then had a second wind and took off. We ran over the rolling hills. It was a beautiful night and she commented on exactly that. I saw some green eyes staring at us in the grass. I pointed it out to Flo, but I probably shouldn't have. It was likely just a deer.
It wasn't too long and we were done. It was almost 2 hours, but it actually seemed kind of quick (at least for me). I guess I have the easy pace and good conversation to thank for that.
They decided not to do their Spartan training. I strongly considered at least starting a second loop, since I had energy left. This isn't the best place to run alone after dark though and as we stood around, I got pretty cold too. I didn't have a second shirt to wear either. I was kind of mad that I didn't try another loop and I almost even stopped by the Nor-Bath Trail for some more miles afterward. I decided to just call it a night though.
Tonight didn't turn out the way it was planned, but it was fun nonetheless. I definitely need more company on my runs. Even just a few days a week would be a big help. I also have to hand it to Flo, she put in almost 22 miles of running today. She is one tough cookie too. If it were me, I probably would've just cut back across through the zoo. She soldiered on and finished up the run though.
Since I didn't run too much today, I'll look to do a long run tomorrow. Maybe I'll knock out 20 miles or so. I have no idea where at yet. Perhaps at the McDade Trail near the Delaware Water Gap. I feel like I need to run somewhere different. After a mere 2 miles of running following the 50K, it is back to big miles and long rides again this week. I can't wait to get back at it.
8.51 miles - 1:51:53 (13:09 pace)
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