Jim Thorpe Waterfall Run

I love the town of Jim Thorpe and have had fun running there a few times in the past.  I really haven't hit much of the trails though.  I was very excited when I was invited to run about 2.5 hours there on the Glen Onoko Falls Trail.  This guy Swamp, who I met once, was leading the run.

The group was huge.  I knew a few of the people, but many I never met.  A lot of them were from the Pagoda Pacers group out of Reading.  There were 40 people committed to the run on facebook and at least 30 showed up on this nice fall day.

It was quite chilly at the start, so I went with my lightweight long sleeve orange tech shirt.  At times, it was cold during the run, but when the sun was out, it was quite nice.  I wish I would've had on short sleeves.

I knew the beginning of the run along the falls was going to be difficult and technical.  I just didn't realize how hard it would be.  It was pretty much unrunnable for the most part.  We basically just hiked that section.  It was a slow go.

The views of the falls were neat, although they aren't big waterfalls, at least not this time of year.  We stopped a few times to take in some views and also got a group photo above one of the falls.

After the top, it was a technical, rocky singletrack through the woods.  I followed along in the second group of three people.  The first group got pretty far ahead.  This section was kind of fun.  It beat up my feet a little and tested out my new trail shoes.

We stopped at another outstanding view of the mountains and the Lehigh River.  It was one of the best views I've ever seen.  By now, we were only a few miles into the run.

When we started up again, I wanted to make sure to run with the front group.  I didn't want to be caught behind anyone.  There were some good runners there, but not everyone was pushing themselves.

This next part was a woods road section.  This was quite runnable, although they put down some pretty good sized stones in some parts.  These were very annoying.

During one uphill section, some of the faster people like Aaron and Dorf went cruising by Swamp and I.  I started to struggle with the uphill.  The legs were fatigued from all the climbing.  It was only an hour into the run and I was wondering how I'd keep going.  At this pace, it seemed tough.  Right as I was about to drop back, we got to an intersection and stopped to wait for everyone.  This was perfect timing.  A hunter was driving around this area, I think we annoyed him.

We continued on and were on woods roads for a short while.  Then, we stopped again and went through some singletrack.  I let Aaron get ahead of me.  We both followed Swamp.  They almost dropped me on some of the very technical, rocky sections.  Right as I was about to slow again, we stopped again.  Perfect timing once more.

We continued on some more singletrack.  I stayed toward the front again, although I think someone else was ahead of me now.  They were moving pretty good through this section again.  After another stop, we went through singletrack again.  This was very runnable and fairly smooth.  I had to work so hard to stay with the front group.

This ended up being like intervals sessions for me.  Run hard, recover and run hard again.  This time, we were out to some powerlines.  Aaron knew where he was going, so he took off in this section.  It was downhill, but wide open and very fast.  It was also a longer segment than I expected.  I was breathing heavy and dropped behind quite a few more people.

After the powerline trail, we went through the woods roads before heading back onto the rocky singletrack.  I tried to stay with Aaron since I didn't quite know where we were going.  He was long gone though.  My legs were tiring by now and a few more people passed me.

Eventually, we got to a rock and took another route down to the bottom.  This was a different option than the falls section.  This was steep and rocky and still not really runnable, but it was better than the falls part.

I basically walked down most of it with my friend Tim and a couple other guys.  Even walking down it, my legs really started to hurt.  My back began to bother me too.  We were now in double digit mileage.  This was a tough run.

Finally, we came to the bottom and ran to finish up.  I was going to just stop, but my watch was at 10.95 miles, so I ran the other 0.05 miles to finish up.  It was a great workout and good to be done.

We chatted for a bit at our cars and then went into downtown Jim Thorpe to eat at Molly Maguire's.  It was good food and good company.  This was a fun group.  They are such experienced trail runners too.  It seemed like almost everyone there has run multiple 100 mile races.

I rode my bike to recover after dark.  That seemed to help my sore back.  I want to put in a big week this coming week.  I might try to run 60 miles in addition to riding for another 100.  Tomorrow, I might run Trexler with Tim.  That would be a good way to start the week.

11 miles - 2:20:33 (12:47 pace)