Today was the second day of my back to back 20 milers at Pine Grove Furnace State Park. I was quite sore after yesterday, but the ability to recover after trail runs is amazing. I did some icing and put on BioFreeze and I was practically like new by this morning.
Since we had to leave the park by mid afternoon, I started earlier today. I began around 9:15 AM. The weather was cool at the start. I went with shorts and a short sleeve shirt.
I didn't have a plan. I climbed yesterday early on and that slowed me down and took a lot out of me. I was hoping to just make this one easy. There was this mile loop trail called the Koppenhaver Trail and it was a few miles away. I figured that at the very least, I'd start by running to there and back.
I began with the short Creek Trail behind our campground. This was about 3/4 of a mile and always a good way to start. I decided to walk across the road there and then run again when I got to the next short trail. I needed to get used to running and walking.
I ran through the beach area and tried to find the Koppenhaver Trail. It is behind a small open field. I found it pretty easily. I ran the loop once. I wasn't crazy about the start. It was an easy loop, but it had a bunch of small up and down segments. It also went over roots and rocks and a bunch of logs. I was frustrated in the beginning. I even slipped on a log and nearly landed with my head on it.
Then, it turned into more of a wide woods trail. This was much more runnable. At one point, I branched off into a similar section. Then I saw a road and headed the other way. This downhill got me back onto the main loop. I was disappointed, but at least I added some distance. I made sure to walk all of the uphills.
Originally, I was going to do this loop several times. However, I didn't care for it a lot, so I decided to head onto the flat, stone Appalachian Trail section. I ran on it out past its split. I was then on a small road for some time. I wanted to get 6 or 7 miles in when I got back to the camper. I didn't enjoy this section much. There were a lot of people out with dogs and they were enjoying the park.
I headed back before I went too far out. I think I added the short Swamp Trail to this route. It was cloudy and quite chilly out. It was ideal for running, but kind of sucked for the segments that I was walking. I was still sweating quite a bit.
I ran back along the same trails that I came from. It wasn't too long before I was back at the camper. I ran to it and was at 7.04 miles. That was a good start.
My dad was out hiking. I grabbed a few pretzels and drank some Coke. I sat down and rested briefly. I think this segment took me 1:13. I can't quite recall.
I thought about doing the same thing for the second part, but I decided to change it up. Yesterday, I took the Buck Ridge Trail. That was nice, but it was very wet. Another trail, the Leaf Trail, was supposed to branch off of it. I headed there.
I ran the Creek Trail and then was forced to go on the road to get to the Leaf Trail. This part sucked and I walked a lot of it. I found what I guess was the Leaf Trail. It actually said "Leaf Road." I followed that and it went through a camp with cabins. I was glad that no one was there.
I then found the trail behind it. It was a little wet in the beginning, but not too bad. The trail wasn't marked, so figuring out if it is the correct one was kind of tricky. I followed it past a couple cabins.
The trail then split in two ways. I decided to take the left one. This had some downhill for a short bit. That was nice, except for knowing I'd have to come back up it. Before long, I got to a creek crossing. I didn't want to get wet, since it was only mile 9. I turned around and headed back. I saw some signs there for some sort of bike race that must've come through there.
When I got back to the top, I took the other trail. This sucked because it ended up being a road to some houses. Some people were out at one of them. They didn't say anything.
I came out at the main road that runs along the park. I didn't want to run on the road for too long and I saw a giant hill. Off to the left was a trail back into the park. I didn't know where it headed, but I needed a lot more mileage and decided to explore.
This worked out great as I came out in the field next to the Koppenhaver Trail. I ran that loop again. I then took it a 2nd time too, in order to add more mileage. I was happy to get to the half marathon point, even if I had quite a bit of running to go.
I needed to add miles, so again I ran on to the stone portion of the AT. I went out the road again and turned around. I passed a big family that was walking. I turned off to a trail section along a creek, but it didn't really go anywhere.
By now, I knew I'd come back to the camper around mile 15. That wasn't bad, but really I couldn't think about where I'd run 5 more miles after that. I was getting bored of everywhere that I'd run. Plus, I want to make it quick.
I decided on another loop of the Koppenhaver Trail. This was good to get through. The legs were really falling apart. Going through the beach, on some pavement and through the last two trails was tough. The Creek Trail seemed super slow.
I ran a short out and back off of the Creek Trail. I was just under 17 miles as I approached the camper. I wanted to get over 17, so I ran out the road and back into the campground. I had stopped with 17.2 miles done. This segment had been tough, with over 10 miles of running without a break (other than walk breaks).
This rest period was very brief. I knew I had to keep going. I was already over 3 hours of running. When I rested this time, I kept my shoes on. I probably should've taken them off to stretch my feet. They were quite sore at the start of this final short portion of the run.
My feet hurt for quite awhile, but I kept going. I just kept running and running, even though it was slow. I ran through both of my regular trails and my turnaround point was right at the beach. It worked out perfectly.
I continued to sputter along on the way back and kept plugging away. It was great to get inside the final mile. Even though it was hard, I kept running. Since I was running, my pace dropped. I finished up at the camper with 20 miles in the books.
My feet were very sore right after the run. I'll have to make a note of that for the 50 miler. This was a great two days of running. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the 50 miler, but I ran 50 miles over the last three days. I also have 142 total miles in the last 11 days. I'm as ready as I'm going to be. I didn't train much for this, but I put in a good last two weeks. My total mileage has always been high too.
Tomorrow is a much needed off day. I'll probably run like 7 easy miles on Tuesday. I might do a 5k on Wednesday. I'm going to a trail run on Thursday. I'll keep this week somewhat light though. Light by my standards anyway.
20 miles - 3:33:48 (10:41 pace)
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