Hill Week 2014: South Mountain (Lehigh) - 2X

Today was the 4th day of Hill Week 2014.  We were meeting up on Lehigh's Mountaintop Campus.  This route is unique in that the trails aren't official and there is no map.  I would not even know about them, if not for the fact that Dave Decker introduced them to us during his "Loopy Runs."

The trails aren't marked, but thanks to that day's run, plus several other runs here, I know the trails well.  I figured some of the pink ribbon markings were still up, but not all of them.  That meant that I had to run through early in the day and remark them.

It was hot when I did that first run at 2 PM.  I ran shirtless.  There was a breeze from time to time that provided relief.  I was happy to see that a good number of markings were still around.  That meant that I didn't have to stop too often.  I might've added a few more than necessary, but I didn't want anyone to get lost in the evening.

I saw a deer early on.  I had fun with the first downhill.  The uphill in the first mile really threw me off.  I didn't recall it being as tough as it was.  I can run up the whole thing, but it does take effort.

There is a gradual climb after that.  I marked quite a bit along this section.  Then, I crossed the road and on to the rocky downhill.  This section can be a lot of fun, but it is very technical.  If you aren't used to it, it can be a challenge.  It's not too tough for me.

I almost fell when I tripped at one point.  I had already lost some scissors on the route.  Good thing that the ribbons were easy to tie.  I even saw some orange ribbons that I think were from the year before.  Mountain bikers and some hikers use these trails, but there usually aren't many people on them.  Weekends can get a little more busy.

I'm not sure what caused the problem, but I had a sharp pain in my foot.  That worried me.  Maybe I hit a rock awkwardly.  Whatever the case, I was able to keep going, but I had to run funny.  Eventually it went away and I was very pleased.

The trail comes out after a bridge.  Then it goes to the road.  There was a Lehigh Cop sitting parked there.  I ran by him and hoped he didn't question my pink tape.  I ran past a second cop, just up the road.  He didn't do a thing either.  However, I couldn't mark this area.  I figured that I would have to stop there in the evening.

I then did the long, gradual climb up to the parking lot.  That wasn't too hard for me and it was a lot of fun.  I'm definitely more fit that a year ago.  When Dave Decker did his runs here, you had to finish in under an hour to do another loop.  Even with stopping and marking all of the trees and going too long at one point, I still made it back in under 1 hour and 2 minutes.  I thought it might take longer.

Tonight, was a small group.  It was me, Steve, Chris H and Dave K, all from the BCR.  They are all decent runners, but none of them is fast, so I figured it would be an easy run.  The good thing is that they are all pretty similar in pace.

We started off with the downhill and scared some deer.  It wasn't long until we crossed the road.  Steve stayed behind me, then Dave and finally Chris.  It was good to cruise along.

When we got to the big hill in the first mile, I took off.  It is hard to run too slowly uphill.  I flew up it and then waited for everyone at the top.  I also wanted to make sure they didn't miss the tricky turn back into the woods.

I got ahead a little more on the next gradual climb.  Even though the course was marked, I made sure to wait every so often at the tricky turns or road crossings.  We were pretty much together before the technical section.

That section is a fun downhill, so again I flew ahead of everyone.  There was a part where I could see the trail below and I wanted to get down there and see if I could get any good photos of them running above me.  The trail went out too far first though.

It wasn't long until I got near the short bridge and road crossing.  I waited for everyone there.  We cruised along on the road and past the lookout.

Much to my surprise, we came across another trail runner in this section.  I never see anyone else running there.  Now, we had a short, but steep climb.  Then, it was on to the gradual climb.

The gradual climb wasn't too bad for me, but it did take its toll on some of the others.  I stopped a couple times to take some video of Steve running toward me.  That came out pretty well.

I think everyone was relieved when we got to the road.  Then, they became frustrated when they saw the steps that we still had to climb.  I coasted up them and waited for everyone at the top.  They weren't too far behind.  I finished in just under 51 minutes and they all came in within 3 minutes.

I didn't get a great workout, but it was okay.  I'm having fun anyway.  I thought this might be more of a challenging week, but it is fine since I have a half marathon this weekend

.  I'm still getting some good climbing in.  I get to introduce others to new trails and I know that they are getting a pretty good workout.

Tomorrow, will be the run at Bear Creek.  This is a regular group run, so I'm hoping for decent attendance.  This should bring out some more of the people from the western part of the Lehigh Valley.  Jacobsburg on Friday should bring out some of the BCR.

Afternoon Loop 4.5 miles - 1:01:56 (13:48 pace)
Evening Group Loop 4.25 miles - 50:43 (11:56 pace)