I decided to run at Jacobsburg this evening, after doing nothing all day. It just felt like a good idea to hit the trails. I had no real mileage plan, but figured it would be relatively short. Rather than my usual route, I figured I'd run all around the Sober's Run area only.
The weather was kind of nice. I tried wearing a shirt, but that came off after a mile of running. It was still too humid for that. It was weird because we are supposed to be getting storms over the next few days, so it was very dark out by 7:15.
As I was pulling in, I thought I saw Gary running. He is often there. It turns out it wasn't him. The guy was going the same way I planned anyway. I began by parking in the small lot in that area and running in a clockwise direction. That starts with a bridge crossing.
The legs didn't feel all that great in the beginning. Yesterday's challenging longer run might have had an impact. I went very easy though. I wanted no effort today and didn't care at all about pace.
There was really no point in looking at pace since I was running a lot of the narrow singletrack. I had fun on the early ridge section in the woods. I don't run this part often enough. I came across a mountain biker in this area.
I came out onto the main path, but then after crossing the bridge, I went back down along Sober's Run. This section was a little bit smoother and wider than the ridge singletrack. I saw two deer there. Rarely have I seen deer in Jacobsburg, but lately it seems more frequent.
I came out and on to the main path. I saw the guy that I thought might be Gary. I was going to run to my car and drop off my shirt, but if it was Gary, I wanted to say "hi." I caught him on the powerline and it turned out it wasn't Gary. It was another guy and his dog was running with him. The dog wanted to run with me for a bit.
The powerline wasn't bad because I took it easy. I then headed downhill. I went into the singletrack into the woods. This would add some more fun. The only problem is that I really wanted to enter farther down. I ran downhill for awhile.
Then, I got to the fork in the trail. I took the short, but steep uphill singletrack. That was fun and a little challenging. I came back on to the main path. I headed a short distance to some more singletrack along the other creek.
I love this section and I wasn't alone. I came across the mountain biker again and had to stop for him. He was one of the few people I saw out all night. This section was a blast. I started thinking about trying to run every single trail in Jacobsburg on one run. I may have to try that sometime, although it would be a lot of miles. Maybe for an easy long run I'll do it.
When I was back on the main path, I headed to the original side of Sober's Run that I started on. This time, I was on the singletrack closer to the creek, before merging with my earlier route. It was fun and I approached mile 5 as I finished. It got very tough to see at the end, since it was starting to get quite dark. I managed to get done in time. I was slightly over 5 miles.
That was a fun, short workout. I took some different routes and with a lot of in and out, rocky singletrack, it was slower than usual. Most of the miles were over 9 minutes long. Even though I'm not a huge fan of this park (because it is easy), I always do enjoy a trail run.
Tomorrow, I'm hoping for a double session. In the morning, I want to get on track and run a workout with some of the ladies. In the evening, I'm planning on picking up a camera at my old roommate's place in New Jersey. I'm going to try to get to a trail run at South Mountain Reservation, in that area. It should be fun, if the storms hold out.
I also signed up for my second 50K and third ultra. It's in the remote mountains of West Virginia and could be quite challenging. It's in early October and I get to camp there for free. They provide a meal before the race too. Plus, I can make it back for the weekend too.
5.10 miles - 47:44 (9:22 pace)
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