Clear Trails at Wissahickon

I didn't have time to run yesterday.  I had to run today though.  I didn't work, so I was able to travel.  I decided to head to Wissahickon (near Philly).  I knew it would be clear.  It is a place I love to run too.

It was supposed to be kind of warm, so I brought a singlet.  Luckily, I also had a lightweight long sleeve shirt.  I wore that and it worked perfectly with my shorts.  It was quite windy and chilly.  I also had on a visor, to keep the sun out.

I began just on the other side of the Valley Green Inn.  I decided to run this loop in the counterclockwise direction.  Last time, I ran the other way.  The first climb was tough, since I wasn't warmed up.  I ran up it though and was breathing heavy.  I stopped at the top to adjust my socks.  I thought they might give me blisters, but they didn't.  I was happy with that, as they were sliding down my ankles. 

At the top of the climb was a guy resting with his dog.  Later on, I saw him running with the dog.  I think he was the only runner I saw on the trails.  I like that no one runs on them.  I saw a few hikers and one mountain biker.  Mostly, it was peaceful.

I ran along the flat ridge.  It was nice and fast.  I got into a groove.  I knew that in the past I got to the end of some trails here and it went into a yard.  This time, I took the down option for once.  These trails aren't marked, so they are tough to follow at times.

I ran past the golf course.  That was kind of weird.  As I was standing on the top of a cliff, I noticed a guy below.  I followed that trail.  This was great.  It was a fun, new part I had never been on.  I was surprised to find it.

I ran down along the ridge.  Then, I came to the bridge on Forbidden Drive.  I knew where it was, so I ran over it and found a trail on the other side.

This was now much more technical.  I ran along and had fun.  Eventually the trail kind of disappeared and I had to climb up to the main trail.  I climbed over a stone wall.

This part is really cool.  There are a lot of old stone structures.  After a bit, I got to a small feeder stream.  I had been running now for over an hour.  I couldn't figure out how to get over this stream.  I had to run out quite a bit and and then cross a bridge.  Then, I ran back on the other side.

There was a small section of snow here.  There was a bit of mud too.  I cautiously ran over some circular pipes too.  I had more fun on some technical stuff, including when the trail went straight between two giant rocks.

I was taking in Tailwind and doing good.  I ran probably 99% of the time.  I was falling off slightly, but not too bad.  My watch GPS mileage was way off.  That was frustrating.

I did miss a bunch of the cool parts of this trail.  I took the lower trail options, but somehow missed them.  I don't know how.  At least I got to run up some cool stone steps.

Some guy's dog was ahead of him and it scared me.  I decided to run to the covered bridge and head back.  I wanted to do the whole loop, but it was taking too long.  Somehow I did way more mileage that usual there.

I crossed the covered bridge.  Then, I ran along Forbidden Drive for a bit.  I wanted to go back up on the trail.  When I could, I went up there.  I climbed a bit to the top.  Then, I ran along, but I was on the wrong trail and going away from everything.

I turned around and headed down.  I had another trail climb, but I figured it might take too long on trails.  I turned back around and finished up on Forbidden Drive.  It was about a mile of running on there.

It was slightly over 2 hours of fun trail running.  It was much needed.  I was glad to be able to run snow free.  It was a blast.  I can't wait for the snow to be gone.

This is my last run before the HAT 50K on Saturday.  I feel well rested and good.  I'm going to use the race to get back into shape.  It will be simply a training run.  I don't like the course anyway.  It will be fun to hangout too.

16.47 miles - 2:12:23 (8:02 pace) 1708 feet of elevation gain INCORRECT NUMBERS