HAT Course Preview with Ryan

It has been a very sucky week of running.  The snow is beginning to melt, but there is still a lot of it around.  On Thursday, I tried to run at Trexler.  I took about 10 steps and gave up.  It was such an uneven mess.  I knew miles of it would be frustrating and unproductive.

In part because of that, I asked Ryan if he wanted to go to the HAT course in Maryland to run.  They have much less snow and the race is next weekend.  It would be good prep.

We got there in good time.  It was late in the morning.  It was raining heavily on the way down, but let up quite a bit as we started.  It was chilly on the Susquehanna River side of the trail and warm on the other side.  I wore shorts, a light rain jacket and a short sleeve shirt under it.  It worked out great, even if I was a little hot at times.

We parked near the boat launch at the southern end of Susquehanna State Park.  Again, we would just run the training loop.  Running the exact course would be too puzzling.

The start really sucks.  It is the steepest climb by far and the toughest part.  Your lungs and legs aren't ready.  I waa well rested and did feel good early on, even if I was breathing hard.  I pulled away from Ryan a bit.

The course was tough.  It was quite muddy, from the heavy rains.  Before long, we were on the white blazed Land of Promise Trail.  This had some early uphill too.

It was up and down, up and down, throughout the run.  Since my legs weren't as dead as last time here, I was actually having more fun now.  Even though running in the mud was hard, I found it to be a lot fun.  There was plenty of ice and snow on the trail as well, although it was melting.

I was a bit ahead of Ryan and I forgot to tell him to switch to the yellow trail.  He had to bushwack a bit.  We then went on.  There was rolling hills, but also a lot of downhill until we made it to the road.  There was a small creek crossing.  That was a little chilly, but overall not too bad.

We ran on the road for a short distance.  Then, it was on to the orange trail.  This was hard at the beginning, because it was mostly uphill.  It was mostly runnable, but with the mud, that was very tough to do.  I combined running and hiking.

I felt good and got quite far ahead of Ryan.  Then, we came out to a road and I waited for him.  I took a wrong turn here last time, but this time I went the correct way.  It was now on to open fields.  I don't like them, but I am fast on them.  I'll have to use that to my advantage on Saturday.

We were on the blue trail now.  That eventually turned into singletrack.  There was a fun downhill section before a small creek crossing.  It was technical, muddy and snowy.  I was amazed that I didn't fall.  I had been reckless.

Now, we were on the green trail and heading up.  I hiked a bit of this, with Ryan not too far behind.  This looping trail goes up and down.  It definitely hits one of the highest points in the park.  You are now above a stream that feeds into the Susquehanna.

We were over 5 miles at this point.  I don't enjoy the green trail too much, but this trail did seem a little better today.  It might not be too bad in nicer weather conditions.  At least it wasn't raining much now.  It was very foggy, however.

After several ups and downs, it was finally on to the red blazed Susquehanna Ridge Trail.  That went up for a bit.  Then at one point, we got to a junction.  Neither trail looked blazed.  I took the down route.  It was slightly overgrown and I could tell early on that it wasn't the right way.  However, we kept going on it.  It was likely an old trail.

There were some big rocks.  Eventually, the trail kind of disappeared.  The road was right below, so we just went down to it.  We stopped to look at the river from there, but the visibility was very low.

I let Ryan lead on the road.  Before long, we came to the old building.  At least since we were off the trail, we didn't have to cross the creek.  That was nice, as I'm sure it was quite high.

We stayed on the road briefly and then it was back on the red trail.  Ryan continued to lead the way.  I was starting to slip.  I had some Tailwind, but probably not enough.  Also, I just haven't been able to run for long periods very often lately.  That was taking its toll on my legs.

Ryan stopped at one point and took a video.  The trail then turned to muddy and snowy crap.  I got better in this section.  I do enjoy terrible conditions.  I flew ahead.  It wasn't too long and we were to the one view of the river.  However, it was too foggy.  We were nearly done at that point.

We flew downhill and finished up.  It was slightly under 9 miles.  I don't think I missed a turn on this course, but they call it an 11 mile route.  I'm not sure where that comes from.  It was good to be done with this muddy and messy run.

We then headed home, but stopped for lunch first.  We went to Iron Hill Brewery in Delaware.  That was near where Destrie lives and she stopped by for a bit.  That was nice.

It was nice to run on semi clear trails.  Tomorrow, we are probably going to loop Tammany.  That will surely still be a mess.  It could be interesting.  I'm sort of looking forward to it and sort of dreading it.

8.76 miles - 1:48:31 (12:23 pace) 1280 feet of elevation gain