I met up with Ryan and talked him into running from the Hamburg Reservoir. I was headed out that way in the evening anyway. We'd run to Pulpit Rock and then the Pinnacle. It would be around 9 miles.The weather was fairly solid. At least it was in the 30s. I wore my new jacket over my lightweight long sleeve shirt. I had on tights with shorts. I had my gloves and headband, but didn't need either too much. It was a little windy from time to time, especially when we got to the Pinnacle.
I thought this would be a great run, because it is heavily traveled. I was thrilled to see a full parking lot and nearly nowhere to park. I figured that the trail would be well packed down. I was only sort of right.
We started off on the icy stone road. It was great to have on MICROspikes. It had taken my watch some time to get a signal. I was happy to get on to the Appalachian Trail.
I led the way there. A lot of people had traveled on this route. However, the trail conditions were quite disappointing. We had powdery snow, so it was uneven and there was little grip. The MICROspikes were mostly useless on it. Running up any incline was tough.
The trail generally climbs to Pulpit Rock, but there is a mix of up and down. It is almost all runnable when clear, but today was another story. It was a lot of hiking.
It didn't take too long to get to Pulpit Rock. It is very rocky coming up from there. However, the rocks were buried in so much snow. The view at the top was great and a couple people were hiking. One of them took our photo.
I thought things would get better heading out to the Pinnacle. I was wrong. It is generally fairly flat, but it weaves around and is narrow. Footing was quite tough. Ryan led now and we combined running and hiking.
It was so slow and seemed to take forever to get there. Finally, we passed a hiker near the Pinnacle. There were a few people there and we encountered a couple people throughout the run, but not as many as I expected.The view from the Pinnacle was outstanding. We stayed a bit and took in the view. Then, we ate a couple Fig Newtons. I needed that, since I had no calories. I just carried water.
This run was going way slower than I thought it would. We were at around 1 hour and 20 minutes when we turned around. I let Ryan lead again on the way back. He was cramping, so he hiked a lot. That was good for me.
I was struggling too. It was hard to get footing and I was losing it a bit. I was getting frustrated and cursing. I knew I just had to focus on getting back to Pulpit Rock. Once there, it would be mostly downhill and more fun.
Ryan stopped before Pulpit Rock, to use the bathroom. I went ahead. It seemed much quicker between the Pinnacle and Pulpit Rock in this direction. I was glad to get there.
Coming down the rocky part of Pulpit Rock was a blast. I overshot a couple turns and even fell once. It didn't hurt though and was fun.
After that, it was easier, fun downhill running. I cruised on down. On one downhill, I saw a local ultrarunner, Jim Blanford. He wins some 100 milers. I was just telling Ryan about him. I should've stopped and introduced myself, but I wanted to get back.
I thought Ryan might catch up, because he flies downhill. He never did though. I ran by two hikers on the icy road part near the end. They must've thought I was crazy to be running. Good thing I had the spikes on. They almost slipped walking.This was a tougher run than I expected. It took longer too. It was great to be done though. I was happy to put in a quality workout for a change. I can't wait until the snow melts, so I can pick everything up.
Tomorrow will be a fun day. Since my 40 mile race was postponed, the Trail Whippass group put together a Fat Ass. I'm only going to shoot for 40 miles. I'm hoping for video with my GoPro. I also bought a Colonial hat for the event. It is taking place in Valley Forge, so I figured that that would be appropriate.
9.91 miles - 2:23:01 (14: pace) 1567 feet of elevation gain
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