Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Crappy Schuylkill River Trail

I ended up needing Sunday to recover.  I took off.  I planned to run yesterday, but the cold and rainy weather had me unmotivated.  Today, was more frustration.  I was headed to Royersford and wanted to do a trail run.  However, I worked too late.  I had to stick to the Schuylkill River Trail.

I wanted to wear a short sleeve shirt, but I didn't have one packed apparently.  Instead, I put on a light weight long sleeve shirt.  That worked okay on this gloomy day, along with my shorts.  It was raining a bit on the way down, but luckily, not really during the run.  If anything, it was a slight drizzle.

I found a trailhead on the other side of Spring City.  I guess this is the end of that section.  A few cars were parked there.  I headed on out.  It was stone, so I wasn't crazy about that.  It went through a couple field type areas and a road crossing.  My legs felt okay, but definitely not great.

I wasn't too up for the run, so I just planned 3.5 miles out and then back.  Doing 7 miles would be enough for today, especially considering my time constraints.  I needed to eat before the game too. 

It didn't take long until I was grateful I made that choice.  This trail should've been called the Schuylkill Powerline Trail.  There was no river to be seen in the beginning.  I was just running along an ugly powerline. 

The first awful, boring mile took forever.  I could not believe I had 2.5 more before turning around.  This trail made me really appreciate my rail trails back home. 

I finally did see the Schuylkill River through the trees.  It was far down though.  On the other side of the trail was a wall with a fence on top.  That was so the rock behind it didn't fall on to the trail.  This part was pretty terrible too.

Things didn't get any better as I left there.  I was running through a tunnel of nothingness.  There were earthen banks on both sides and the giant powerline too.  Eventually, I went by an old power plant.  There was a field on the other side that was almost cool.

A group of high school kids were walking the other way.  This was a nice distraction from the terrible scenery.  That was somewhere around 2.5 miles.  I was thrilled to get to Spring City itself not long after that.  At least I knew where I was.

I decided to go over the river and in to Royersford.  That would be slightly better.  The trail kind of ends there.  I passed a few walkers.  At least there were some apartment buildings.  There was traffic too, so I could watch cars.

I ran by the apartments.  Then, it was up the hill and over some train tracks.  I hit 3.5 miles at an intersection.  I turned and headed back, watching the traffic.

I continued to run along by the apartments.  Two semi cute women ran by the other way.  I could've used some eye candy on the boring stretch coming up.  I crossed the river again and headed over to Spring City.

I ran on to the terrible section.  At least this time, I was heading back.  I couldn't wait to get to mile 5.  I tried looking in the woods as a distraction.  Everything is dead and the sky was gloomy too.  I checked my watch over and over and over again.

Around the powerplant, I saw the high school kids again.  After this point, I started to push slightly.  I wanted to be done.  I checked the watch and saw the pace drop.  I actually took my watch off with 2 miles to go.

I thought there was more uphill coming back, but there was some down.  I cruised along.  I really picked it up more and more, along the river part.  I saw a guy in a trucker hat.  I tried to read it, as I figured he was a trail runner.

I began to calculate the pace in my head.  It was well under 8:30, as I headed into the final mile.  I pushed and pushed.  I wanted to get done under 58 minutes now.

The last road crossing threw me off.  A couple cars forced me to stop there.  That killed the momentum and slowed that final mile down.  It was still a speedy 7:16.  It would've been very close to 7 minutes without the stoppage.

I ran to the end of the path.  As I finished a woman was coming.  Two more were at the parking lot, about to start.  I could've used them as a distraction for sure.  One car in the lot had trail running stickers.  I'm guessing it belonged to the guy with the trucker hat on.

I didn't go far and I hated the run.  That was due to the trail though.  I did run fairly well and faster than I have lately.  At some point, I'll need to start running fast again.  It was good to hit the gas pedal a little today.

Tomorrow, I'll run again.  I'm not sure where or how far.  A trail run would be nice.  It does look like this will be a lighter week than recent weeks.  My body could probably use that though.

7.04 miles - 57:48 (8:13 pace) 134 feet of elevation gain

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