Trail Monster Running

Visit the official TRAIL MONSTER RUNNING website for information on upcoming group runs, local trails, trail races and more, including the Pineland Farms Trail Running Festival and the Bradbury Mountain trail Running Series.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Nary a Cloud in the Sky

Today was a beautiful day for a run in the snow. In case you didn't already know that we brought our camera along for our run so we could prove it.

We had originally planned to run 16 miles on Saturday, but since the conditions didn't really allow us to get in that many we headed back to Bradbury Mountain State Park on Sunday for an 8 mile out-and-back along the course we worked out for the upcoming Fat Ass 50k to be held at the park on Sunday, March 2nd.

The snowmobiles had been out since our previous run and it looked as though most trails had been dragged with some type of groomer which made the surface great for running, still a little soft underfoot but better than what we were running in yesterday.


With a cloudless sky it didn't take long for temps to warm up, good that we both brought plenty of water and Endurolytes. Emma loves the CamelBak Magic hydration pack she bought at LL Bean last week: great fit, stable while running, plenty of storage for food, gels, camera, extra layers etc.



We arrived at the park about 20 minutes after Blaine and Josh had left for their 20 mile run. We had hoped to be able to get there in time to run a few miles with these fast guys but getting out of bed proved more difficult that we had anticipated this morning. Throughout our run we were following their footprints in the snow, Blaine wears the same Inov-8 shoes as me so it's easy to spot his tracks.


About 7 miles into our run we bumped into Josh and Blaine who were headed on their way back to the park after going out for 8 miles. We stopped and chatted for a while in a nice sunny spot on the power line trail. Josh was still showing evidence of the recently removed wisdom teeth but luckily the drugs he's on keep him running. Blaine warned me about a dangerous area of soft snow that was coming up where he sunk in to his waist. Despite the warning I think I still managed to find it, but at least Emma saw me go down and found a better way around.


At 8 miles we turned around and made our way back the way we had come. By now the sun was getting pretty high and it was really warming up. If I had closed my eyes it would have felt just like running on a sandy beech. We both stripped off some layers, chugged some water and enjoyed the best of winter running.


What fun we had. And we even managed a negative split!


Elevation profile:


time: 2:36:20
distance: 16.16 miles
pace: 9:40
heart rate: 145/174

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Looks like an awesome day. If only Katy was up to running trails. Her ankle is still not quite at 100%. We both would have much rather run the trails with you kids than pound out 16 miles on the roads around our house.

Nice pics BTW.