Trail Gods are Smiling

Posted in gear, general, trail by Nate

Logged about 24 solid trail miles this weekend. Feels great to be off both dreadmill and street, and finally getting the trail time I’ve been looking forward to. Here’s a weekend recap, if you’re bored and looking to waste a few minutes reading about my life.

Friday: Landed from NYC and swung by the office in Ann Arbor to pick up my two new movies from Zombie Runner, both of which I brought home and watched back-to-back as my weekend relaxation. First was their Western States 100 film, which was shot a few years ago at the beginning of Jurek’s domination of the race. Pretty cheap packaging but definitely a worthwhile purchase and an all around well-done film with numerous insights from some of the race’s veterans (Twietmeyer, Ansleigh, etc.). Next was Forever Running, a film about Yiannis Kouros – who holds an unbelievable amount of world records and who makes me feel as if I should just give up running altogether.

Saturday: 8 miles hard and fast (for me) through Heritage Park in Farmington Hills. First 4 mile lap done in 31:25 (7:51 minute miles). Second lap done in 35:27 (8:51 minute miles). On the second lap I stopped for a few minutes when I found that I had run directly into a family of Deer. There were 7 of them – and when I took notice all were staring at me. I stood still, kept my hands at my side and eventually they took their focus off me, just kept eating and acted as if I wasn’t even there. After a few minutes of reveling in this, I turned to continue running and noticed another three coming up on my right side from behind. They walked past me, then all three stopped and stared yet again. One of them kept her eyes on me, and kept bowing her head and tapping one foot on the ground. She slowly advanced toward me, seeming to check out my scent. To keep it on the safe side, I slowly backed away and continued my run. Pretty amazing to get that close and have them that comfortable, though.

Sunday: 16 snowy and slippery miles of Bald Mountain starting at 8:00am on this fine Easter. I took a nasty spill about three miles into it, losing grip on an icy downhill and using my kneecap to break my fall. The rest of the run was done considerably more carefully, and with slow jogs/walks on the uphills I only averaged 11:30 miles. The first 12 miles were done around a 9 minute pace, but I bonked pretty hard on the last quarter and had to walk a bit. This was my longest run since the marathon and my longest trail run to date. Despite the lackluster speed, it was a great day of running and a happy 1 year anniversary of my first trail run in the same spot. Good trails, but if next week’s 18 miler at the Potowatomi is anything like I think it should be, I’ll probably be going to Bald Mountain a lot less from now on.

Lastly, there as a coyote in my mother’s driveway this morning – right here in lovely Farmington Hills.