Trail Running Love
Monday, March 29th, 2010
One of my Trakkers teammates, Jessi, had a great short post about trail running and I couldn’t agree more. I first got hooked on running with my high school cross country team and we would hit the trails at least twice a week. I think if we didn’t get off the roads and into the mud as much as we did, I don’t think I would have stuck with it through high school, let alone through college and now into this strange phase of “adult” life.
Wow, just imaging if my mom didn’t force me to pick a sport each season in high school so I didn’t just come home and sit on the couch all afternoon, this whole “journey to ironman” thing might never have happened.
Scary.
I was back home in Connecticut this weekend visiting the family and decided to hit some of the same trails I ran in high school that got me hooked on running.
Saturday I did a short run around two loops while Sam and my mom were hiking. I met back up with them half way through the second loop to hike the rest of the way back to the car and catch up on life.
Good Times.
Sunday I had big plans of waking up just before dawn and running to a steep overlook (the pinnacle) and watch the sunrise, until some serious clouds put a major damper on that idea. Oh well… Some other time I guess.
Instead I waited a few hours for it to warm up and keep it safe.
First way point: An old quartz mine with tons of bright green moss and icicles hanging everywhere. None of the spring leaves have sprouted yet, so the green moss against all the brown practically made the trail glow. It was really cool.
Next stop: The Pinnacle
Almost to the top…
Overlooking half of Connecticut.
The best part of the run was that while my quads and lungs were screaming from the hills and completely drained me, the scenery kept giving me tons of motivation to keep pushing so I felt stronger at the finish than when I started. (my legs still might tell a different story, but my head felt great…)
Runners high? Musta been. I haven’t had one of those in a while…
And of course, the essential post-run recovery time with my nephew, Carter.
(Yes, I’m totally bribing you for blog comments with cute baby pictures.)
Tags: bee brook, cross country running, hidden valley preserve, trail running | Posted in Life, Running, Triathlon, Videos | 5 Comments »
