After work today, I met up with Richard at his house for another trail run. Wow, the second run this week already (insert sarcastic undertone here)? He had worked out a nice trail loop which would take us mostly uphill before descending the mountain on the road again to save my ankle.
We left his house at 3:30PM and headed towards the cemetery at Five Points before continuing on the Cotton Row 10K course. Rather than running up "puke hill" we continued on straight before entering the first of many trail sections we'd be running on. We managed to hit Toll Creek trail, Toll Gate Trail, Wagon, Trail High Trail, and a few others, but the most important one today was the Waterline trail. Due to the rain in the past days, the creeks were filled with water and even dry trail sections turned into creek beds themselves. The run up Waterline trail was no problem, but the final climb proved challenging to say the least. I can't wait to do this again at Mountain Mist next month. It was a mud fest. I have yet to climb this section dry. It's always either been mud or ice or snow.
As Rich and I completed the climb, we realized that it was already slowly getting dark. Since we didn't carry head lamps, we opted to cut the run short. We would do 8 miles instead of 10. However, that meant that we needed to run downhill trails on the Toll Gate trail, but I felt up for it. I needed to try it anyway. After making the turn from High trail onto Toll Gate trail, I carefully and slowly made my way downhill, following about three steps behind Rich. Unfortunately, my excitement for downhill running got the better of me and I passed Rich not long after, hearing Rich mumble something like "dumb@$$" under his breath. Well, when he's right he's right. Fortunately, it worked out just fine and I made it to the parking lot at the halfway point of this particular trail section without problems.
As we exited the trail and turned onto Toll Gate Road, Blake Thompson was heading our way, I assume he was getting his daily workout in just before dark as well. By the way, kudos to Blake for a great performance at JFK50. This guy can run. And unlike me, he actually puts the work in that is required for those events. I saw him and Dink multiple times prior to JFK putting in some serious time on the trails. Congrats again. As Blake passed us, Rich wasn't really paying attention and asked, who that was. As I was turning around to tell him, the unthinkable happened. Yes, I rolled my ankle. Yes, the bad one. And yes, on the freakin' sidewalk. As I turned, I rolled it right off the concrete sidewalk down a 5" drop, maybe. Enough, to make me shout profanities in agony. On Rich's advice, I decided to try to walk/run it off right away. Thanks Rich. I was able to continue and when I got home, I utilized my trusty ice pack and 4 Ibuprofen to address the inflammation. Hopefully, that will speed recovery;-) Overall though, it was a great fun trail run. I need more!
We left his house at 3:30PM and headed towards the cemetery at Five Points before continuing on the Cotton Row 10K course. Rather than running up "puke hill" we continued on straight before entering the first of many trail sections we'd be running on. We managed to hit Toll Creek trail, Toll Gate Trail, Wagon, Trail High Trail, and a few others, but the most important one today was the Waterline trail. Due to the rain in the past days, the creeks were filled with water and even dry trail sections turned into creek beds themselves. The run up Waterline trail was no problem, but the final climb proved challenging to say the least. I can't wait to do this again at Mountain Mist next month. It was a mud fest. I have yet to climb this section dry. It's always either been mud or ice or snow.
As Rich and I completed the climb, we realized that it was already slowly getting dark. Since we didn't carry head lamps, we opted to cut the run short. We would do 8 miles instead of 10. However, that meant that we needed to run downhill trails on the Toll Gate trail, but I felt up for it. I needed to try it anyway. After making the turn from High trail onto Toll Gate trail, I carefully and slowly made my way downhill, following about three steps behind Rich. Unfortunately, my excitement for downhill running got the better of me and I passed Rich not long after, hearing Rich mumble something like "dumb@$$" under his breath. Well, when he's right he's right. Fortunately, it worked out just fine and I made it to the parking lot at the halfway point of this particular trail section without problems.
As we exited the trail and turned onto Toll Gate Road, Blake Thompson was heading our way, I assume he was getting his daily workout in just before dark as well. By the way, kudos to Blake for a great performance at JFK50. This guy can run. And unlike me, he actually puts the work in that is required for those events. I saw him and Dink multiple times prior to JFK putting in some serious time on the trails. Congrats again. As Blake passed us, Rich wasn't really paying attention and asked, who that was. As I was turning around to tell him, the unthinkable happened. Yes, I rolled my ankle. Yes, the bad one. And yes, on the freakin' sidewalk. As I turned, I rolled it right off the concrete sidewalk down a 5" drop, maybe. Enough, to make me shout profanities in agony. On Rich's advice, I decided to try to walk/run it off right away. Thanks Rich. I was able to continue and when I got home, I utilized my trusty ice pack and 4 Ibuprofen to address the inflammation. Hopefully, that will speed recovery;-) Overall though, it was a great fun trail run. I need more!
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