Thursday run turned into quite the adventure. We decided that we would meet a Concord Park, a gem of a run nestled in between an expanding subdivision and expanding commercial property. The trail within Concord Park total about 8 miles and are moderately technical single track as it winds up and down the hills with in the park. Some of the trail parallels the Tennessee River (or rather an inlet) although the view is obscured from the number of trees.
The foliage is very nice at Concord Park, as it is fairly dense and even one part that is extremely dense with some dark ground cover making it pretty eerie. But the fact of the matter is that you are covered from the sun making the run a little more enjoyable as we get accumulated to the soon to be summer heat.
At this Link is a portal page where they have pictures of the park, if you are interested.
As you enter the trail from the parking lot you can either head North, which is fairly level, or East which is straight up hill. The advantage of going East is that you hit the trail head sooner, in 0.4 miles as opposed to 0.5-0.6. We had decided after looking at the posted map, to “stay to the right”, this would ensure that we would hit all the loops and give us a good run of about 35 minutes and dump us back out onto the main trail.
I haven't mentioned the poison ivy yet. To describe the poison ivy, would be like detailing that we were running through a carpet of poison ivy with small (maybe 1-2') trails cut in them. With Marty and I both allergic to PI, we knew that it wasn't going to be very comfortable afterward. So we plunged through the woods… for about 30 some minutes live was good. It was very challenging run with lots of hills. It was the workout that I had been craving and it was at the right time.
At about the 25 minute mark, I got “the sensation”, but we were almost done, so I didn't think much about it. That was until Math Boy and Beer Boy were running through the woods lost in the enjoyment of being on the trails. It wasn't so bad holding it in, but the hills made things worse. Then we “may have” taken a wrong turn… once or twice.
For some runners, there is a change in character that is only associated during the actual event of running. Sometimes, it is drinking out of places you would not normally drink or a lowering of modesty to change to dryer clothes even in mixed company or maybe eat the brownest banana because (after all) it has carbs. I have been in (more than one) instances where I could no longer hold it… sometimes it worked out for me sometimes not. This was such a case where my commune with nature was a pleasant one. Did I mention all the poison ivy? Leaving the gruesome details to your imagination, I did find terry-friendly leaves and was able to enjoy the rest of the run back to the car.
We ended up running somewhere around the 53 minute mark. I don't have split times since we didn't have accurate distances to mark off. But we figured that we averaged a 10 min mile given the terrain and so I am logging in 5.3 miles for the day.
Miles for 2005 = 199.3
