Running Chick

The schedule for this morning called for 10 miles. Yesterday I had the brilliant idea to drive to Chassell, run back to Houghton then bike back to my car.

Plan in motion.

Getting out of the car in Chassell, the first thing I noticed was the humidity. It was nasty. As in can't catch your breath nasty. Five steps away from the car, I was already sweating. This is going to be fun! Off we go....

I successfully navigated across the the old railroad trestle a half-mile in.

I found a turtle nest that had been pillaged by some critters. 

And this little sign gave me a good chuckle 

Moving right along..at the 3.5 mile point it occurred to me that I was seriously hot.  And sweaty.  And I was in the shade.  Running all the way back to Houghton and biking back was sounding like less and less of a good idea, especially since my shady trail was going to turn into shade-free pavement just after the five mile point.  So, at the 5 mile point, I decided to forego my original brilliant plan and head back to the car.

And it was as that point where things started to go downhill rather quickly.  My hamstrings decided to tighten up to the point there pulling my leg forward was uncomfortable.  I have no idea what that was all about, but between the five and ten mile points, I had to stop about five times and stretch.  The humidity was gone, but replaced by a searing sun that made me feel like I was under a broiler. The last three miles pretty much took all of my mental fortitude to complete.

But I did it, 10 miles are in the bag.  My average pace per mile was 10:41 but that didn’t include the 20 minutes of stopping I did in the last five miles.  If I were to guess, I think my actual pace was around 11:30.  Oh well, whatever.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror of my car as I was climbing in.  No wonder the people I was meeting on the trail were giving me funny looks, I’m human fly paper!