Jeff and I are thinking about doing a trail race in November and decided before we fork over the money, we should try running on a trail first.
Since I’m a big cheap-o, instead of making the drive into the park, Jeff parked at the bottom of the hill and we walked in the steep quarter mile walk.
When we got to the entrance of the park we stretched and then began our run. We were going to run out for 1.5 miles, turn around and run the 1.5 miles back in.
Look how high we are!
Our goal for this run was to just get 3 miles done. This was the very first time I’ve run a trail and the first in YEARS I’ve run hills. The hills on the trail were rolling, but Jeff kept warning me that it was more downhill going out and then uphill coming back.
Off the main trail were a lot more steep trails that you can take. We did not. But Jeff did point out those that he rides on his mountain bike. Good for him.
We saw lots of little squirrels foraging for food.
And then Jeff tried to school me on what poison oak looks like. All I retained was something about 3 leaves on each branch…Note: stay away from ALL bushes on trail runs.
We saw some animal tracks, thankfully not the animal leaving the tracks. Those coyotes can be pretty scary.
And then it was time to turn around. Cue the uphill.
And Jeff was not lying. It seemed like we had rolling hills the first half of the run but honestly, turning around it seemed like it was ALL uphill. After a quarter mile of uphills, it was time for our first walk.
To be honest, we did more walking than running on the way back. At one point I may have misinterpreted a look Jeff gave me and started searching for a cliff to push him off. No worries, we hugged it out.
Sooner than later (thankfully!) we saw the park entrance and it was all downhill from there. We finished the 3 miles in around 40 mins, which is pretty slow. But now we have a base and it can only get better from there.
