Count another 20 (or make that 19!)

Today the marathon training plan called for the big 20-miler. The weather Gods were better to me than the last day I had to run 20 miles. The weather for this morning's run was very foggy, extremely humid, however, the temperature was about 57 degrees, which is quite nice! What was not so nice is that the location we chose to run wasn't exactly ideal.

For the past several days, this area has had a lot of rain. Running paths become muddy with very little precipitation. Waterfall Glen (or WFG or WTF) is a pretty popular place for runners because of the small hills and great scenery. WFG is a 9.5 mile loop of limestone path and dries up pretty quickly, even when it seems we have a lot of rain.

Earlier in the week, when I began soliciting company for this long journey, there were several comments and questions about whether or not the trail would be runnable (yes, that's a word)! We do have asphalt trails nearby, but none quite as fun to run through as WFG, so we stuck with the original plan of 2 loops.

With Mark and Tom training for St. Louis (just one day before Boston), Dennis training for an ultramarathon next month, Donna training for Grandma's in June and Pam and I training for Boston, and a bunch of other people who just like running long for the fun of it (huh??) we ended up with a pretty large training group for today's run! We even picked up Dennis V. who was planning on his first long run of the season!
(Why are we standing behind the handicapped parking mark? Was this foreshadowing the events to come??)

The air was pretty damp and the humidity made it difficult for a few of us to keep up the pace we had planned. The trail was flooded out near Turtle Pond and this caused us to jump up on some nearby railroad tracks. As BC mentioned, it was just like a scene out of Stand By Me. Only he called it "the movie where they found the dead guy." The other little snafu came between miles 8 and 9. We had to maneuver around the forest a bit and go pretty far off the trail to keep our feet dry. Some chose to run right through the large pool of water. Some chose to go through the forest and were attacked by sticker bushes which scratched up their legs pretty badly so they had to run with bloody legs the rest of the way. But, we all made it through, unharmed (well, except for the bloody legs part).

Although my hands never really did warm up for this run (I forgot gloves), I had a great time. The miles just flew by as we chatted about everything from races to training to families to current news stories to past experiences. The second loop went almost as quickly as the first. And, though two 9.5 mile loops is only 19 miles, I think I'll call it 20.