The answer? It aint easy. I met up with a group of friends at 7 AM at the Forestream Parking Lot. I had hoped that some of them were going to run 20 miles with me but I soon found out that I had no takers. Most are training for a race next weekend so it didn’t make sense for them to go too far today. While I totally understood, it left me with a tough decision. They were going to do 26KM which was about 6KM short of what I wanted to do today. How was I going to squeeze another 6 KM out of this trail? Many thoughts went through my head, including doing the 2nd 10KM of the trail twice. Instead of that, I did some creative running and amazingly it turned out very well.
I ran with the group to the turnaround point of the first loop. This was Hwy7 and the total miles were just under 5. The black flies on that part of the route were really biting and it was at that point that I made my decision to go it alone. I decided that I would go West on Hwy 7 to the Durham/York border and then run South to Taunton Road. This added another few miles that I would not have gotten in had I went back to the same way I started. When I reached Taunton Road I looked at my Garmin and realized that I still needed to get a few more miles in so I went South to Concession 3. From Concession 3 I travelled East to Whites Road and then North to the Forestream where I had started at 7 AM.
When I got there I refuelled and then saw a few of the runners that I had left behind. I took an electrolyte supplement, ½ banana and filled up my water bottle and then went out for the next part of the run. At this point I was at 12.5 miles and again my head was spinning. I knew that even if I did the route to the Dump and back it would only be 6 miles and being as competitive as I am, I knew that this was not going to sit well with me. I took all the long routes I could find during this second half and when I got to the dump I ran another mile on the road and then headed back for the final stretch. I was at 16 miles and it was going to be a tight fit to get those 4 miles in. I again took the long way back and just as I was starting to get a little tired I heard some rustling in the trees. There was a little clearing about 5 feet in front of me and the next thing I knew there was a deer running right by me. For whatever reason this seemed to inspire me to go faster and harder and the rest of the run was a breeze.
As I finished my run I saw all my friends sitting in their lawn chairs having a beverage and food and was glad that I could join them. I managed to get in 19.6 miles (I decided to cut myself some slack) in 3:41 minutes. After the run I was talking to my friends about my training and they all offered some great advice. One even loaned me his heart rate monitor and tomorrow I will start using it. I’ve never run with one before but so many people have recommended that I do that I’m glad that I will finally be using one.
All in all it was a great day and a picture perfect weather day to be out in the trails!
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