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Sickness made me miss Pitchell, but since I was all geared up I figured I'd head to Umstead and try to lower my time running every single trail. I first did this about 9 months ago and it was so fun that I ran it again plus similar every single trail routes at 8 other state parks in NC, all recommended!
In addition to being a great excuse to explore some beautiful trails and parks, what I like about these runs is the bonus challenge of route selection. For example, some Umstead FKTers have opted to front load the single track trails, an interesting tactic that I wanted to try. On Sunday 10/16 that's what I did.
This animated map shows how it played out. I was still feeling a bit under the weather and made the mistake of running in a new pair of shoes I'd never tried before (had to spend 5 minutes at Graylyn Gate fixing my feet). Long story short: I fell off 8:30 pace at a marathon and stopped at 30.
Just like the first time I tried this run, I was now hooked and had to come back and get it done sooner than later. I wasn't sure how much I liked this new route compared to the ones I had run before. Saving the Turkey Creek hills for the end seemed like a terrible idea. But I decided to try it again.
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| 10/22: take two |
Saturday 10/22: my folks shuttled me from the finish to Old Reedy Cr. road and I started at 8:01 am. I used the original postman pack to carry a 2L hydration bladder filled with 800 calories of a caffeinated electrolyte drink mix. Additional nutrition: 4 gels, nut bar and salt tabs.
Everything felt pretty good. The weather was perfect, my feet felt a whole lot better in the modified Takumi Sens. My hamstrings and calves were coddled in lycra compression to keep them happier. And yet unlike last week, I didn't ever really get out ahead of my 8:30 splits!
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| modified Takumi Sens |
My mind and body felt locked in at 8:30 and I just couldn't build a lead. But I was on pace! I was also great on water, salt and fuel. I stayed positive through a hydration bladder malfunction along Sycamore. Company Mill was about as kind as it could be and then I hit the turning point.
I was on Loblolly and a beautiful autumn sunlight filtered through the yellow canopy and illuminated a forest floor of evergreen ferns. The air was still quite cool in the shady woods. My imperfect mind and body were letting this run happen. And that was when I knew it could happen.
As expected, the North Turkey Creek rollercoaster was a pain, but I was still on pace at Sycamore Creek bridge with just 2 miles to go. I finished in 5:10:48. This run wasn't easy for me. Sub-5 is going to get done by somebody very soon, but there's probably a better route for it.
NC state park postal runs:
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