Great Trail Run

I often complain that I don't do enough trail running. I heard through a fellow runner about a group run today, so this morning I got up at 5am and drove to Ancaster to meet a few other ultra runners for a 30k training run on the Sulphur Springs course. We started running at 7am. Being only a couple of weeks from Haliburton , we took it real slow and took almost 4 hours to run the 30k but that's fine with me. 30k was in the upper range of was I had planned to do during my taper, so I wanted to make sure I didn't overdo it.

The course was WET and muddy. One of us (you know who you are) slipped and fell on his ass in a huge puddle. The temperature was cool but a touch humid: it was a blast! There's even a shower at the community center where we parked and we can use them free of charge.

It's funny. Last week I ran about 34k (including my little "detour") in 3:58 and I was completely spent by the end of the race. I actually had trouble with stairs for 2 days. Today we ran 30k in pretty much the same time and I feel like I jogged 10k. That gives you an idea of the difference between the Sulphur and Iroquoia courses. The ITT course is just ridiculous.

This coming Friday, the group is meeting after dark and they are going to run a loop (20k) in the dark. This is something I've been meaning to try, so even though I'm running the 50 miler and won't be running in the dark (hopefully), I will probably go and give it a try. More on that later.

Good times.