Trail Running

This week training went pretty well.  Most of my runs were only 3 miles and by the end of the week I was ready for my longer runs on the weekend.  Saturday was a 10 mile run and since I really wanted to test out my new pack I was excited for this run.  Up until that point I was taking it on runs that didn't even really need it.  I wanted to get some miles on it though so I was the dork doing a 3 mile run with 2 liters of water on his back!  Anyways I went to the local state park for some trail running.

It's harder than you would think to take a steady picture in the middle of a ten mile run.

So the original goal was to run the 6 mile loop and then do another 4 mile turn around.  Unfortunately the trails are not marked very well and I ended up getting off the 6 mile loop somewhere and ended up on a shorter trail that ended in a parking lot.  The nice part is I got to see a lot of different terrain.  This park had pretty much everything Virginia Beach has to offer in terms of terrain.  There were parts of the trail that went by the Chesapeake Bay which was beautiful to look at.  This area also had a lot of sand on the trail which slowed me down a little, but it wasn't enough to complain about.

One of my favorite parts of the trail was the moss covered trees.  You come around a corner off the beach and there they are!  It was one of those moments where verbal "wow" came out of my mouth.  It was entirely unexpected and a nice treat.

There was also a section of marsh with dead trees everywhere.  It was beautiful to look at but man did it smell funny.  All of this was on a short 1.7 mile trail and even though it was short it was definitely worth it.  It was pretty cool to see all these different types of terrain in such a short area.

                    

Once I got back to the trail head I decide to hit up another trail that had a lot of people on it.  This one was wooded and wide.  It looked more like a road than a trail, but the terrain was nice and I still enjoyed it.  I saw more hills in this park than anywhere else, but it was by no means hilly.  My run wasn't to bad except for the last mile or so.  It's the furthest I've run this season and I was feeling it towards the end.  There were even some points where I wanted to walk.  Once I finished I felt incredibly happy.  I hadn't missed a run since last Sunday and I was tired, but still felt good.  Having so many places to explore has really helped with motivating me to get out the door and with the weather being so nice I really don't have an excuses

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