Dark and wet

I had to go in to work late yesterday so I didn't have time to run at lunch. I got lucky and was able to make time to run after work instead. It was raining, cold and dark at 6:30 when I got out the door. I had the debate again over taking the treadmill option instead of running outside but I was able to talk myself into toughing out the weather. I did my normal work loop plus a venture into the Bridle Trails.

The corridor trail was pretty muddy and I was sliding around a little as I strained to see what my headlamp was illuminating in front of me. After the two short steep climbs I reached a section of trail that was totally flooded. I didn't want to have wet shoes so early in the run so I climbed along the chain link fence and through a small tree to get around most of the water.

The rain picked up as I got to the Bridle Trails. I entered the park in the NE corner as I usually do and navigated roughly west to get to the powerline trail that bisects the park. I took the trail south and then headed back out of the park at the SE corner. The forray into the park really slowed me down due to the darkness and how hard it was to see my light beam with the rain coming down. It was pitch black in the forest other than my headlamp. This made it hard to see all of the shoe-sucking mud that I was trying to avoid. I slowed to a 9:30 pace as I bounced back and forth across the trail.

The pace picked up once I got back to the trail next to the roads. The rain kept pretty steady the rest of the run and my pace picked up for the last few miles.

I ended up with:
7.43 mi.
1:03:18
~8:31/mi avg
2900'

This was the second time in a week that I've run at night on the Bridle Trails. The difference this time was that there were no course markings. I had to stop at a few of the junctions and look around to remember what things looked like during the day. I need a better headlamp if I'm going to do night runs like this. I was straining to see the trail quite a bit. I loved the run though. I don't know why I keep forgetting this when I'm trying to decide between running outdoors or the treadmill in cold/wet weather.



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