Monday: 16
While there are some fun single-track sections at both ends and in the middle, there are also a number of ripped up, loose rock, rutted sections that are just inviting an ankle twist or sprain. I had a lot of fun at the Pachaug Half Marathon, which uses part of the Quinebaug Trail, and had considered an attempt at the Pachaug 50K version this coming November. However, now seeing the condition of additional rutted Jeep road sections north of Hell Hollow that the 50K adds on, my enthusiasm dims considerably.
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| This table-top rock section of Quinebaug was fun. (This and subsequent photo from Rob O'Neill, as posted to fastestknowntime.com Quinebaug FKT page) |
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| While the pic is a little sun bleached, it gives you an idea of a number of sections on Quinebaug Trail with loose ankle-biting rocks. |
This was a really tough trail run and I was pretty sore for the rest of the day. It was also Brady's longest run ever, and he seemed no worse for the wear.
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| My first FKT! |
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| Unsolicited, but very nice comment on the FKT site from the former FKT holder. |
Tuesday: 1 walk, 3 run
Brush overgrowth clearing at Winnapaug Farm Preserve. Cleared a small portion of the land along Shore Road, between the road and stone walls. This had all been cleared in the past, but it's a constant effort to keep the vines and briars down.
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| Covered in vines earlier, I took personal satisfaction in liberating this beautiful 5' high stone wall, even if temporary. |
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| Sometimes I am disgusted with fellow humans. This is just a fraction of the stuff we pulled out today, all within throwing range from Shore Road. |
After the CCC assignment and turning in the equipment, went for a short slow jog at Wahaneeta. Easy trails on sore legs.
Wednesday: 5
Finding myself in Cranston with some downtime, I ran on a section of the Washington Secondary Bike Path with Brady. Given that it was the middle of a weekday in January, it was pretty empty on the bike path. We only encountered three people and one dog total on the path. Unfortunately, the one dog was a mean dog. The dog was pretty big and snarled at us as we approached, then leapt at me, fortunately constrained by the leash. I kept Brady on the leash the whole time, and he pulled hard on the leash to get as far away from that dog as possible.
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| Inauguration Day. Just keeping it upbeat here with this pic and slogan that I like from this Irish newspaper. "A New Dawn". Hope springs eternal. |
Thursday: 8
Late afternoon run with Brady at Woody Hill. We ran into two unleashed dogs right away and then again two miles in, but fortunately in sharp contrast to yesterday's encounter in Cranston, today was Nice Dog Day. They came up to Brady smiling and wagging their tails. OK, I'm presuming they were smiling of course. Their owners apologized both times, but for what? I rather enjoyed the distraction. The irony is I didn't need or want any apology today, but could have used one yesterday when none was offered.
It turned completely dark for the last couple of miles and was actually kind of fun. I was prepared, and turned on my headlamp and Brady's bright neon green light stick. At one point, I turned off my headlamp for a minute or so. I had to slow and was less than confident on the single-track in the pitch dark, but Brady moved with grace.
Friday: 5
Another late afternoon run. No excuse at all not to run in the morning, especially when I'm working at home for the extended future, but just can't seem to get myself going.
Anyway, it was an easy and kind of aimless run with Brady in the Burlingame campground trails.
Saturday: 11
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| Group of four on the yellow trail at Grills Preserve, approaching the pine barrens |
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| At Big Hill |
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| Polly Coon Bridge (from the Hopkinton side looking into Westerly on right) |
Tri-Town Preserve, North Stonington, CT
(The 527 acre preserve goes through the towns of North Stonington, Preston, and Griswold, hence the unique name.)
This would be my 9th route run in the Border Patrol Challenge, and my first visit ever to this very cool preserve. Due to the cold (16°, windy, "real feel" of -1°), I knew I would need a good warm-up before embarking on this challenge. As long as I was running a few miles for a warm-up, I figured I might as well just run the entire course and gain familiarity, especially as I heard one of my competitors recently ran off course and added 2+ minutes as a result. Not that I can mention any names, of course, but a certain RD of a Run for the Beavers race may be suspect.
If I had known in advance how hard the course is, I'm not sure I would have run the full distance as a warm-up. On the other hand, it took care of my two desired results: 1) physically warming up [my fingers were frigid for 2 miles, then good] and 2) familiarity with the course [it was very well marked, but there was an idiosyncrasy in the trail markings that certainly caused confusion for me; more on that in a bit].
The place was near empty when I had arrived and I only encountered one group of four runners on my first (warm-up) lap, but on the 2nd lap, despite the cold, I ran into four different groups of hikers. Some were already off the trail for me and Brady before we got there (no doubt tipped off by my noisy dinosaur-like panting), and others were in areas easy for the two of us to jump off and run adjacent to the trail. Thus, no humans were harmed in my experiment, nor the single dog (Eli) that we encountered. Actually, Eli followed Brady and I for a while and seemed to want to run with us, but finally acquiesced to his owner's calls to return to "his people".
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| So I finished in 39:50 (39:49 on segment), first (thus far) in the BPC, and 2nd on segment. But wait a minute, the pace (9:27) doesn't sound right ... |
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| Take a look at my individual mile splits above (2nd column). You don't have to be a math genius to realize that there's no way that can average 9:27. So what gives? The segment looks like the exact same route as mine, yet the segment shows 4.21 miles, whereas my route shows 4.78. As others' individual routes also show in the 4.7 to 4.8 area, I'm guessing that whoever initially created the segment had a GPS error, which is forever throwing off the segment distance (and thus calculated segment pace) for everyone else. |
Having solved that mystery (and probably bored any readers in the process), here is a quick pictorial overview of the course, taken during my warm-up lap of course:
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| And now for the promised issue on idiosyncratic trail markings: Above is the blue trail (which we're supposed to follow) |
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| And here is the trail we are NOT supposed to follow (The difference is subtle, but the bottom sliver of above marker is white, indicating this is the blue-white trail, NOT the blue trail.) |
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| Thus, to the uninitiated (that would be me at first, as well as perhaps my esteemed competitor), while this sign may seem to indicate that the red and blue trails go left here, the correct and somewhat confusing interpretation is that the red and blue-white trails go left here, but by virtue of absence of any pure blue markers, the blue trail continues straight ahead. --- Again, every intersection is marked, but how about a completely different color for any spur trails? |
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| Very few sections of the blue trail were as flat and narrow as shown here by our model trail runner. |
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| The blue trail was much more likely to look like this, or ... |
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| this, or ... |
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| this. Fun and challenging trail, which I woefully underestimated. |
Weekly mileage: 58 run, 1 walk
Weekly synopsis: Achieved my weekly run goal (55) this week, but certainly having MLK Day off on Monday and running the 16-mile Quinebaug Trail helped get me there. I won't rest on my laurels, and need to get back at it with the dreaded return of five-day work weeks tomorrow.
Also of note is that Brady ran 55 of my 58 miles with me, and that doesn't count his miles on several runs he went on with Jana. Which means that Brady ran 16 miles in a single run, and well over 60 miles on the week. Is that too much for a dog? I learned that's too broad of a question; it really depends on the breed, the weather, the age, how acclimated to running the dog is, etc., etc. In the summer, I did ask this question during a routine veterinary visit, and after asking me a few questions, the vet didn't see any issue at all with Brady running long distances, as long as I pay attention to any warning signs (e.g., if he were dragging behind, limping, excessive panting, etc).
Weekly highlight: I'm certainly happy with both my Quinebaug and Tri-Town results, but in terms of pure enjoyment, I would have to go with the latter.
Weekly lowlight: Running the bike path in Cranston. I like running in different locales, but the snarling jumping dog and far too much broken glass were real turnoffs to me.
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