yurt

This past weekend served up quite the running experience. My cousin Trevor and two of his friends and I decided to conquer some trails despite the wet/cold conditions. Earlier in the year, Trevor had competed in a 50K Trail race on some trails and wanted to revisit those same trails. We were all in agreement as it was all new to us and sounded like a great experience. Besides, with Trevor describing the trails as "mostly flat", it would be perfect for my long run.

We arrived at the trailhead to overcast skies and a light drizzle. The beginning of the trails were great as we all got excited to see what the trails had to offer. Soon, we realized and experienced that not only are there quite a few uphills, it's pretty much uphill the entire way. It seemed that no matter where we turned we were going uphill. To add to the difficulty, the trails were soaking wet. On numerous occasions running shoe after running shoe sank in and even below the surface only to emerge with a fesh coat of mud and water. All four of us had mud-caked legs before we even finished the first part of the trails: a 6 mile incline back to the vehicle to refuel for another 6 miles.

While this may seem like an awful experience, it wasn't. Running with my cousin and his friends was a great experience. Along the way we shared many running and college stories. We saw some incredible views of rolling hills and farmland and had quite a few laughs. We also discovered Yurt, one of the trails among the maze of trails at Pineland Farms. To make the first 6 miles even harder I think I stopped laughing for a total of 5 minutes the entire first hour.

The second half of the run was much easier. The trails were flatter, grass covered and not nearly as wet. We managed close to another 6 miles and ran for nearly 2 hours in total on these trails before heading back to the vehicle.

For me it was an amazing running experience. The first of, I hope, many more. This run will always be remembered as Yurt.