A Little on the Hinckley Trails

And by a "little", I do mean LITTLE. Like four miles little! You see, for the second time now I've arrived 5 minutes before 6:00 for the Thursday 6:00 trail run, and the group has already left. Since I didn't think they could have left too much before my arrival, I hauled ass over the snow covered bridle trail, following what I thought were the footprints of at least five people. I ran that first mile of trail... uphill... in the snow... in 8:37! Did I mention it was getting dark? Oh yeah, that too. Needless to say, I didn't catch them, nor even find them. They might have taken a singletrack side trail, but I doubted that due to it getting dark. I didn't hear a peep either. Oh well.

I managed to get across that first water crossing dry, using the ice and stones, and ran until I hit two miles out. By that time it was dark, my lamp was on, and I had to make a decision whether to continue or turn back. Since I really didn't want to be running solo in the snow in the dark, I decided to turn around and cut the run short. Only 4 miles in 39:49 at an average pace of 9:48/miles.

Good news/bad news. Good news: No discomfort or pain at all in the four miles, some of which was hard running. Bad news: I don't think I'm going to try to meet with that group any more. It's just too hectic for me to get there by the determined time, only to find they've left early.