Two Snake Run

Two Snake Run, AKA my 20 miler from 4/23/11, wasn't anything special. This happened to be Holy Saturday and I needed a long run for the weekend. Easter would be out as we usually travel to Columbus, so Saturday was my day. Everything is so wet around here that I was beginning to tire of running muddy trails. I thought 20 miles on pavement would be a nice change of pace. So with that in mind, I headed to Buckeye Woods Park to begin my run.

My course was simple: South along the Chippewa Inlet Trail to Chippewa Road, head east to pick up the Chippewa Rail Trail, up and down that a couple times and back to Buckeye Woods. I returned to my car with 15 miles done and wanting to stop. I was tired and both hot and cold. The day was extremely windy and would be chilly running into the wind, but very warm running with it at my back. I took a gel and set out on the big field loop in the park. After 3 laps I calculated I had run far enough to hit 20 at or near my car, and I made my way back.

The reasoning for this run was that I have been training for my trail runs without doing any hard pavement training for Rite Aid, which is now only two weeks away. The following photos chronicle the terrain, conditions, and my journey around central Medina County.

Frequent visitors should recognize the abandoned piece of machinery along the Inlet Trail.

The Inlet Canal went from really moving up by Rt. 162 to just really high as I got closer to Chippewa Road.

There was much debris on the trail. As it had rained heavily overnight I could only imagine that the entire trail was under water at some point before I got there.

Some sections were still under water. So much for dry shoes!

The sun was trying to come out, but having limited success. It wouldn't be for another five miles or so that the clouds would clear completely and things would begin to warm considerably.

The water was draining from left to right and looks to be a little farther than it actually was. However, there was no getting through there without getting wet.

Looking down from the Chippewa Rail Trail. Lots of runoff.

Snake #1 of the "Two Snakes". I found this garter snake along the Rail Trail as I was making my north for the second time.

"Snake eye view" of the not-so-little guy. He was about 12"long.

Back on the Inlet Trail heading back to Buckeye Woods.

Still wet, but a little less gloomy with the sun out.

I wish I would have had my camera out when this Great Blue Heron came swooping in directly overhead to land in the marsh. These birds are much bigger than you can sense from the photo. It sounded like a glider of sorts sailing past.

Snake #2. I almost missed this tiny little guy on the field loop. He was only about 6" long and blended in perfectly with the fallen branches and twigs the wind had taken down.

So, I had a good sub-3 hour 20 miler in windy conditions. I won't be going for a fast time at Rite Aid, but it was nice to run something a little different. Yesterday I hit the Towpath for another 20 miles, also with my camera. Look for that post sometime this week.