Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Slower than Normal Trail Run, Last Night

Only 3 of the Trail Nerds group showed up for the trail run last night. (It is a holiday week, after all). It was just me, Kyle and a newby named Bill. Bill has never run on trails before, and decided to try night trailrunning, first! Cool! Bill had started running back in May of this year, and is a very ambitious runner. He had just ran a half-marathon in October, and in 7 weeks will run in my race, the Psycho WyCo Run Toto Run 50-K Trail Run.

We started the first 5-mile loop slowly. Usually, we run the 2nd loop at a 90-seconds-per-mile faster pace. Bill decided to run the second loop with us, but may have bit off a little more than he could chew, so he was running a little slower on that loop. He did fine, had fun, and finished feeling ok. The only problem with running slower than normal: the park closes at 8:00 PM, and we got back to our cars at 7:55.

When we got to the front gate (at 8:01 PM), a Park Policeman was a little over-zealous. He had already locked the front gate. He used the opportunity to bitch me out for a while. I asked him if it was he who had folded my outside rear-view mirrors flush to my car (while it had been parked), and he said, "it would be a good way to make a point, wouldn't it?" He didn't admit to it, and I don't really think he would take the time to do that, but he kind of pissed me off. I chilled-out quickly, and apologized for being 1-minute late, and left the park.
The after-run hot soak felt even better, last night!

9 comments:

Tammy said...

a little bit of power can be overwhelming for some, can't it? LOL... glad you didn't get locked in!

psbowe said...

Oh know, the slower pace got you almost spending the night there! But great run though!

D said...

Bah Humbug to the park ranger. Thanks for the link on my site. It looks like a decent race. The elevation in the first part is a bit scary.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

You've got hills to train on, right? Hills good. Flat is for slackers! :-)

Hey Zeus said...

8:00 seems early, it's 10:00 here at Huntsville State Park.

Ben, aka BadBen said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ben, aka BadBen said...

Yeah, SM Park is the only park in the area that closes before 10 PM or Midnight. Winter hours, you know.

jeanne said...

give a park ranger a little power, they go hog wild! man, if he really did do that to your mirrors, that is ... well, that is BAD!!

thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I look forward to reading more of your exploits!

E-Speed said...

that happened to me before while hiking! We had to break out the tools and take the fence off the hinge to get out of the park!