My First Real Trail Run

My Nike San Francisco top! 

My Team in Training Team has no official runs until mid January, but Coach Mike has gathered a group of what he calls "Turtle Team".  Our group is composed of a bunch of runners who want to keep up our training runs in the winter.  We are welcoming to slow runners (the turtle part, lol) and welcome anyone to come out with us and run.  

This past Sunday we meet at Pinchot State Park to run around of the lake.  Now, I tell you all the time that I run on "the trail".  I run here for team runs, I run/walk/bike here with my kids, sometimes alone.  My "trail" is actually a rail trail.  It is made of crushed gravel--very flat, wide and easy to run on.  Yesterday's trail run was a real trail run--with branches, exposed pointy rocks, leaf covered, very steep hills ect.  As clumsy as I am, it was very challenging!

Central PA Turtle Team

After a rainy week, it was very muddy on the trail.  There was lots of ups and down.  I twisted my ankle three times, but did not fall once--I call that a win!  Even though this course was very challenging, I loved it! Coach said that due to the difficulty of the course, we could consider our mileage double of what we actually ran. We stayed by the lake the whole time.  I can run forever if I have a good view--especially of water.  The lake is eight miles around.  I can't wait to run the whole way around it.  When I do run around the whole thing, I would be sure to have a buddy--its to dangerous to run those trails alone!

Have you ever run on a real trail?  What did you think of it?

A dream is a wish...

--Amy