Often times I think,"What have I gotten myself into?"
70 mile run weeks.
Sore legs.
Fatigue.
Crazy midnight cravings.
Double Digit, back to back runs.
and..
MIDNIGHT TRAIL RUNS?!
THE PURPOSE: To run tired, to be familiar with running in the dark, to get acquainted with your night time running gear.
MIDNIGHT Trail Running Rules, your NOT supposed to "NAP" before you run. This sounded like a dumb rule, my body was exhausted after working on my feet for 2 days with no breaks and no lunch.
I laid down, I begged my body to sleep but it was too wired. I was able to close my eyes and rest for a couple hours.
I headed to Holdridge about 11:30pm.
A couple of the girls were already there, well their cars were anyway. They apparently met early and did loops solo. Pretty close to midnight everyone either came in from the trails or drove into the trails.
The night was perfect. The sky was dark with bright starry lights. The tempertures were a welcoming 70'. It could not have been more perfect.
The 5 of us all headed into the west loop.
I was slap happy and ridiculously goofy. We all were laughing so hard the first loop.
The second loop we decided to run backwards.
Backwards. This is what makes running in the dark such an adventure. You can run the same trail 100 times and running it in the dark makes the trail look all together different. Running the trail less than an hour later BAKWARDS makes the trail look completely foreign.
We were all still in good spirits. Late night laughing might have scared the animals away but not the DNR!
Finishing up our 2 loop, we were met by the DNR on the trail. It was startling have flashlights in our faces. I felt like a teenager getting busted but for RUNNING?!
The DNR were actually really cool. They heard a bunch of laughing and thought we were a group of kids up to no good. They informed us politely that the park was actually closed at 10pm but we were fine, it was very obvious we were all running.
They had seen all the vehicles in the parking lot, especially Kris's 12 person conversion van. They thought they hit the mother load when they saw her van. Claudia informed them that the van definitely was the party van, "the owner of the van has 7 kids!" We all were rolling, tired, slightly delirious everything was exaggerated. It wasn't just funny, it was SOOOO funny!
The gang began to disperse. One more loop. We headed back out.
The moon was hanging above us tucked above the trees. Every once in a while it would creep out between the foliage and I had to stop to see it. This loop was a bit slower. I was getting tired, after all, it was almost 4am.
Distance: 13 miles.
I couldn't get my body to sleep when I got home. My legs were twitchy and tired. I got up about 10am to go out with my family for breakfast. I came home and tried to sleep. I woke up to about 25 messages, 3 separate group texts. I was supposed to run with Lacey and Claudia for a shake out easy run.
I showed up at Laceys with a cup of coffee in hand and left over giggles. I think the 3 of us laughed the entire 5 miles. I found myself laughing so hard I was sitting in the middle of Rattalee Lake road trying not to pee myself at one point.
Weekly Miles: 73.2 miles
Anita
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