Wanderers trail series - race #2

Last night, the Wanderers held the second of its trail races this Spring. It's a race only in that someone records the time. Noah and I joined a group of maybe 20 runners on a run on the lower and upper trails on the Mt. Airy/Chestnut Hill side of the Wissahickon Creek. A nice 4.5 mile route was laid out in neon yellow chalk, but by the time we got to each marker, the chalk had faded a bit due to the 10 or so people in front of us. The course was interesting. In addition to running, we climbed rocks, balanced on pipes, and crossed a stream.

I like trails but I'm not so good at them. Despite having my right ankle taped, I was wimpy going down hills or stepping on rocky surfaces. The regulars were able to race this, but I was just running, far from my positive splitting self. It was relaxing and fun. This was Noah's first run since finishing the half ironman. We didn't run much together last week due to tapering, so, last night, it was nice to be out again. After the run, we met some people in the club and small talk about ankles turned into conversations about jury duty, triathlons, and Thailand. It's like your regular happy hour, except we're all sweaty and coherent. I found myself animated.

Today's route:

• Home to Valley Green (1.75 mi)
• Valley Green to Mt. Airy via lower trail (1 mi)
  
• Mt. Airy to Kitchen's via upper trail (1 mi)
  
• Kitchen's up a hill and loop around to Forbidden Drive (0.5 mi)
  
• Forbidden Drive to Valley Green (2 mi)
• Valley Green to home (1.75 mi)
• Total of around 8 miles