Wow, how long has it been kids? Almost a month? Yeah it turns out that I’m not particularly good at keeping up with either actually running or writing about it. So like the procrastinator I am I blamed my lack of interest in running on the fact that I no longer have access to the lake house from Location, Location, Location weirdly enough the people who actually paid for the place want to use it in the summer. How inconsiderate of them.
So I wallowed, and bemoaned my lack of awesome scenic running venues, running through my city is just no fun. It also doesn’t help that my house is situated near a devil hill which kills any enthusiasm within the first five minutes. Until as I was complaining to a friend he said
“you know there is a lake like twenty seconds from your house right?”
…..
“no”
Turns out they were right there IS a lake with an honest to god running trail (26mi long!) not a ten minutes away from where I live. *Surprise* So making great use of my day off I grabbed my gear and found myself on what is apparently a really well known local land mark. Here’s the thing, running here was not only tolerable, it was fun. There is one big established trail that spans the full 26 miles but there are also those lovely little side trails with very little paths to connect them, the kind of place where you have to use little impromptu rock/branch bridges to get across.
I may have fallen in
It reminded me of being a kid on an adventure, music blasting through my ears I embraced the fun of not knowing where the hell I was, what I was doing or when I was going to get back to my car. Who needs little things like a trail map, or a GPS to let you know that you didn’t accidentally get yourself hopelessly lost? Certainly not me, in fact I was hoping that I might just run myself into Narnia or Middle Earth. No such luck, but who can really complain when you’re running route now includes things like a drain pipe to run through?
Secret Tunnel!
Upon reflection it could be that the path to the left is going over the aforementioned drain pipe and I could have avoided it entirely. But where is the fun in that? I choose to run through the nasty drain pipe because adventure! Bonus: I found another race to run, a poster was stapeld to a bridge around two miles in, turns about the “Massabesic Mallard Madness’ crew really know how to do their marketing. Because hey, we’re clearly running this crap in our free time who better to run for a historical association? We’ll run for nothing but a race with a silly ass name.
you thought I was kidding?
Suffice to say I have found my new regular “day off” running spot. The trail is too long and too fun to run when I have to go into work. (I spent two hours there today) but with my schedule changing I may just come here more regularly. I even set a new distance record, six miles of a sad jog/walk/shamble down and only a million more to go.
Until next time folks!
-TGR
The Grumpy Runner 