The end of an era

I'm finally over that virus I had, but I was still feeling less than 100 percent up to a few days ago. I was sure I had strep but went to the doctor last week for a strep test and it came up negative. Viruses don't usually hit me that hard or long. Oh well. Being sick is boring and talking about it is even more boring. So on to building up that mileage again!

I hit about 24 miles for my mileage last week. This week I'm aiming for a realistic 40, but hopefully closer to 50. On Saturday, after sleeping in, the little guy and I went out for a 6.5 mile turn around the neighbor. He biked and I ran. I love that we can go out together and we're fortunate that there are some dedicated bike paths very near to our house.

On Sunday it was back to the trails. Its been a while since we've run the far end of Wildwood, so Sharon and I headed over to the Germantown Rd. trailhead to run to Newton Rd and back, about 11 miles. We started later than normal at about 7:30am and with the overcast skies, the trail was a bit dark. This section seems to have the most roots of any part of Wildwood and the lighting made for tough visibility.

Sharon was the first to trip. She was in front of me and did an awesome superman impression with arms outstretched. Fortunately she caught herself before she went down, but it was an incredible sight! Not long after that, my toe caught a root. With no time to catch myself I hit the ground and quickly tucked and rolled. I was up without a scratch. Spectacular!

You know, I was really glad for that fall. It's been about a year since I've gone down and I've been waiting for it to happen again. But just a few minutes later, as I was feeling all pleased with myself for getting that out of the way, my foot hit another root. This one was a full body slam! One knee hit hard and I lost some skin on my right palm. I even had dirt under my fingernails. My knee throbbed for a moment and it didn't take long for a welt to develop right above. But I was lucky that the pain quickly went away and there was no adverse effect on my running stride. What really struck me about that fall was that I was laughing before I hit the ground. Partly laughing at myself for being so cocky. Partly laughing at the crazy fun this trail running stuff is! The rest of the run was fairly uneventful, although Sharon got in another superman impression, but again a near miss. I guess her reflexes were working better than mine that day!

So as usual, it was the best of trail runs with my trail buddy Sharon. The sad part is that it is likely our last run together for awhile. Sharon is moving at the end of the month to pursue an awesome career opportunity. I'm incredibly happy for her, but will greatly miss my regular trail buddy (and good friend). The good news is that she's only moving a two hours drive north. I'm already scouting out the trail races in her area. Now I just have to find a trail running group for her so she'll be in shape to run them with me!

TBF!

(trail buddies forever!)