Doublin' up at Bradbury and Pineland

Today I just couldn't get enough of the trails. I met Blaine and his buddy, Andy, as well as a couple of Blaine's fast racing friends, Josh and Chris, at Bradbury at 6 AM for a tour of the Bradbury Bruiser course. Friday night I downloaded the course onto my Forerunner 305 to avoid running off course this morning but to no avail. I did download the course and accessed it correctly this morning but in the excitement at the start of the run I forgot to push start. Daggon' it. So we proceeded to run off course on the "O"trail due to leaf cover, which was much worse than last weekend. There were a couple times where we had to refer to the map (at almost every post) and even correct ourselves, but the trails out there are beginning to feel like my home turf and will be easier to navigate each successive weekend I am out there. I did fall a couple times due to lack of sleep and beer consumption the night before, but all in all it was a great time. There was a cool sighting of some member of the Partridge family, of the bird variety, in form of what I am guessing were a couple Ruffed Grouses. They could also have been Ring-Necked Pheasants (the one I saw would have been a male), but my guess is the Grouse. They displayed an awesome fast-twitch response when we flushed them, leaving leaves dancing on our shoes from their takeoff. Also, as we were running the "O" trail we saw wildlife of another sort in the first wave of mountain bikers come through right after the start of the 12-hour bike race there today that just finished a half hour ago as of this writing. Crazy. I can understand running for 24 but not biking 12. Those guys must be nuts. Due to the confusion I suffered on the "O" trail due to the ground cover, we ended up doubling back on the trail to the finish, running an estimated 10.5 miles in 1:45. Next week we will be successful in running the entire course.

After finishing up at Bradbury, I headed off to Pineland for the Gray-New Gloucester Boosters 5K/10K (pictured right). There was a good showing in the way of 125 or so participants, including my wife and two kids in the jogging stroller. The Trail Monsters were there (Ian, Emma, and James) and they posted impressive results. Kelly was a little late in arriving so the gun had gone off before we ever even had the kids strapped it the jogger, which worked out well since I didn't want to mingle with the crowd with the terribly large contraption I was pushing. At any rate, we made it around the 5K course, which consisted of the Campus loop, in 34 minutes, a 10:42 pace. This was good enough however to win Kelly a loaf of Foley's bread for second in her age group. Emma, Ian, and James ran the 10K, which netted Emma and James two of the most wickedly sinful pies these eyes have ever seen. Enjoy guys! Quinn and Riley had a great time in the jogger and it was a great day of running. This is what it's all about!

Tomorrow I am off from running and we are heading up north to enjoy the MOFGA Common Ground Fair. Plus, my knees are aching a little from today's run, possibly due to having to lean into the double jogger to get it up the nasty hills of Pineland's Campus Loop.

Also, here is a Fun Find of the day. For those of us who are contemplating running the Massanutten Mountain Trail 100 if we aren't drawn in the Western States Lottery, this is surely to delight. Check out the DVD entitled "Massanutten: 100 Miles, Two Runners". There are clips on last year's MMT on this site, and you can order the DVD and get free shipping.