Happy Trails To You...

My Mizunos have had quite a few adventures this month, which is good because they're being retired in a week or two. Going out with a bang, I say! -- I took them on their first two beach runs while I was in Turks & Caicos, took them up to Stowe for a bucolic race in which they earned me a fairly respectable finish time, then then this past weekend on their first trail run. Yes, Abby, when you finish picking yourself up off the floor from shock, you can go back and confirm that you did in fact read that right - I ran trails this weekend. And in New Jersey of all places!

Noah and I headed up to his sister's beautiful house on Greenwood Lake in NJ for some waterskiing, swimming, kayaking, good food and light carpentry, and of course while we were up there I got in some running while he spent quality time with his buddy Pete and his aerodynamic carbon fiber mistress. While the boys were out, his sister and I threw on our sneakers, leashed up her dog and, at her suggestion, veered off the busy street to check out her favorite local running trails.

Now, it's been publicly documented here how difficult and scary I find trail running to be, but on this occasion I decided to say "When in Rome" (or Hewitt, as the case was) and dive right into it, and I actually really enjoyed myself (Abby, maybe I'll join you next time).

The trail we started off on was VERY muddy after the torrential rain we had the night before. We started to head back toward the road, but her beagle Chupa cleverly darted off up another path and before we could finish yelling "No! Chupa, come!" we were saying "Oh sweet! She found a better trail!" It was padded with pine needles, reeling with rhododendrons and funky fungi, and best of all: mud-less.

We stayed out about an hour, got in a pretty solid workout and I had a blast hanging out with her and getting to explore a little piece of the local park. We even saw a bright orange lizard as we tooled along, chatting and laughing at the dog's antics. And we CERTAINLY earned the big amazing dinner that was waiting for us when we got back to the house.

So am I done gallivanting about and filling every weekend with vacations and races? For a week or two, yeah. But then I'm headed to Falmouth to hopefully beat the pants off of last year's finish time and enjoy another fun trip with the running crew. Speaking of which, here's a picture from Stowe. I didn't get any emails from an official photographer this year, so there are no action shots to share (sorry!).

This one was taken post-race (and post-beer) by a woman who was staying in our hotel and traveling with a pot bellied pig. She was walking it on a leash. True story.