A Trail Run in Pictures (and a few snarky comments)

Today was father's day, so after having a nice breakfast with my wife and kiddos (crepes...a fave!) i went to the local park for some trail running (almost 5 miles..W00T!!). It was a recovery run. Or at least it was supposed to be; I was sore from the last two nights' workouts, so naturally I sought out the steepest, toughest run ups (and may have taken a wrong turn or two...) Here are pictures of the trail (they're better than words).

narrow, steep and uphill. sums up the day.

dance floor. Steep going up AND down. You just can't see it in this pic.

running along the creekside

Oops. heading back down from wrong-turnville

But...I just ran UP this hill!

the actual turn around (a mile-ish later)

OK, this stretch went on forever. Up and forever. I kinda wanted to quit here

Lacamas Creek

How come the pictures don't show how steep this stuff really was.

A rare flat and smooth section

So each brief flat stretch was followed by either A. a long grinding uphill, or B. tight singletrack trail with STEEP run-ups. It was a good run, if muggy and warm; just a hair under 5 miles today.

I run a lot on the roads, just because it's the most convenient way to go. I feel the most connected, though, on the trails. It was a great way to spend part of my day.