Euphoria

This past week has been memorable, for sure. The new season, with its green life, has proved to be a special time. Here is what made it so great.....

• Three 2 hour runs
• Four 2 hour days
• The Bear Run
• Last week of 2010 Spring Semester
• Four trips to Shawnee State Forest
• Today's (Sunday) Run

I was able to run three 2 hour runs. One of those includes the workout on Monday, a total of 20 miles, 2hr 20min, with 1000, 600, 400, 1000, 200 meter intervals. A nice long warm-up and cool-down made for a longer day. The other two were Friday and Sunday.

Total, I ran four 2 hour days. Besides the three days that I ran 2 hours on a single run, Tuesday, I ran two 1 hour runs. One at the Forest and the other out at Reece's house.

Even though I managed to get a lot of long runs in, I still had the Bear Run this past week. This was the 30th Bear Run and Erock wanted a good Field, so a few of the guys from the team ran. It is strange to of been at Shawnee for three years and to of never ran the Bear Run. I mean, for Portsmouth, this thing is BIG, having 870 participants last Fall. This year there were over 650 participants. I knew coming into the race Chuck Wentz and Josh Linkous were my biggest competitors, but still teammates. Chuck has been a beast on the tack this Spring and Linkous is training good after a good time off from an injury. I led from the start pretty much, with Chuck and Linkous right behind me at a 4:50 first mile. Chuck started to fade and it ended up being Linkous and I at the 2 mile in 9:43 for a 4:53 second mile. I felt really strong, and with Linkous having a small base training, I knew I had it wrapped up. Linkous still held very strong down the stretched but I was confident to match anything he had. My last mile was around 4:46, finishing at 15:04, with Linkous 2 ticks back. This was a really consistent race, split wise and I was really happy with the win. Anytime I can represent the Cross Country team well in front of fellow students and the staff at Shawnee makes a win feels pretty good. I won a really nice Shawnee State fleece pull-over and gained a lot of confidence going into the Jesse Owens Classic!

Last week was also the last week of Spring Semester. I still have 4 finals next week, but the monotonous class-going has ended for a while. I also finished up my Field Experience for Facility Management. Saturday, I did the announcing at the Men's Baseball Game. It was a fun experience and I enjoyed doing it as well. I will be relieved when finals are over!

Even though I had a race and was busy with the end of the semester, I was able to run out at the Forsest four times last week. I believe that is the most times in one week since last summer! With Wysocki running trails and a long weekend, I snuck out there more than a normal week. It gave me a chance to get off the roads in Portsmouth! I just checked and it has been two and a half weeks since doing the 8 mile zig-zag loop in Portsmouth, what a relief! The more I am on dirt trails, the happier I am!

My run today at Shawnee State Forest become one of my most memorable runs ever! Reece and I drove out and parked at the end of Hangover Bridle Trail junction, where the Orange Trail crosses Rd. 2. We wanted to see if we could connect the trail to where we turned around Friday, which was at Campground #6, sitting under some nice Hemlock Pines. On our drive out, we managed to get mixed up on the gravel roads. I still have no clue how or why we kept turning in the wrong direction, because we have both been on these roads before, but whatever the case, we popped up at Picnic Point. I guess the new green foliage made us not recognize some things. We finally got to the parking spot an hour later! By this time we were tripped out already! We headed down the Orange Trail and in 20 minutes we got to Campground #6. We browsed around there and realized this was the spot to be in Scioto County! There were many great sites to pitch a tent, it was only a 20 minute run from a road, and there was a 2 creeks converging, making it a fresh water site. The creek also had a nice pool about thigh-high. As we looked around, we found a White Blazed trail and a Bridle trail. We ran 20 minutes out the Bridle Trail first, then back. It was called East Fork Bridle Trail. We got back to the campsite and headed up the White Trail. This trail ended up being a Side Hike Trail which is a part of the North Country Trail (going from North Dakota to New York). We turned around at 20 minutes out that trail, where it crossed Upper Twin Creek Rd. We then headed back to the car and it took a total of 2 hours and 5 minutes. We ran up a lot of big hills and discovered a bunch of new things in the Forest.

It is pretty cool to have such awesome features at Shawnee State Forest. The more I run there, the more I realize what I have. We have the Buckeye Trail running through, which goes around the state of Ohio. We also have a section of the American Discovery Trail going through the forest. And as I found out today, we have a nice section of the North Country trail passing by as well! I look forward to discovering more secrets to the Shawnee State Forest and making many more memorable runs!

I ended up running 95 miles for the week, the fourth consecutive week doing so. I am confident and ready to end my season with a fast 5k at Jesse Owens on Friday!

Running Free

WMO