Run #19 - Easy 8 miles (The Dam Run)

Good morning world. I was so excited that I was actually going to get to run in above freezing weather. When I left the house at about 9:15, the temperature was 46 degrees with a windchill of 40 degrees. My plan was to run all of the roads at Harsha Dam. It is spot on East Fork Lake off of route 222. The entire loop would be 8 miles and 60% of that would be up/down some significant hills.

I started out by heading down to the lowest point of the entire run, which is about 1.5 miles from where I could park. The first indication that it was going to be an interesting run was when I found the gate to the road closed and locked. Well, I found out that the reason the road was closed was because it had not been plowed. That made the first pare of the run very interesting. When I got to the bottom, I started back up the section of the run that I have named the ascent. It is about 3.5 miles long and you climb a total of 150 vertical feet in that distance, the majority of which is in 3 fairly steep hills and balance in gradual inclines. The other thing I did not notice on the way down but did on the way up was the wind. It was blowing hard and let's face it, I am build more like a wall than an air foil. Once I got past the first 3 miles, the road was clear and it was pretty much smooth running for the other 5 miles. I forgot my music, but enjoyed the scenery. The lake looked really cool frozen over with pools of water sitting on the ice. There were other people out to so I did not feel like the crazy guy running in the cold like in past weeks.

Overall the run was great. My time was a little under what I would have liked, but factoring the slush and ice as well as the heavy wind, I was happy with it. I felt great when i finished. I was not winded, but also did not want to go run another 3-4 miles.

It looks like I may have some company on futures runs. I have a couple of friends in the area that are going to sign-up for the Flying Pig Half and want to run with me as well as a good friend who is looking for a job on a police force that wants to maintain her level of fitness. I hope they can put up with running with an old, fat, slow guy.

I get there, but not as fast as I used to.

Take care, enjoy the warm weekend - blog at you tomorrow,

Philippians 4:13