Cougar 5

Well. I no longer have any excuses (but you're going to get some anyway because that's more fun). I have run this loop plenty of times now and sure it was dark and sure it was wet and sure it was foggy but I also should know the way.

Nope.

Here is what the Red Town Trail looks like on a nice day.

Now take a big, black Marks-A-Lot and color the entire picture. Then take the picture into a steam room. Then turn the temperature down to 45. Then put a bunch of rocks and roots on the ground. Then try to run out of the steam room. Oh, and occasionally you'll need to throw glitter in the air and turn on a strobe light so it reflects off all the sparkly bits. That's kind of what today was like. And I am so not exaggerating.

It was one of those mornings when the light from your headlamp is reflecting off the water droplets in the fog and you can only see about 3-5' in front of you. Seriously, I was running off the trail and into the weeds because I would miss turns!

And unfortunately for me, Bradlaugh Robinson who I was running with didn't know the way any better than I did. I figured out the first couple of intersections but then something went wrong and suddenly we were on unfamiliar trails. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I couldn't even tell the trail was unfamiliar until we popped out on a road that's just a couple of miles from the cars. Rats.

I had exactly zero confidence in my ability to turn this into a longer run without risking making it much longer if you get my drift so we opted for the cautious option and ran down the first climb back to the cars. Oh well.

There were so many times that I was walking on this 'run' that I was laughing at myself. I think I ran off the trail at least three times and my footing seemed so precarious (because I could hardly see the ground) that our pace was pitiful. It's bizarre to outrun a headlight but that's exactly what we were doing. Not because our lights weren't sufficiently bright but because the light was only penetrating the fog a handful of feet.

I guess these kinds of experiences will help me somehow? :)

Thanks to Brad for keeping me company and putting up with me trying to lead the way.

Sleep
Waking HR
Body Weight
Body Fat
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Workout Food	half a bottle w/1 scoop HEED and 1 tablet Nuun
Injuries
Therapy
Time of Day	5:30 AM
Workout Type	a walk in the woods
Weather	mid 40s, damp, foggy, calm
Course
Results
Time
Distance
Pace
Equipment	Brooks Cascadia 7, handheld bottle
Clothing	Teko organic SIN3RGI Light Minicrew, Brooks Infinity Short III, Craft long sleeve undershirt, Brooks Podium LS shirt

Technorati Tags: Cougar Mountain,Red Town Trailhead,Cougar 10