Being a Seattle native and having walked and run in Discovery Park numerous times I don't even think about stuff like getting lost up here. But guess what, not everyone is as familiar with these trails. And guess what, you can get hypothermia when it's wet and 54 degrees.
So begins this story.
To facilitate running with friends I created UW Run mailing list at work. It's been great! I have met new people, discovered new routes and several folks have really stepped up their game and are running more miles and more often. All good things.
The other day I sent out a note suggesting that we try trail running for a change and three people were really excited about this. For various reasons we opted for Discovery Park instead of a real trail run but I figured there are plenty of cool, short sections of singletrack here and the loop concept lets us shorten or lengthen the run as needed so also safer. Because you know, out if the woods you might get lost or cold or something...
Four of us [The names have been withheld to limit friendly ribbing.] started out from the south parking lot. The plan was for all of us to run two long laps of the Loop Trail and then two of us would do one more lap with the addition of the trail down to North Beach and the climb up from the lighthouse. Simple, right? I mean, what could happen out here?
- One of us was not feeling so hot.
- One of us kept falling back just a little.
- Like an idiot, I didn't settle in behind this person and instead just kept looking over my shoulder.
- Just 200 meters from the car I looked back one last time and thought I saw two people behind me.
- Once I got to the car it was just one person.
How lame! I felt like a total jerk having promised my friends a no-drop run and what I hoped would be a fun introduction to trail running. :(
The three of use discussed our options and waited. Then we ran back down the trail those 200 meters and looked around. Finally we decided to split up; two of us would run another lap in the same direction and the other would run the lap in the opposite direction and surely one of us would meet my friend and we could resume the run.
Not.
The three of us connected on the opposite side of the park and ran back to the car.
So we called off the run and I pulled my phone out of the car and called my friend. Three attempts later he answered. Thanks goodness! Never again will I tease someone for carrying their cell phone with them on a run! Based on my friend's description of where he was I gave him directions and two of us ran out to meet him.
Incredibly, once we got back to the car my friend was determined to finish the run and so we headed out on that last loop. Nice.
Did I mention it was raining pretty much during the entire run? And that when we stopped by the car it got kind of cold? Holy crap, disaster narrowly avoided. And I learned a valuable lesson. Stay. The. Hell. Together.
Thanks to my friend for being so tough and not letting getting lost ruin his day.
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| Breakfast | nothing |
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| Nutrition | large Water Bottle w/2 scoops Hammer HEED |
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| Time of Day | 8:00 AM |
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| Equipment | Brooks PureGrit 3, Ultimate Direction Handy 20 |
| Clothing | Injinji Trail 2.0 Midweight Mini-Crew, Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Craft Active Extreme Short Sleeve Baselayer, Brooks Podium LS shirt |
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