April 3rd 2010

Ran from the house into Catalina State Park for a total of 13.18 miles. Today I had a goal distance of 10 miles I wanted to run part of the course that I'd be running on April 10th trail race. Feeling good about running into the park and getting part of the course on the Gramin 305 so that I'd be able to train at night with out getting lost my plans are to use this area for night training for the 50K that I'll be running in September of this year. I crossed over Oracle road and entering the park the trail head is only about 1.5 miles from Oracle road. The snow on Mt. Lemon has be melting filling the washes with a AZ river I wondered how much water I'd find today. The parking lot was full of cars from out of state the snowbirds are in full swing now. I swear I see more out of state plates then AZ plates this time of year. Just past the parking lot is the start for the trail head and the first wash. The wash was full of water I love to see water in the desert growing up in MN I miss it. I worried about getting my feet wet but, someone built a rock bridge across the wash I danced across it happy to have dry feet at least for now. Looking down at my Gramin I was keeping a 10:00 pace per mile the trail is very runnable with few obstacles this is good less things to trip over the better. I could smell and hear the wash running somewhere up a head pace picked up a bit I was now 8 miles into the run time to take the plunged into the water. Running through the stream made me feel like a little boy again having a blast what a fun run this was. Now with my wet feet is was even more enjoyable I'd never run with wet feet before so this was new to me turns out my feet dry out quickly. Passing a few hikers along the way I knew that I was not far from the parking lot my legs were starting to feel the workout now I made it to the parking lot and back out to Oracle road looking down at my Gramin I notice I was at mile 9 crap that meant I had 4 more miles to go to get home pushing on my pace went up to 9:15mi. to 10:00mi. till the finish. What better to end a long run with a nice chilly ice bath.