This is the remnants of a camp that was once at Kittatinny State Park.
Testing out my action shot capability on my cell phone WHILE RUNNING!! Not easy.
Other than us, there was no other cars in the lot as we pulled in. Other than the occasional bird chirp or squirrel scampering, the only other sound was our oh so accurate and timely Garmins finding their satellite signals : )
After a quick look at the trail map (I admit, I tried LOOKING like I knew where it showed we were before I actually saw the "you are here" arrow) and KK suggested we take the white trail in a loop near the lake. Cool......AND WE'RE OFF!! And then.........we walked. The first hill hit us like a mocking Mt. Everest, challenging us to try and carry on somewhat of a conversation as we climbed the hill. Now, if you look at the GPS track provided in the link above, you may not think that an elevation change of a mere 80 feet should warrant such an extreme description. Hold on!, I would say. That change was almost straight up hill for only about 100 feet!
After that initial climb, the scenery quickly turned to fallen leaves, moss covered logs and picturesque old rock walls. It was all I could do to stop laughing my ass off as I was slipping and sliding on hidden mud pockets, long enough to catch up in the conversation with KK. I loved being able to run and not think about dodging blonde chicks yaking on cell phones while operating low riding hooptie Honda Civics....just sayin'.
At some point in our run, I had an epiphany. This run, single-handedly may have renewed my motivation to get out and start racking up the mileage! A sense of renew-ed-ness (word?) settled over me (well, over my breathable New Balance running jacket, that is) and cleared my mind and made everything else melt away. Granted, when training for a road marathon, you should, in theory, train on the road if you actually choose to train at all (enter the role my more motivated running partner KK played in getting me off my butt and actually train) so today's run is a perfect training run for our upcoming Muddy Marathon (we're doing the half, but still). Practice like you play.
We rounded out our run with a quick cooldown back to the parking lot to finish off the 5 miles. Refreshed is the perfect word to describe how I felt afterwards. Maybe that wouldn't be the perfect word that my dining neighbors would choose when I sat down at the counter for some breakfast at the local diner, but oh well, the loud obnoxious man that sat down on the end of the counter probably made them scoot a bit closer to me and farther away from him.
Today's run is best described in a monologue from the critically acclaimed blockbuster "Anchorman-the Ron Burgundy story":
Ron Burgundy: “Oop… I almost forgot. I won’t be able to make it, fellas. Veronica and I trying this new fad called, uh, jogging. I believe it’s ‘jogging’ or ‘yogging.’ it might be a soft j. I’m not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It’s supposed to be wild.”
