My 50-miler training program calls for a couple of longer-than-usual long runs in addition to a 50K "race" at training pace (Run for the Toad). Goose kindly offered to join me for today's long, sloooow run. Good company made 5 hours on the trail much more pleasant.
It was a perfect day for running - cool, mostly cloudy with a few sunny breaks. Light rain began to fall in the final kilometers. We started at 5th Sideroad east of Airport Road and ran about 6K on the Bruce Trail to the Hockley Loop. After completing the Loop, we ran back along the same route. (Sort of - we messed up a trail detour in one direction.) It's a very hilly route, mostly on trail with a few short dirt road sections. I aimed to run it at a slow 50-miler pace, walking on the uphills and taking it easy on the body on the downhills. It was still faster than the 50-miler should be but there will be bigger hills and my legs will get sore.
I turned my ankle *hard* after 10 minutes - argghh. As always seems to be the case, my ankle was just fine when doing tougher stuff - testing the Wilderness Traverse course off-trail earlier this week. But when I was running on a nice, leafy trail... CRUNCH. Not sure why but this one scored 11/10 on the pain-o-meter and it didn't settle down until I took an ibuprofen a few hours later. (Not sure... maybe it would have been better to do this sooner but I didn't want to mask the injury.) Goose and I pulled out the magic Leukotape immediately to strap my stoopid ankle. I felt like I had a limp for the next couple of hours and I was very cautious but at least it was possible to keep going.
It was my second time running with poles - not necessary for this route but potentially useful for mountain races. I'm still trying to work out how best to use them. So far I use them the same way I use them for trekking - hauling myself up hills and offloading weight to make downhills safer and less jarring. I've been wasting the poles on flats and gentle slopes but Goose was diligently using them for forward propulsion like the good XC ski coach he is. He gave me some great ideas that I'll keep working on. Because my ankle hurt so badly today, I used the poles almost as crutches sometimes on technical terrain so it wasn't the best day to work on technique.
We met a few interesting people along the way - a group of ultrarunners including Stephen Bradshaw, a friend of Slowrunner. It was funny because we'd both commented on a photo of hers on Facebook yesterday and had learned that we would both be running in Hockley Valley today. Although we'd never met before, he and I immediately checked each other's identity as soon as we met them! There aren't a lot of runners on the trail.
At a lookout, we met a family and the man said, "Hi Barb". Turns out it was a teacher who remembered me from volunteering as sweep at a school XC running meet last year. He knows Goose's wife, Coach LD.
Last but definitely not least, we met a man working hard on the Bruce Trail northeast of 5th Sideroad and Airport Rd. We made a point of thanking him for his work and he described the sections of trail he is responsible for. In reference to one section, I said, "Oh, that's a beautiful new section with Dave's Pinnacle and Sally's Pinnacle." He smiled and said, "I'm Dave. And my wife is Sally." And then I knew who he was since I had
read about them in a Bruce Trail Club newsletter. He and his wife generously donated land to the Bruce Trail organization and allow the trail to run through their land just north of where we met him. No wonder there are so many interesting side trails in that area!
Dave commented that there are 400,000 Bruce Trail uses each year but only 8,000 paid memberships. I notice that Keen Canada is subsidizing 50% of new (not renewed) Bruce Trail memberships until Oct. 31, so if you are a trail user, consider signing up soon for a
1-year membership for just $25 .
We were the very first people to run through a brand new section of trail that Dave had just re-routed. Nice! Also nice was a latte and chocolate chip shortbread cookie from the Hockley General Store afterward. :)