Day 4,151—Marathon Loop—

 

      I wonder if my desire to find a marathon loop is the focus of other runners. Yesterday, I looked at the trail system around Brentwood Park and was determined to do a loop; I went back and forth a couple of times, trying to use maps on my phone. Today, by contrast, I was able to do most of the route using the Gai app, which is much easier to navigate. The trail could use some better marking, but that may be what keeps it more private. I have never heard of it before, even though I have run in the area many times over the years. There is a tiny nature trail and plenty of water. I don’t know the date when all the water fountains get turned off, but this loop puts me next to water every 5 miles if not sooner. The only exception is when I go to Walgreens, but that might be my desire to get something caffeinated rather than that it was necessary. If I had timed my stops differently, I might not have needed to go to Walgreens.

Today, I debated filling up beforehand, but decided I was hungry and bought some trail mix. On the way, I passed many bike riders going the opposite direction. I heard there was a race nearby, but I didn’t think it was on my trail. Then I saw a few signs that seemed like race markers. It didn’t last long, but a lot of people passed me heading the other way.

  Once I made it to the rest area that starts Grant’s trail for anyone going the other way, I could go on autopilot. I think I was almost at 19 miles once I got there, but I am not sure now. I kept doing the math and realized I might be closer to 27 than exactly 26.2, but 27 is close. I ran it differently today because I wanted to see the clouds on Watson, where you could see them the easiest. I wonder how much I should do tomorrow. It is nice being off, and I have plenty to do, but I don’t know if I will try to do a bunch of miles again. However, today it was fun, and I loved a lot of the pictures I took at sunrise. This morning, I kept thinking about how much today seemed like fall. I am usually not as motivated to run these kinds of weekends because I would still be recovering from the Shawnee Hill, but it has been 4 weeks since the Badger 100, and I am wondering if I can wait until the third week of October to do another 100-mile run.

I am looking forward to the cold, refreshing air of fall. To spend 10 minutes getting dressed in the morning. It won’t be long until I start getting out my clothes for colder weather. It is not like the cold weather makes everything easy, but it is a lot harder to get dehydrated, and I typically don’t have to worry about bugs as much. I want to go back to Lone Elk; maybe I’ll go tomorrow. There were pretty annoying bugs last time, but it might be good for me to get a long trail run in.