11 Miles on muddy trails, 2 ticks, 4000 spider webs and dive bombing horse flies

WyCo Lake Trails

On a humid day, running after work, I realized it takes alot to push through a long run on tough trails.

I ran through my check list of the supplies needed for my run as I was leaving my house. Water, nuun, GU, lights, shoes, socks, bandanna, phone, car key, energy bars(which I forgot) and my watch. Out the door I went not knowing this run would test my drive to continue training for a 50k.

When I arrived at the lake I scouted out some new trails. I wanted to run around the lake so I parked at the Park Rangers office. I got out and got ready.

Starting out the trail was a mini creek meeting me at the trail head. The run was pretty uneventful up until mile 4. This is when I started encountering spider webs every 5-6 steps. I must be the correct height because all the webs hit me on the nose. Spiders and their webs don't phase me, usually. On this run they were so prolific that it became an irritant.

At the same time the webs made me feel like Indiana Jones my legs began to burn from slip sliding in the mud. My shoes must of weighed 10 pounds each. Although my feet had been soaked from mile one blisters were not an issue. Cabrakan by Mizuno are great shoes at pushing out all the excess water.

Now comes the best part of the run. Horse Flies! I must of looked crazy waving my hands and swatting at my head and back. The gigantic buzzing beasts chased me for about 6 miles. They backed off only a couple times. I was so fed up with them I almost lost it! I stopped, cooled off, and made a point in not letting the flies and spider webs get under my skin. From that point on things went smoothly.

The rest of my run even though it was tough was great. I finished tired, sore and very happy. I am sure the trail can get tougher than last night, but all I can say to that is "bring it on."

Post run: 2 ticks one on each calf and a soaked seat in the car on the drive to work this morning.