12 Miles!

Today I was up at 5:45 am, got my jogging gear together and headed to the parktrail entrance of Annadel State park. My co-worker Trisha, her sister-in-law and Irene were all prepared to jog 12 miles. April 17th we ran 10 miles, but for me this would be the first time ever running 12 miles. When I ran the 10 miles I was having shin splint pains on my left leg, so Irene had me take a tylenol before our jog. Trishsa had brought along some "Gel" for extra endurance boost as needed, and I had my iPhone with Runkeeper monitoring the jog and pumping out tunes.

Annadel State park is absolutely breathtaking. Evertime I jog there I end up stopping at some point to take a picture. This time I took a picture as we were rounding out "Marsh" trail on the back side of the park. This was one of several natural creeks or springs that flowed down across the trail.

I lost track of how many deer we passed. They are so used to people that when we jog by them they just look at us as we pass within feet of them. There are also wild turkey's and I have yet to see the mountain lions and cyote's that signs around the park warn of. There are a lot of other poeple out enjoying the park, too. And it's common to come across other joggers, walkers, horse riders and mountain bikers.

We finished our twelve miles at a record pace! It took 2 hours, 29 minutes at an average pace of just over 12 minute miles. Much slower than street running, understandably as we ascended over 1,600 feet on our jog. The paths are mountainous and occasionally very rocky. The "upside" to the upward climbs is that the higher up you go the easier it is on the way back down!

Trisha and Irene have been training for a marathon held in August. We're going to do a half marathon in May and I think I'm going to keep on training with them for the marathon and give it a shot. I never thought I'd say that- I'm looking forward to it!