I hate the outdoors! There, I said it! If it's not a soccer match, or a bike ride, or a brisk run, I don't particularly care for the outdoors, with it's generally smug attitude of thinking it can control the weather on a whim. Let me elaborate, when I say, "outdoors" I don't just mean the outside, as in the pavement, or the side walks, I mean the woods, the trees in their congressional unison, I loathe them. Well I did, until last weekend. Back story time: In high school I was involved in a monthly program called "Rangers", wherein, the first weekend of every month (so long as it didn't obstruct soccer) we would travel to Kisatchie National Forest in Alexandria and camp for the weekend. Then, for Easter Break, we would take a week long trip to the Apalachain or the White Mountains, and even the Rockies for a 1 week camping expedition... I hated every single one of them. Every step was lamentable, I did it because me best mate Mike was in it and I wasn't gonna be called a quitter... ( I am not prideful, I am strong-willed). Ok, so, there is that little tid bit of info, now on to why I am writing/typing/thinking.
I need to rephrase that whole bit, it should read, "I use to hate the outdoors", I still do, but I use to too! Some new friends over at Geaux Run put together a trail running clinic, painted a large Monet-esque picture of what it was like, all the good and great of trail running. I fancied that I might like it, so you may have read an earlier post about a run at Lake Fausse Point, I truly thought I was on to something. (I knew nothing of the crunch). There was an open invitation to join Geaux Run for a run at Chicot State Park, there were various distances and all were invited. Well I made the social mistake of befriending an Ultra-Marathon Runner, well actually I befriended 4... Edie, Brad, Donald & Smitty (all crazies). In my confabulations with Edie, I was convinced that a 20 mile loop around Chicot was both sane, and attainable; I was right about 1.
The mood was set, and so was the time, we were to depart from Geaux Run at 05:05 a.m. sharp so arrive at 04:45 to make sure you are ready to go. We arrived at our destination for 06:15 and were on the trail by 06:30, running. I couldn't believe we were actually gonna run 20 miles. It never once occured to me that we would actually make it to the end, I figured we would just get lost and spend the rest of our days living it out with the wild (I saw a deer). In the first 10 miles I probably made it with 50 spiders, big, ugly, nasty, blood sucking Banana Spiders (they don't bite, but I didn't care, I screamed every time I had to get one off of me or run through a damn web). Now you may think, "50? Wow, that's absurd!" And you'd be right, here is the kicker, I only lead for about 3 miles, the other 7 miles were lead by Donald, were he made it with 3x's that. Oh yeah! Also, at mile 10 is where I realized, OH SHIT! I have on Gortex Trail Shoes... That level of psychology must have been pretty huge because I struggled from then on, to the point where at mile 15 I just stopped running completely (we didn't run the whole time mind you, we stopped and walked a good bit, it's really beautiful there). But at mile 15 I just plained stopped running, and walked the next 5 miles out. Mother nature owned me for those 4.5 hrs of my life...
The moral of the story is trail running is awesome and I have every intention of doing Chicot again, soon. Trail running is a new love and so is the outdoors! Just yesterday I walked through a spider web, and it didn't phase me. I had muscles sore that had never been sore before. It was euphoric to be out there that day, and the company I kept for that time was irreplaceable. There were six starters and six finishers. I look forward to my next Chicot run. I am not all that great at this long story stuff, I get too winded so I leave out important stuff, like the part where I died and Donald had to save me instead he through a big ass black spider on me! Stuff like that!
I will have more, and next time I will be concise...
The mood was set, and so was the time, we were to depart from Geaux Run at 05:05 a.m. sharp so arrive at 04:45 to make sure you are ready to go. We arrived at our destination for 06:15 and were on the trail by 06:30, running. I couldn't believe we were actually gonna run 20 miles. It never once occured to me that we would actually make it to the end, I figured we would just get lost and spend the rest of our days living it out with the wild (I saw a deer). In the first 10 miles I probably made it with 50 spiders, big, ugly, nasty, blood sucking Banana Spiders (they don't bite, but I didn't care, I screamed every time I had to get one off of me or run through a damn web). Now you may think, "50? Wow, that's absurd!" And you'd be right, here is the kicker, I only lead for about 3 miles, the other 7 miles were lead by Donald, were he made it with 3x's that. Oh yeah! Also, at mile 10 is where I realized, OH SHIT! I have on Gortex Trail Shoes... That level of psychology must have been pretty huge because I struggled from then on, to the point where at mile 15 I just stopped running completely (we didn't run the whole time mind you, we stopped and walked a good bit, it's really beautiful there). But at mile 15 I just plained stopped running, and walked the next 5 miles out. Mother nature owned me for those 4.5 hrs of my life...
The moral of the story is trail running is awesome and I have every intention of doing Chicot again, soon. Trail running is a new love and so is the outdoors! Just yesterday I walked through a spider web, and it didn't phase me. I had muscles sore that had never been sore before. It was euphoric to be out there that day, and the company I kept for that time was irreplaceable. There were six starters and six finishers. I look forward to my next Chicot run. I am not all that great at this long story stuff, I get too winded so I leave out important stuff, like the part where I died and Donald had to save me instead he through a big ass black spider on me! Stuff like that!
I will have more, and next time I will be concise...
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