Back to Umstead

I had a good long run at Umstead this weekend.

When I moved to Chapel Hill, I was delighted to be close to Carolina North Forest. There's a network of singletrack trails that is incredibly varied. I was sure to be occupied for years.

Unfortunately, I run there often. Tuesday morning run, Saturday long run, Sunday long recovery-ish run. And while there is an immense varied of trails, they aren't very long so it's pretty easy to repeat trails a lot. For my long runs I've made it up to 3 hours without going crazy. But this weekend I was going for 25 miles, approximately 4 hours and I knew it'd be rough. So I got up and made it over to Cary and Umstead park. This was my first run of significant magnitude since the race. I think I did one 10/13 miler on the singletrack before I moved. It was also the first time I was on a lot of the Umstead course. It was weird or nostalgic or anything, but I did find myself frequently thinking about the race. I remember training on those sections and thinking "how will I feel here at lap 1/2/....." And then on Saturday I was running those sections and thinking "how DID I feel here at lap 1/2/....."

I also had the unexpected surprise of seeing my parents on the Loblolly trail as I was just getting finished. My mom has a plan to walk a section of El Camino de Santiago next year and has started training! I don't claim any influence on her inclination. But I am so glad to see her doing something adventurous.

Sadly, life is still always being re-evaluated. While I enjoy working in aquatics, the "level" where I am at is not enjoyable; I don't really get to interact with patrons, or teach kids. I've been looking into personal training, and have started a self-study course. But my brother has started an EMT course, and it's making me envious/introspective. I watched a movie the other week called End of Watch about police officers. I definitely don't want to be a cop, and I know it was Hollywood glamorization, but nonetheless it makes me think about public service.

I'm on to a recovery week.

Soundtrack: Rocking some 90s. I haven't done this in a while, but I was blowing out my speakers this morning.
"Machinehead" by Bush
"Higher" by Creed