I filled my hydration pack with ice water, knowing the ice wouldn't last long, but hoping the water would still feel good even if it was warm. I figured since I had the hydration pack, I might as well take my iPhone for picture taking and emergency phone calls in case someone came out of the woods to attack me. I started off at a good slow pace (11:00/mile) and hoped to stay there for the duration of my 10 mile trek. I managed to cross the river too early and found myself at a dead-end just before mile 1 and had to turn around to find the actual greenbelt trail again. Oops.
Dead End...
At mile 3 I was roasting and decided it was time to just run in my sports bra (eek!). My tank slipped perfectly into the elastic band on my hydration pack and was a great sweat towel for the day. By this time the greenbelt had long since turned from pavement to a perfect gravel/dirt path, and I was surprised by how little it slowed me down. I blamed part of my slowness during my last 1/2 marathon on the gravel trail, but that trail was much more sloppy and loose gravel than this path, and for that I was very thankful. I didn't see anyone on the actual trail for about 4 miles. I did see a woman and her daughter on bikes at mile 3 when I was rearranging my tank and gear, but they weren't actually on the path when we passed each other and I confirmed for them that the trail does, in fact, end at Eagle Road if they continued the direction they were headed. Fast forward to miles 4 through 6 (approximately) where the greenbelt follows the backyards of several gigantic houses. I got to the neighborhood where I had to navigate to get to the path again and passed the backyard of a house with a full-size basketball court in the backyard, complete with lighting for night games. It was ridiculously large and amazing!
Still smiling through mile 3...
Sweetly packed dirt and gravel path...
No bikes on this section of the Greenbelt...boooo.
The path was very easy to spot in the neighborhood, and it would have been really easy to turn around, but I was eager to see how the rest of the path turned out, so I trudged along. I really enjoyed the scenery and lack of people on the trail and was a little disappointed when I approached the Glenwood bridge. I was also a little gun shy about having to get off the greenbelt briefly to cross the bridge and get back on the trail headed east (the trail dead-ended where I came out), as I was only wearing my sports bra, shorts, and a hydration pack by this time. I even went so far as to pull out my iPhone to check the map to determine if there was another path I missed to cross the river. There wasn't. Oh well, off I went running.
I called Josh at mile 7 and told him I'd still likely be another 45 minutes; I knew the last 3 miles were going to be rough. And they were just that. I ran through most of mile 7 but stopped to dip my hat in the river and didn't stop my Garmin time. I walked a little bit of mile 8, but still finished it in 11:14. Miles 9 and 10 were especially difficult. At this point I was running through Veteran's Park where there was no shade. My hydration pack was really starting to bother me but I had filled up with water just a mile prior to that. I dumped most of the water before I realized I didn't know when the next drinking fountain would be, so I saved a small amount of water and I finally took the pack off and carried it the last 2 miles. I walked for a minute or so every 1/4 mile and was so glad to see my Garmin finally register at the 10 mile mark. My last 2 miles logged at 12:12 and 12:45 due to the walking.
My final stopping point? The firefighter memorial where I took pictures last weekend! I stretched for a few minutes and called Josh to tell him where I ended up. My final stats were as follows:
10 miles in 1:54:26
Average pace: 11:26/mile
Mile 1 - 10:54
Mile 2 - 10:53
Mile 3 - 11:07
Mile 4 - 11:04
Mile 5 - 11:16
Mile 6 - 11:06
Mile 7 - 11:45
Mile 8 - 11:13
Mile 9 - 12:12
Mile 10 - 12:45
Final.
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