Haverford Township Day 5K

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

Yesterday morning Matt and I ran a mixed surface road/trail 5K in Havertown, PA. The 8:30am race kicked off Haverford Township Day, a local festival with a parade, craft vendors, a flea market and live music.

The race began at Haverford Middle School and we wound around a few neighborhoods before spending a mile or so on a long, straight trail. This was no ordinary trail, though… it was the old right of way for the Newtown Square Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad! I’m a huge local history buff and I’m not gonna lie… that mile of trail was the primary reason we ran this race. I love how railroads helped shape the development of communities and how their right of ways still play a role in routing of roads and potential public-use rail trails. I also grew up in and still live in Newtown Square so this particular rail line is especially interesting to me.

: The Newtown Square Branch was closed down in the 1960s, and by the time I was born in the mid-eighties the tracks were gone and all that remained of the line were some old trestles and the right-of-way that we ran on yesterday. If you love local history as much as I do, you can read more about the Newtown Square Branch and see the original, interactive version of the map above at AbandonedRails.com.

Although I was excited about the rail trail for historical reasons, it wasn’t exactly a fast running surface for a race. Parts of the trail were covered with a thick layer of fresh, damp wood chips, which felt a bit like running in sand. I definitely slowed down during the mile on the trail and was very happy to leave the railroad behind and return to paved roads just before the 2nd mile marker.

Back on the pavement I realized that I could see Matt a short distance ahead of me. I passed him with a little over a half mile to go in the race and then set my sights on a woman who was maybe 50 feet ahead. I wanted to go by her but was a little worried about using up my energy to pass her only to have her come up from behind and beat me at the finish. With this in mind I stuck right behind her for the last half mile and then passed her as the finish line came into view. She responded immediately by picking up her pace big time but by then I was determined to beat her. We sprinted to the finish and I felt my legs go into a whole new gear (thank you, track workouts!!!!) as I blasted across the finish line in the lead. Woohoo!

I often feel like I “sprint” to the finish of a 5K but yesterday I was actually sprinting for real. Runkeeper shows my last 0.1 mile split at 4:58 pace and my final push at 4:20/mile. Runkeeper isn’t perfectly accurate by any means, but I was definitely going fast!!! I finished with a time of 23:50 (only 9 seconds off of my all-road 5K best!), good enough for 34th overall and 12th place woman. Also, I’m totally psyched about my last mile split: 7:34!!! 🙂

Matt finished right behind me in 23:56. He told me afterwards that when I passed him during the race he wanted to tell me to go catch that girl ahead of us. With that in mind I’m glad that I did catch her and that Matt was able to see it happen!

Matt on the Newtown Square Branch right-of-way

We ran a short cool down on the rail-trail so that I could take a better, slower look at it and then stuck around for the awards (Matt won a door prize!) before heading home. All in all it was a fun morning with a great atmosphere and exciting course. I’d go back again next year, especially if those wood chips get a little more compacted on the rail trail!

Miles since last post: 38.4
Days since last post: 7
Avg. Daily Miles since 7/18/13: 4.85
2014 TOTAL MILES: 1310.9

Related Posts:
• Run A Muck 5K-ish Trail Race (9/20/14)
• Talk 5K Trail Run (9/13/14)
• Pickle in the Streets 5K (8/28/14)
• Radnor Red Steeplechase 5K (8/17/14)
• Riddlewood Swim Club 5K (8/3/14)
• Swarthmore Lions Independence Eve 8K (7/18/14)
• Cam’s ‘Moonlight’ 5K (7/10/14)
• Media 5 Miler (6/20/14)
• Radnor Conservancy 5K Trail Run (6/1/14)
• Rocky Run 5K Trail Run (5/30/14)
• Run for Victory 5K (5/18/14)
• Elwyn 5K (5/3/14)
• St. Tim’s 5K (4/26/14)
• Rick’s Run 5K (4/19/14)
• Las Vegas Security 5K (4/3/14)
• Color Out Cancer 5K (3/30/14)
• Athlete’s Closet March 5 Miler (3/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet February 5K (2/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet January 5K (1/4/14)
• New Year’s Eve 5K at the YMCA (12/31/13)
• Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
• Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Run-a-Muck 5K (9/21/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

21Sep2014

Run A Muck Trail Race

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

Yesterday afternoon at 4PM Willistown Conservation Trust‘s annual Run A Muck cross country race began. 28 minutes later, I beat Matt and my brother and finally got the chance to see how far my running has progressed over the past year.

Me after Run A Muck

Matt after Run A Muck

Willistown Township Farm

Last year’s Run A Muck was my first race ever. The course was long (3.6 miles), extremely hilly, and just plain HARD. Last year I took lots of walking breaks, poured water over my head at every water station, and dragged myself across the finish in 35:16 — around a 9:47/mile pace.

This year’s course was still ridiculously hard, with a 100 foot climb in just 2/10s of a mile, gratuitous uphill and downhill repeats, and a wooded section that was basically a staircase (going up, of course). But that’s where the similarities end. This year I was much better prepared and I’m excited to report that I finished the 3.3 mile course in 28:08! That’s an average pace of 8:30… more than 1:15 per mile faster than last year!

In addition to finishing with a much better time, I also ran the whole freakin’ course. The WHOLE thing!! This may not seem that impressive – it’s just a 5K, after all – but let me tell you… the last 1.5 miles of this course were brutal. Towards the end it seemed like EVERYONE was walking. I thought about walking for a moment (you know, the old “I could probably walk up this hill just as fast as I’m running it” argument) but I kept moving (albeit slowly) and ended up passing a bunch of people in the last mile.

Speaking of passing people… I beat Matt AND my brother in yesterday’s race!! I pulled even with Matt around the 1 mile marker and was planning on running with him when a woman passed us and I decided to try to run with her instead. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to keep up with her for long (she was the eventual female winner), but that little spurt of speed took me past Matt for the rest of the race.

I caught up to my brother Billy with around a mile to go. He was walking up a wickedly steep hill (along with everyone else around him) and at first I didn’t realize it was him. In past races Billy has been much faster than me – back at Victory in May he beat me by more than 2 minutes – but I guess my long runs and track workouts are paying off. I trudged past him at a slow jog as we crested the hill and just kept on going.

One of the many hills!

Matt with some hills in the background

That’s the event side way over there on the left… so many hills!

The last few minutes of this race felt like they lasted forever. I was exhausted. Mentally I’d gotten a little boost when I passed Billy, but then two women passed me near the end looking super strong. I had been sitting in 2nd up to that point and picked up my pace in an effort to keep up with them, but I lagged behind as they powered up the final hill and cruised down to the finish a few seconds ahead of me.

My 28:08 finish was good enough for 17th overall and 4th place woman. Billy crossed the line in 28:24 (19th) with Matt close behind at 28:51 (21st). The full results are here.

Matt and I cooled down with a nice hike along the Run A Muck walking course. All of the land that Run A Muck traversed is privately owned and open just for this event, so it was nice to get a chance to walk around and take some photos of the beautiful (aka EVIL!!) rolling hills and farmland that we’d just run through.

Me in front of a soy bean field

Matt

The views were spectacular

Matt on our post Run A Muck hike

Panorama from the top of one of the hills

After our hike we joined back up with my family to partake in an outdoor “country supper,” complete with chili and cornbread, beer complements of Victory Brewing Company, and a live band. All in all, this was a fantastic event that I’ll definitely do again next year. Maybe in another year I’ll be able to run even faster! 🙂

Miles since last post: 29.7
Days since last post: 6
Avg. Daily Miles since 7/18/13: 4.84
2014 TOTAL MILES: 1272.5

Related Posts:
• Talk 5K Trail Run (9/13/14)
• Pickle in the Streets 5K (8/28/14)
• Radnor Red Steeplechase 5K (8/17/14)
• Riddlewood Swim Club 5K (8/3/14)
• Swarthmore Lions Independence Eve 8K (7/18/14)
• Cam’s ‘Moonlight’ 5K (7/10/14)
• Media 5 Miler (6/20/14)
• Radnor Conservancy 5K Trail Run (6/1/14)
• Rocky Run 5K Trail Run (5/30/14)
• Run for Victory 5K (5/18/14)
• Elwyn 5K (5/3/14)
• St. Tim’s 5K (4/26/14)
• Rick’s Run 5K (4/19/14)
• Las Vegas Security 5K (4/3/14)
• Color Out Cancer 5K (3/30/14)
• Athlete’s Closet March 5 Miler (3/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet February 5K (2/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet January 5K (1/4/14)
• New Year’s Eve 5K at the YMCA (12/31/13)
• Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
• Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Run-a-Muck 5K (9/21/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

15Sep2014

TALK 5K Trail Run

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

OK, so I know I said in my last race recap that my next race would be Run A Muck on September 20th, but I just had to sneak in another local trail race last Saturday. Run A Muck 2013 was my racing debut last September and with this past weekend’s event on the books I’ve now run a total of 25 races in a year! (That may count as an official 5K addiction, right?) I’ll probably do some sort of stats post about all of those races eventually, but for now let’s just say that I’m going to feel a LOT more comfortable at the start line of next week’s Run A Muck than I did last year! 🙂

But back to this weekend’s race recap… On Saturday Matt and I ran the TALK 5K, a trail race on the beautiful grounds of the Garrett Williamson Foundation in Newtown Square, PA. We live in Newtown Square so I loved getting the chance to see the Foundation’s trails and woods that are usually closed to the public! The 5K benefited the TALK Institute which, according to the school’s web site, is the nation’s most progressive center for the education of children with autism and language disorders.

I loved getting a chance to see the Garrett Williamson Foundation’s beautiful grounds — look at that view!

I wanted to run this 5K as a warm up for Run A Muck, so I went into the race with a plan: take it easy during miles 1 and 2 and then push pretty hard for the final mile. I had no total race time in mind, but as a reference my trail run PR was 25:49 (that’s what it was before Saturday, anyway) so I thought that a time around there would be nice. Here’s how things ended up playing out:

Mile 1 (8:30 goal, 7:51 actual) – I made a point of starting out really easy and staying very comfortable and relaxed during mile one. I was surprised that most of this mile was actually on pavement (much easier to run on than trails!) and there was a little downhill as well, so my split ended up a lot faster than planned. I still count this split as a success because I felt very relaxed the whole time and went into the next mile feeling energized.

Mile 2 (8:20 goal, 9:00 actual) – OK, so I felt great coming off mile 1, but at the start of mile 2 the course turned into the woods and plunged down a treacherous, rocky hill (the kind of downhill that’s not even fun because you’re too busy dodging rocks!) The rest of the mile was challenging, with more trails and a serious up hill climb. I missed my goal time, but the numbers don’t reflect the fact that I passed at least THREE men going up one of the hills. The men had all slowed to a walk and I was able to keeping running right past them and then – miraculously – somehow I accelerated off the top of the hill and totally left them in the dust. Slow split or not, I’m counting mile 2 as a big victory for that reason alone!

Mile 3 (sub-8 goal, 8:06 actual) – Mile 3 continued with the uphill trend (we really paid for that rocky downhill from mile 1) but I felt strong and was able to accelerate quite a bit. When the course exited the woods I realized that I could see Matt in the field ahead of me (and I saw him see me as he rounded a corner… watch out, Matt, here I come!!). I decided that today was the day to try to catch him and with around a quarter mile to go in the race I pulled even with him. We ran together for a few strides, then I pulled ahead!

Matt, right after he beat me across the finish line!!!

Final 0.1 Mile – I pounded through the final stretch, dodging the 1 mile walk participants who were just making their way back to the start/finish line. With mere feet separating me from the line I saw a blur fly past me – MATT!! – and, just like that, Matt caught back up and managed to beat me. Darn it!! I’ll have to remember to sprint harder across the finish line next time!!! 🙂 We both ended up with the same time (25:40, a new trail PR for me!) which put us at 13th and 14th overall. I was also 4th place woman and 2nd in my age group. Cool!

Overall, the TALK 5K was a great experience. It was clear that the race organizers, participants and volunteers were happy to be spending their Saturday morning supporting a good cause and the race atmosphere was very positive and upbeat. At this point I think that it was a good mental warm up for Run A Muck next week… we’ll see how that race goes (and if I finally get to beat Matt?) next weekend! 🙂

Miles since last post: 77.8
Days since last post: 15
Avg. Daily Miles since 7/18/13: 4.83
2014 TOTAL MILES: 1242.8

Related Posts:
• Pickle in the Streets 5K (8/28/14)
• Radnor Red Steeplechase 5K (8/17/14)
• Riddlewood Swim Club 5K (8/3/14)
• Swarthmore Lions Independence Eve 8K (7/18/14)
• Cam’s ‘Moonlight’ 5K (7/10/14)
• Media 5 Miler (6/20/14)
• Radnor Conservancy 5K Trail Run (6/1/14)
• Rocky Run 5K Trail Run (5/30/14)
• Run for Victory 5K (5/18/14)
• Elwyn 5K (5/3/14)
• St. Tim’s 5K (4/26/14)
• Rick’s Run 5K (4/19/14)
• Las Vegas Security 5K (4/3/14)
• Color Out Cancer 5K (3/30/14)
• Athlete’s Closet March 5 Miler (3/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet February 5K (2/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet January 5K (1/4/14)
• New Year’s Eve 5K at the YMCA (12/31/13)
• Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
• Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Run-a-Muck 5K (9/21/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

1Sep2014

Valley Forge Hike with our newest 4-legged house guest, Ganon

Posted in Hikes by Annie T

Happy Labor Day! Matt and I have been enjoying a relaxing holiday weekend at home. We raced The Pickle Run on Thursday, hiked on Friday, went to TWO barbecues on Saturday and did lots of yard work on Sunday. At the moment we have nothing planned for today… that’s my favorite kind of day off! 🙂

We also hosted a new 4-legged house guest at our home this weekend, my step-brother’s pup, Ganon. Friday was our first full day with Ganon so we took him hiking at Valley Forge National Park. Matt and I have done the 5 mile paved Plumb Martin loop at Valley Forge several times but since we had Ganon along we wanted to try some hiking trails instead. Every time we’ve done the paved loop we’ve seen a sign marking the turnoff for a pedestrian crossing over the (very wide) Schuylkill River. I’ve always been intrigued by the river crossing so on Friday we decided to give it a try.

Schuylkill River

VFNP River Trail

We parked at the Visitor’s Center and followed the paved loop north for a short while before turning off the trail towards the Schuylkill River. From there we followed a road that dead-ended at what had been the old Betzwood Bridge (now just a precarious drop-off to the river!) before turning up a steep path to Highway 422. The “pedestrian crossing” was a rickety 3 foot wide cantilevered walkway that was tacked onto the side of a major highway bridge several stories about the river. Eek! Not quite the peaceful hike I was expecting, but still very exhilarating (or terrifying, depending on your perspective).

Despite some wobbly boards and lots of traffic whizzing by, we survived the bridge crossing and thankfully returned to ground level in the quieter, less tourist-y “north side” of Valley Forge. (Where, for the record, there’s a perfectly good parking lot… We’ll probably drive over the 422 bridge and park there next time!) I later read that ground has been broken for a brand new pedestrian/bike bridge that will be located at the site of the old Betzwood Bridge. We’ll try the crossing again in May 2016 when the new bridge is supposed to be completed!

Once we arrived on the northern bank of the Schuylkill, we walked along the paved Schuylkill River Trail for a few minutes before transitioning down to the less-traveled gravel River Trail. The River Trail hugged the river and offered gorgeous views of the water and woods. We hiked for about 3 miles before turning around to make the trek back, but the trails kept going and we could have extended the hike quite a bit if we had wanted to. There were a few spots where the path led right to the river which Ganon really liked. 🙂

View from the River Trail

Schuylkill River pup

The north side of Valley Forge was really beautiful and I’d recommend it to anyone looking to get away from the big crowds, tours, and reenactments that you’ll find on the more popular south side of the park. I think Ganon would recommend it too… he had fun and was completely exhausted afterwards!

Here’s a map of our 6.2 mile hike shown in red on the VFNP North Side trails map. You can view the official Park map on the NPS web site here: http://www.nps.gov/vafo/planyourvisit/upload/northside-2012.pdf