An Attempt at Trail Running

For those of you who know me, you know I am a hiker. I am not a runner. Well, at least not anymore. When I was in High School and many years after that up until 5 years ago I was a runner. About 5 years ago I started developing shin splints and just enjoyed hiking way more.

I am done with my 4000 Footers and now I need new personal goals, anything but a list. I need some time away from hiking another list for a while. Josh had no interest in hiking the 4k's but since he had already got a few on previous hikes with myself now he is pushing to finish. I am happy to do it with him, so we compromised. I know he enjoys trail running more than hiking so we decided to take our first trail run together.

Overall, Josh is a much stronger runner than I am and I am a much stronger hiker than he is. The first one I thought of that we could try and do in the time frame we had to do it was the Hancock Loop. It's only 25 minutes from our house and fairly flat for a good portion of it. Not to mention it was two 4k's he needed for his list.

We set out 2 weeks ago after dropping Harper off at school on Thursday morning. I was a bit nervous hitting the trail with a very small pack on my back. The anxiety went away the long we were on trail. We started at exactly 9:00am. Josh had me lead. He is pretty patient with me when it comes to running because I really do struggle (especially going up hill). So I took off in a jog and quickly I began to warm up. Only trying to stop at junctions.

We arrived at the junction just before heading straight up to North Hancock in about an hour. From here I pretty much knew the running would be over until we finally made it to the ridge. This trail is fairly steep with lots of loose rock to slide on. We kept a great pace moving upward and passing a few others. We finally hit the summit, took some photos, changed out of our wet shirts, and hit the trail towards South Hancock.

I remember this trail being fairly smooth and not to many PUD's. But then again it was covered in snow the last time I did it. It was just about how I remembered thankfully. We ran the majority of this 1.2 miles until we hit the summit of South Hancock. Took a photo and started down the second steep trail of the day. I was moving pretty quick heading down to start, and then I ate shit and fell right on my ass. So we slowed ourselves down on this trail until we were back at the junction.

As soon as we hit the junction I realized I completely forgot to take a headstand photo! Guess it gives me a reason to go back again. From here we continued our run out and back to the car. We just ran and kept running. My watch read 12:11pm and Josh asked what time it was. I replied and said if you wan to make it out by 12:15 you better go in front of me, I will see you at the end. He responded with  "no, we started together we end together." I continued my pace and just pushed myself to keep going. Then, there it was... the sound of cars. I picked up the pace a bit and the two of us ran up the last few steps, took a big sigh of relief, and it was 12:20pm.

It took us about 3 hours and 20 minutes to complete a 9 mile loop. I was pretty darn proud.
A few days later, we both decided to take a jaunt up Black Cap Mountain from Hurricane Mountain Road. For 1.5 miles it took us 20 minutes to ascend. I struggled a bit on this one more so because it was uphill for the entire thing. I still was excited that it was faster than my hiking time.

Just last Thursday, we had a few hours and I mentioned bagging 2 more peaks from the Kancamagus side (only 25 minutes from our house). I suggest we try hitting the Osceola's. I knew the first mile or so would be runnable and also the mile in between peaks.

We arrived at the trailhead at 9:30am and hit the trail running. Pun intended. It was a bit colder this day than it was the previous week on the Hancocks. We brought a little more clothing and food. Before we knew it we were at the junction and it was time to start our trek upward to the first summit.

The only other time I had hiked these peaks was a few years ago in October with Trish and her girls. We actually spotted a car and hiked in from Tripoli Road and over and out to the Kanc. I had never Ascended from the Kanc side. I had heard that is was much steeper going up, which I couldn't really recall because it seemed easier going down. We ran until I pretty much couldn't run anymore.

We slowed down quite a bit heading up the East Osceola. Stopping to watch the Jet's fly through the notch below us and to take picture. We had a gorgeous blue bird day with almost max visibility. We topped out to the ridgeline and eventually came across the summit of East Osceola (a big pile of rocks) . We took a quick photo and decided to quickly move on. We started running again, slowing down when we needed to. We stopped at look out to take photos and point out surrounding mountain peaks.

For some odd reason this mile across felt like the longest mile of my life. My stomach was starting to hurt and my legs were screaming at me to slow down. Eventually, with a final push we mad our way up and out of the trees and onto the look out of Osceola. We spent a few minutes here, and in those few minutes I luckily remembered I needed my headstands. We took some photos, cooled off quickly, ate some snacks, and headed back the way we came. Glad we did this because I forgot to take a headstand photo on East Osceola.

By the time we made it back to E. Osceola my stomach was in such bad pain. I decided to try and take a bathroom break. While in search for the perfect location just far enough away from the trail I came across about 6 different spots with TP just left there, and to my surprise a used sanitary napkin and it's wrapping from the new one. I was in shock. I could not believe someone really didn't pack out their TP and their sanitary napkin (a bloody pad in case you don't know what that is gentlemen).

We quickly descended the very steep trail we came up and soon enough we were back at the car. It took us right around 3 hours and 40 minutes round trip. I was hauling ass out the last 2 miles trying not to push it over 3:40.