I feel kind of funny calling today's jaunt a "long run," but for me, ten miles is a few miles longer than average. With my low mileage, a 10-mile run accounts for one-third of my entire week's mileage. Plus, today's run took an hour and 43 minutes. That's long enough for me, at this point!
The ground had dried a bit, but unfortunately I still had to battle a lot of mud. I started with the same loop as yesterday -- out the Eagle and Sage trails, and then north on the Left Hand singletrack. Across Route 36, I ran home on the Beech Trail, a lesser-known but excellent narrow trail that is both flat and in the foothills. That combination makes the Beech Trail one-of-a-kind in Boulder, as far as I know.
I had a few minutes of excitement a couple miles from home. A passing runner warned about a rattlesnake up ahead. Sure enough, just around the bend I heard the telltale rattle coming from underneath a rock beside the trail. Try as I might, I just couldn't spot the thing, and I wasn't about to poke around under the rock. Although I know the Front Range has lots of rattlesnakes, I can think of only one that I've seen in the nine years I've lived here. Today's incident doesn't count.
I added six strides to the run, but overall I felt fairly tired and slow. My average of just over 10-minute miles confirms that fact. I didn't mind, though, as the bike ride I'd done earlier provided a great excuse to run slowly. Tomorrow is a day off.
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