The first sandwich

What an amazing set of days here in upper DE. We have had low-humidity and clear skies....for the most part the past few days. I am in week 5 of Ultra-training and this week looked like this > Tue- 9miles, Wedn - 4miles, Thurs-9miles, and then my first LONG RUN SANDWICH. What is a sandwich? It's when you do back to back long runs of 10+ miles. This was my first attempt at this and to be frank, I was scared, very scared. I made it, I struggled through, but I'm glad I did it. Saturday I did 11.57 trail miles, and then today I did 13.08 miles of which 10+ were trail's.

Yesterday was an amazing run, I am really getting used to trails and loving them. I actually found a .25mi footbridge out over a swamp in a local park. You can see it below. I have been wanting to find something like this for quite some time after I saw an article of a beautful bridge out west. Little did I know there was one in my back yard...soo neat!

Today's run.....ohhhh today. Stuggle city. First I woke at 6:40am to do 13+ miles. Let's just say I was not at all excited, but I knew if I ever want to get this 40mile race done, I would need a lot more than just these two little back to back runs. Low and behold....I woke up and made it happen. I am forever thankful I did that.

This was one of the most amazing and scenic long runs I have ever done. Path along the crisp rushing water. Birds and insects chirping with anticipation along side my right shoulder. The cool mellow breeze racing across my ankles and shins, as every muscle worked harmoniously for the greater good of mileage. I loved it!

The funny part.....the original course was a single loop to end at the start. As you can see above...I made a wrong turn. You can ask my running mentors, this is my speciality haha.
I got lost running head strong on the trail, over an hour goes by and finally I see a human(this is a good sign). I slow down and ask "hey where is the nearest road?" the man calmly responds "go a few yards ahead and you will see the sign with the PA trails"....."WHAT! I exclaimed, I am in PA, I started my run in DE"...he laughed and said " yeah you will need to turn around then buddy".. hahah Funniest thing that has ever happened to me.

I kept pushing thru because I was already 10miles into the run and an turn around would be 20miles total. My hips couldn't handle that.

It was a cool fun run, I almost made it to MD on my course and that would have been funny...state traveler!

To end this ramble I stumbled upon a quote I read in a book and it has really been my heartbeat for a while now. Honestly it send chills up the back of my neck every time I read it. Here it goes > " Every run is a gift". Ahh to take advantage of something so normal, running, walking. Would be forsaking something so eloquent that God has gifted me with.

Ryan