Trail Runs and Fun
This week my son and I drove his car to Waco, Texas, and I helped him move into his apartment (he’s now a sophomore at Baylor.) I’ve been to Waco two times before, and both times only saw the Baylor campus. This time I was determined to see the town of Waco! We arrived on Monday night, and my son spent the day on Tuesday preparing for an audition. So I had the day to myself, and I knew EXACTLY how I wanted to spend it. I love my Florida trail running, but the thing I wanted to do most was explore some different trails. I wanted woods and hills, something more challenging, Waco has an incredible trail system in Cameron Park. I got the All Trails app and found a “moderate” 5.9 mile trail. The app connected to Apple Maps, so I had directions from where I was staying directly to the trail head. It wasn’t part of the hike, but Jacob’s Ladder was right near the start, so I immediately took a detour to climb those steps. In this post I talked about my conflicting desires to seek out adventure while not doing anything to hurt myself, and there was a little debate about running or walking up Jacob’s Ladder. Well, even if I was in the greatest shape of my life, it really wasn’t a runnable situation. The steps were uneven heights- some were very high and others were shorter. If I tried to run up them I would either have re-strained my hamstring and/or tripped and fallen flat on my face. I was more than happy to walk up, and actually considered it a good warmup for my run. Oh, and the funny thing was, there weren’t any spectacular views from the top. It was just a staircase to go up and down. On to the trail! Since I had been run/walking after hurting my hamstring, I knew I wasn’t going to run the entire 5.9 mile trail. I figured I would run the easier parts and walk up any hills. Let’s just see how that worked out! The beginning was a lovely, mostly flat trail along the river. I ran and walked- there were a few areas that were hard to navigate because of rocks or roots, but generally it was easy running. And THEN… The trail branched off into the woods, and became very, very difficult. I don’t think most of it was runnable for even experienced trail runners- it definitely wasn’t for me. I quickly learned to run any parts that were possible, even if it was just for a minute, or ten steps. Then I would be climbing, descending, navigating very, very difficult footing… then back to another short burst of running. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about the All Trails app- I mean, I don’t want to be staring down at my phone while I’m out on a trail. But I also got into a rhythm with that. I realized I could put my phone in my belt, and the app would notify me anytime I went off course- which was about, oh, a hundred times. This was a HARD trail to navigate, and I was really glad I had the app to help me. A word about the weather- it was HOT. Hotter than Florida. Because the two days prior we had driven 20 hours, I didn’t get up super early, so I knew I would be out there in the heat. But I also knew that the trail was shaded (based on the reviews) and I had my hydration vest with water, so I figured I’d be fine. I was fine, but towards the end when I was back on the runnable section near the river I noticed that every time I ran, my heart rate spiked way up. I wasn’t actually checking my heart rate, I could just feel my heart hammering away. I was so fatigued at that point, I started to wonder if Waco was at a high altitude (no, that can’t be right!) and then I looked at the weather: Oh, that’s why. I’m used to the Florida heat, but my runs usually take place earlier in the morning when it’s in the low 80s. I finished hot, but happy! And I had “trail feet.” The next day, Wednesday, I headed out for Trail Adventure Part 2. This time I went to a smaller park closer to where I was staying. It wasn’t as spectacular as Cameron Park, but it was still really nice, and had several hiking options on All Trails. This time I picked a shorter one that was marked “easy” because I was hoping to do a little more running. Who rates these things, anyway? If anything, this trail was even more difficult than the one yesterday. In all fairness, it seemed like most of the reviewers were using it to mountain bike- but I still don’t see how it would be considered an “easy” trail. I did the same method as the day before, a run-walk. But after a while I was longing for just a nice, flat, place to RUN. I found a couple places to leave the trail and do just that. The app was very alarmed by this, and let me know repeatedly that I had gone off-route. But I had some pretty views. In the end I had mixed feelings about the All Trails app. For the second hike, I felt like I wouldn’t have been able to navigate without it. But that meant I was hiking with a phone in my hand. Then at one point I saw this: Oh! These trails are MARKED, which I hadn’t noticed because I was relying so heavily on the app. I wonder what the experience would have been like without All Trails. I would have had to research these trails the old fashioned way, study a map and then locate the markers. I think on