First Barefoot Trail Run

My wife Melissa and I went out for a trail run last night. She's new to running this year and is a shod runner. I found a system of mountain bike trails in a heavily wooded area on the edge of town. There were trail maps at the entrance but I chose to play the steriotypical man and leave the maps in the box.

There were two trail heads where we parked and both were makred with "Trail 2, Easiest" and so I figured it would be a nice loop that started and ended where we parked. :)

We had just a bit over an hour before the sun would go down and there was a chance of rain... neither of these bothered me in the least. We headed out on the trail and the earth felt quite nice under my feet. I was feeling the coolness of dirt, the softness of sand, the variety of roots and rocks... very stimulating. We weren't running fast by any means and the trail system is constantly twisting and turning with a lot of hills and valleys.

At some point our trail 2 turned into trail 3 but that didn't worry me as it was also marked with the "Easiest" badge. We continued on having a nice run.

It wasn't until I saw a sign on the ground with a Trail 13 sign on it and a warning about it being a challenging trail that I became concerned... I wasn't hoping to go near those more challenging trails and evidently I was in danger of doing so. After we had travelled a bit more than a mile and were getting much closer to the sun going down, the thick woods were making it hard to see the trail... and I had completely lost our bearings.

At one point, my wife let me know that she was beginning to think we were going to end up on the "I shouldn't be alive" show which highlights the near death experiences of underprepared adventurers... I reminded her that they made it out alive to tell their stories... didn't seem to aleviate her growing concern though.

When I saw signs for trails 4 and 5... I realized we were progressing from bad to worse and nowhere near getting back to trail 2. We decided it would be best to double back and get to our car the way we came. We headed back and before too long I saw a sign indicating we were now on trails beyond 13... and in the trail hazard category... far from Easiest. It was at this point that I assured her we hadn't doubled back and were now completly lost.

I pulled out my running watch and began flipping through the menus. I hadn't ever used the GPS menu before but I found a "Return to Start" feature which provided an arrow and mile indicator... we were over 1.4 miles from where we started... and losing light fast.

We continued on following the arrow which was zigging and zagging just like the trail... from time to time it pointed in directions other than the direction of the trail and I began to question what this arrow was actually indicating... should I go in the direction of the arrow in following the path or was it simply pointing to our starting point directly... hard to confirm. I chose to focus on it only when faced with branches in the trail.

After a while I finally spotted some familiar features. There was a foot bridge we had crossed and I was also able to spot one of my foot prints on the trail in a clearing where we had enough light to examine the ground.

While on our way back, with the light fading, we saw two deer. The second one seemed to be startled by us (we were the only ones on these trails that night.) By the time I was beginning to lose confidence in our making it out before dark or rain, I tried the panic alarm button on my car's remote key fob. It worked... I could hear but not see my car but that meant it was close and now I knew for sure which direction it was!

We soon broke into another clearing and stepped out into the field in which we'd parked... I smiled and said, "See... no problem!" but was actually quite relieved.

As we drove to a store to get some beverages, my wife didn't have much to say... she wasn't too impressed with my decision to abandon the need for maps and planning. I did feel bad enough to admit I had made a mistake... takes a fair amount to bring me to that point... but it was the least I could do. :)

When we got home I plugged in my watch and pulled up the map of what it had recorded... we covered 2.55 miles and a crazy twisting course that went far beyond what I had originally planned.

As a final note... my feet were tender but doing great. I was impressed with how well they held up. When we got home I used my purple scouring spunge (thanks TJ!) and then cleaned them up a bit with a pumice stone and file... to top it off I put someaquaphor on them before heading for bed... woke with them looking and feeling strong. :)

While I won't "wing it" like that again, I will have to run those trails again... there is a foot race on those trails near the end of the year which I may have to try. Not sure how that will work as it would be very hard to pass anybody on such narrow trails... but that really only piques my curiosity all the more!

Happy Running!

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