A quick kiss goodbye and I hopped out of the car. The beginning of the section leads through varies prairie sites, interrupted by a short section in the woods. As soon as I walked onto the trail, I was overcome by joy of the beauty that surrounded me.
This was also the first run, I gave my new hydration pack a try. I strapped it on my back and began the run. It is quite the windy day in Wisconsin today, which made running through the open prairie quite interesting. After the first couple miles I wasn't so sure of what I had gotten myself into.
Once I left the prairie and headed for the next section into the woods the terrain changed. First I had to run across a small boardwalk.
The trail narrowed and became a small single lane paths. The last snow has just recently melted with the little bit warmer weather over the last week. What did that mean for the running conditions? Areas of pure mud. Where the sun hadn't reached through the trees, there were spots where the ground was still cold enough to be hard, other spots had been completely dried by the sun, yet others still had some ice on them. I felt like a kid navigated from one challenging spot to the next. There were moments my feet completely slid away in the mud and I barely caught myself from landing face first right in the middle of it. What a great workout!
For the first time, I had to watch out for rocks which reminded me of hiking in Pennsylvania. All the changing topography made this run never boring and there was always something beautiful to look at.
Lapham Peak has a sort of fire tower in the middle, where you can climb up for views of the surrounding area. When I started out my run, I could see the tower in the distance.
In the middle of my run, I actually directly passed the tower and it felt good to know how far I had already run since my taken the first picture. I had thought about climbing to the top of the tower, but when I arrived there, a fireman used it for his workout. He was in full fireman gear, including oxygen tank on the back and went up and down the tower many times. And he didn't seem to enjoy being watched too much, as I could hear him huff and puff. When I saw him, I felt that if he can climb the tower in full uniform, I can keep running. First I had to make it down some stairs to the path again though.
I met some other runners on the way and couldn't happen but notice that they were all male. Have to get more women out there. When I came across a dog walker, he asked me, if I was training for "The Trailbreaker" which is a race that runs through Lapham Peak. I said no and that I was training for the Ice Age 50 (now that is only half true, since I will only be running a half marathon during that race. But I didn't feel like that in the short moment while passing another person in running, I had the time to explain this to him). So of course he thought, I am training for the 50 mile race. He looked at me and then in a comforting voice said "There is a psychologist out there for you somewhere". I could only laugh and kept going on my way. I have to admit it somehow made me feel good.
My run ended with about two miles on a biking paths. It was still a nice run on that path, but clearly pointed out the difference between "biking path trail running" and "hiking path trail running" to me and I think I have once and for all decided that I love the hiking kind variety.
The run ended up being about half a mile longer, but I didn't care. My runners high made me feel like I was on cloud nine when I stopped. I totally loved it (and my new hydration pack also gets five stars).
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