An honest try - Run It All

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 There's a informal trail system just near the house. It's a small area on one of the mesas south of the river. While the land is privately owned (and will get developed over then next 20 years) the people who live around it have created a literal maze of trails. So for one of my long runs, I got into my head that I would try to run it all. Yep - try to run every trail in the park. And all on the same day! I know most people do a "run it all" project for their zip code and take a few months to do it. It seemed like a perfect way to cover some miles, stay close to house if the weather warmed up and the trails got muddy and do something different. 

In prep for the run it all challenge, I studied my Gaia and Strava -looking at all the social trails and how to connect them. It quickly became apparent that I wouldn't have any issues getting all the miles I wanted for the day. In fact, I might be running into doing more miles then I wanted. I started trying to plot out how to cover the trails with the least amount of overlapping. Yeah, that was just going to be a waste of time trying to plot a route. I just needed to get out and start running. I reformulated my plan to tackle one hill at a time and just knock out all the trails on one hill before moving on to the next one. 

Morning of the run dawned crisp and slightly overcast. Perfect conditions for the long run! I filled up my running vest with water and snacks and headed over to the Water Towers. I had decided on my boundaries before the run, so I didn't bother with the little mesa close to the house. Cross the creek and it was game on. I decided to start on the north side of the park, working on each little hill heading west. That seemed like the most efficient method of covering the trails. The first hill didn't seen so bad. Not too many trails to cover. The second - a little more crazy. Circling around, up and down the faces hitting all the social trails. As I progressed further into the park, I was finding more and more social trails that I would need to run in order to cover all the miles. Yikes. This was turning into a bid day and I was only two hills into the park! 

I kept plugging away at the trails - loop around the base of a hill, up and over, do all the little trails on the top and down the sides. The miles were adding up and the day was getting long. I was getting close to 25 miles and no where near finished with the project. Even so, it was time to start heading back home. I made a few little incursions into almost every area of the park on the way home, but I still missed a lot of miles. There was one whole section that I missed below the rim and another section inside the park. But it was still a good long run and a new adventure. I might have to go back and do it again...


Looks like a bowl of spaghetti more then a long run!


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