the Way of the Turtle

3 Hour Run at Mendon Ponds
Monday, July 31, 2006

The heat and humidity smothering the northeast makes it very difficult to do long runs. I was originally planning to run 16 miles or so along the Genesee Valley Greenway; unfortunately, that's mostly in the sun, and I knew I couldn't handle four hours of running in the sun in this heat. So instead I headed over to Mendon Ponds for a shorter, mostly shady but much more hilly route.

I warmed up by running the trails through the woods from the beach lot and then over along the shore of Deep Pond. Hit some very wet sections - bright green frogs bouncing every which way as I made my way through. From there I headed up into the hills in the eastern section (where I ran the Powerbar Trail Race back in June.) All too soon I was out of the shade and in the eastern meadows, but then did a loop in a pine forest along the northeastern boundary of the park. That was a nice relaxing gentle downhill, until I hit the second half of the loop and discovered that what goes down must also go up... and up... and up... From there it was back into the meadows until I hit the dirt road to the water tower, at just under two hours. At that point I headed back to the car to grab more fluids, and after a very brief break headed back into the shaded hills of the east esker trails. Lots of up and down, some of it very steep... and lots of walking. The heat was really taking its toll, especially when I hit the open fields... ouch. But after another hour, I finally plodded back to the car, and headed back to Rochester to pick Ann up at work. (I'd given her a ride in that morning, so she wouldn't need to ride her bike in the heat.)

Some of the trails that I hadn't been on before looked vaguely familiar, so I checked out the Western NY Ultra Series photos of the course for the Mendon 50K and sure enough, that's part of where I was today (unfortunately, the toughest, hilliest part!) That does not bode well for how long it will take me to finish the 50K... assuming I remain in sufficiently good health to attempt it in November.

JMH