Ten Mile Trail Run at Tribble Mill Park

I usually like to get my long runs in around the house.  I know there are many other better places to run, and some very nice trails within just a short drive, but when it comes to a long run I like to run from home because I know it is already going to take me 90 minutes or longer to complete the run, and I don't want to add the drive time on top of that.

Since I really don't like to travel for my long runs, I wasn't too excited when my daughter Payton told me right before church on Sunday that she and her friend were going to go to Tribble Mill Park in Grayson to do their long run.  Whenever she tells me this, I know that this means I am going to make a trip to the park.  Since I had a long run scheduled that day already, I knew it would be crazy for me to not take advantage of being at the park to get the long run in.  When I asked her, she told me that they were planning on running 10 miles, so this put pretty much anything over 10 miles out of the question for me.  I don't mind asking them to wait five or ten minutes, but anything more than that I won't make them wait alone for me.

It was quite cold all morning and the temperature read 39 degrees.  It felt much colder than that so I got everything ready and dressed for the colder temperatures.  When Payton's friend arrived at our house I made fun of her because she was wearing shorts, little did I know this would come back to bite me later on in the day.

I have run out there on several occasions and have always run the paved trail around one of the lakes.  My daughters and their friends always run the dirt trails but I didn't know where they were.  This time I asked Payton where they were and I headed to the dirt trails instead of the normal paved route.  When I first started I stayed on the wider trails to the outside of the park.  I ran almost 2 miles and then the woods opened up to a lake.  This lake is not the same lake that I normally run and is much more secluded.  The picture at the top of this post was one that I took during my run.

I made my way around the lake, hugging the lake as much as possible.  I was surprised to see that the trails were still pretty muddy in some areas from the melting snow over the past couple weeks.  One of the coolest things I saw was a beaver farm.  I am not sure what else to call it, but I saw some trees down near the lake that some beavers had obviously been chomping away at.  I just had to stop and take a picture since I have never seen that before.  They had fallen one tree and they were still working on the others (not that I saw any beavers around)

Once I made my way around the lake one time I decided to head off and try some of the smaller more technical trails which I really like to run on.  Some of the trails were very hard to follow since there were no signs to be found anywhere.  I am sure that if I ran here often I would learn them, and I am sure I didn't hit very many trails at all compared to what is actually out there.  I was more worried about getting lost and turning my 10 mile trail run into 15 or more miles, or even worse having to stop to ask for directions.

I headed around the lake a couple more times seeing my daughter and her friend on a couple occasions before starting to head back at the 7 mile mark.  I headed back the same wider trails that brought me to the lake.  I made my way out of the woods and I still had about 1.5 miles left to finish so I headed over to the paved trails around the other lake.  I ran out about 3/4 of a mile and turned around and headed back to the car.  I finished up just before getting to the car which they already had running trying to keep warm.

Speaking of keeping warm..... I found fairly quickly that I was overdressed.  It was not windy at all back in the woods and felt closer to 45 degrees, much warmer than what I dressed for.  It wasn't too hot, so I didn't do anything about it, but I did have to eat crow when I got back to the car and complained about being hot.  Payton's friend would not let me slide on that one unfortunately.

Before leaving I had grabbed the only recovery type drink that we had that wouldn't need to be mixed up.  I wanted it to go along with some water for after the run.  What I grabbed was some Gatorade Recover 03 which my wife had found on sale somewhere.  Just incase you are wondering about this stuff.  It is the absolute worst tasting recovery drink I have ever tasted.  I am sure it is chuck full of great ingredients for a great recovery, but it about made me sick.  I really don't know why they bothered putting any flavoring in it at all because it didn't help.  I would rather taste the raw flavor than try to dress it up.  Like they say, you can put a dress on a pig, but it is still a pig.

I was not asked to try this, and I was not provided with any samples.  I am sure if Gatorade ever sees this they will never offer me anything to review, but it is what it is - yuk!  They are my preferred sports drink, but I will stick with the basics from them from now on.

Where do you like to run your long runs?  Do you like to run from home or do you prefer to venture to some far away place to start?  What about this Gatorade Recover 03.... have you ever tried it?  If so, what did you think?

Since we are talking about my daughter running I want to invite you to stop by my Family Running page.  Please stop by to "Like" it and share it with all your running family and friends!


13 comments:

  1. I agree with running close to home ... when I'm done, I'm done - I don't need a long drive in wet clothes. Great run! Its cool you get to run with your daughter too. That's the highlight of my week!

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  2. How do so many people run with a camera?

    I like Gatorade G1 and G2, but haven't tried G3. I usually just during the G2 during and after runs.

    I have a few options for long runs that are within a 5 minute drive from my house, or I start at my house. I've driven up to 30 minutes to get to a new long run course, but I agree that it eats up extra time that I usually don't have. On the other hand, if I can find the time, it's a nice break from running the same courses over and over.

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  3. I am the same way. I like to do my long runs starting from home.

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  4. I like doing my long runs from home as well though I would like to start doing more trail runs if I have the chance.

    I have not tried the Gatorade recovery drinks because I have not found them for sale around here. I won't be looking very hard for them after reading your take.

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  5. I've never done a long run near home - so I guess I'd say I like to go away from home?

    I like scenery and I prefer dirt.

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  6. I live near several great trails and can pretty much step out my door to run them. But I usually only run them on my long runs.

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  7. Thanks everyone for the comments!

    Like I mentioned in my post above, the main reason why I like to run from home is time restraints. I am guessing that is part of the reasons some of you do as well. That would be really awesome to have several trails to run so close to home like Christi.... you are lucky!

    Andrew, are you saying that you have not done a trail run yet? I am trying to think and I don't remember you talking about one so I am not sure....


    Brian, I don't run with a camera per se and never have, however I do run with my phone most times when I am running by myself. It is habit I guess because most of my runs are 5ish in the morning by myself, and if something happens I don't want to be knocking on a door at that time of day. My phone has a great camera so I decided to stop and take a couple pics this time. One of the first times I ever have.

    Green Girl - I like scenery too, but the fact that most of my runs are so early in the morning the darkness kinda ruins the scenery :)

    As for the Gatorade, I am surprised nobody has disagreed with me on that yet :) I like many and most Gatorade so I was surprised to find that it was so bad!

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  8. Given the choice, I like to run away from home this time of year since the snow makes all my normal long runs short runs. The plows only go so far and I don't like regular Gatorade so I doubt I'd like that stuff..yuck...

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  9. Funderson, if you don't like normal Gatorade you might like this stuff :)

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  10. Hi Tim,

    I have an affiliation with Gatorade; however the comments below reflect my personal opinion as a runner. I read your comments describing your first experience with the Gatorade Recover 03 and I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t care for it. I volunteered at the Chicago Marathon expo last year sampling Gatorade Recover and I found that most people who didn’t like one flavor often liked another flavor. Gatorade offers three flavors: Mixed Berry, Lemon Lime Orange, and Strawberry Kiwi. I’d suggest trying a different flavor.

    I am training for Boston and there are no hills near my home so I often drive 30 min. to a forest preserve to tackle some hills to help me better prepare for the race. While it is a bit inconvenient I like a change in scenery. I’m an avid marathon runner and I found that Gatorade’s G Series Pro 03 Protein Recovery Shakes (vanilla or chocolate) taste excellent. I like to take a vanilla G Series Pro recovery shake with me for after my run. It’s a great way for me to get the protein, carbs, and electrolytes I need right away. I’d highly recommend you try the shakes which can be found at Dick’s and GNC. Please give Gatorade 03 a second chance!

    Best regards,
    Katherine

    http://www.gatorade.com/default.aspx#product?s=gseriespro-recover-proteinrecoveryshake

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  11. Katherine,

    Thanks for stopping by and for your comment.

    I will give the other flavors a shot when I get the opportunity, thanks for mentioning that. I would have just figured they would all taste bad.

    As for the recovery shakes, I am always up for trying those. I have some that I am using right now that I like, but am always up to try new ones. Thanks for pointing this out, I wasn't aware that Gatorade had that kind of product.

    Good luck with your training for Boston, and thanks again for stopping by and commenting!

    Tim

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  12. Given the choice, I like to run away from home this time of year since the snow makes all my normal long runs short runs. The plows only go so far and I don't like regular Gatorade so I doubt I'd like that stuff..yuck...

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