Fun little run

I was happy to wake up this morning with nothing hurting or feeling sore from yesterday's ride.  Time to get ready for more training!  After a little breakfast and hanging out with the kids, Jason and I drove to the Saratoga National Park to run the 10.5 mile trail through the battlefields.  It was really cool running there, reminded me of my high school days running through Valley Forge.  A nice scenic run and really hard to imagine what it must have been like to fight for your life in the battles that took place there.  Jason and I started off together but he was feeling good and I was feeling pretty sluggish.  So around mile 3 I told him to go ahead.  He got ahead a little but then our distance apart stayed about the same, we were probably running the same pace but I just seem to run better on my own.  I had my camelback and sipped water as needed, then decided to stop and walk to eat a Gu at mile 5.  I also got my Ipod out and started listening to that.  As soon as I started running again, I felt so much better.  Not sure if it was the Gu or music, but I was happy to be running faster and feeling better.  The path was a road with a nice wide shoulder for bikers, hikers and runners.  We saw a lot of bikers and several shouted words of encouragement or gave us a thumbs up as they passed.  That was cool.  There were some flat areas but a lot of hills and a really big hill just before mile 8.  It was a tough one, but I plodded up it and didn't walk (not sure I was really going any faster though...)  The last stretch seemed to last forever and the parking lot at the Visitor's Center was a wonderful sight.  Jason finished just a few minutes before me and we were both happy to have had a great run.  Cooled off a bit then headed back to his parent's house, with a stop for a little treat along the way (coke and small bag of chips this time :).
A few pictures:

A view across the fields.  The mountain to the left is Willard, where we go skiing in the winter.

I thought this sign was pretty funny!

During our drive up on Friday, we added another race to the calendar.  It's so nice to have Smartphones, what did we do before them?  This one is a swim, The Steelmen Open Water Swim on July 15th in Nockamixon State Park (click HERE to check out their website).  There is a 1.5 mile swim and 3.1, we both signed up for the 3.1 mile swim.  As Jason said, a few years ago he didn't even want to run 3.1 miles, now he just signed up to swim it.  Pretty cool I think!  I checked out the results from last year and think I have a pretty good chance at placing in the top three in my age group.  Going to have to keep up the intensity of those swim workouts!
I'm really proud of us for sticking to our training plan and having a great ride and run this weekend.  Now we can relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend with the family!