Evening Falcon Trail

Falcon Trail

June 24, 2010

12.83 miles

2:27:21

11:29 min/mile pace

Ah, the joys of having an athletic daughter. Mondays are spent walking the golf course watching her play 18 holes in a local tourney; Tuesdays and Thursdays, and sometimes Wednesdays is softball practice in the evening. A misjudgment of time on Rick's part leaves me to take Jess to her practice this evening; even though I wanted to get out and run. Therefore, I am later than I wanted to be when I hit the Falcon Trail this evening. My goal was to endure the last heat of the day at 5:30pm and then do one full circuit around the Falcon Trail before darkness descended.

I actually get out at 6:35pm, an hour later than planned. We'll see if I have enough daylight to do what I want or not.

I park by the stadium since this gives me a "downhill" finish and I hop on the trail going clockwise. This is my favorite starting point, around the five mile marker and 3 miles before the gas station and restrooms and water. I am dressed very lightly since it has been a scorcher and I am wearing my camelback for the first time since the Dirty Thirty and the resulting sores on my back. All has healed and I now have a better relationship with my camelback -- I cover my back better and it provides me with needed hydration.

The beginning of this run is pretty hot and I am kind of glad for the delay in the start to my run. After stopping at the gas station to refill my handheld bottle and top off my camelback; I get back on the trail.

After the fire station, I hit my favorite section of the trail that runs along the bottom of a canyon or ridge. A stream passes through and you cross a couple of bridges and have some larger rocks thrown in for good measure. This is a very peaceful, quiet section covered by the trees and always makes me feel good when I run down here - except for the rock overhang on one section that seems to me would be a great place for a mountain lion to lie in wait for a runner to pass below. I run that section faster than the rest each time I'm on this trail!

At the top of the official trail beginning, I see a couple of cadets who have just raced each other up the switchbacks I am about to descend. They are young, and panting, and full of energy I wish I had when I was their age. Besides these two young men, I only see two other runners on the trail this evening - both are younger women enjoying their solo runs. I applaud them silently in my mind as I pass them and wish them good running for years to come.

On my way down the final hill/mountain, past the cadet area before the golf course, two mountain bikers overtake me from behind and inform me there is one more in their party. I wait for a moment but do not see him, therefore, I continue to run down the trail, looking behind me every-so-often and picking up speed. Nothing like the threat of being mowed down by a bike to give wings to your tired feet.

As I cross the road to the golf course, I notice the two mountain bikers have pulled off the trail and one is on his cell phone. Evidently their friend is either in trouble or the increasing gloom of night is making visibility not to his liking. I run past them and now really feel the speed pick up for me.

It is getting darker and darker on the trail and this section is through the pines. I can still see the trail and not to worried about that; however, now I have three mountain bikers behind me and I run this section pretty well waiting for them to overtake me at any moment. This never happens and I don't know why - maybe they parked at the B-52 and took the spur back or maybe they double-backed and helped the other mountain biker. In either case, I run scared of them all the way back to my car.

As I hit the gravel road next to the backside of the golf course, I debate whether to pull out my headlamp or not for the last half mile in the trees coming up. I decide against it; the trail is still visible and I pick up my feet a bit more to forestall me tripping over a root in the darkness.

Finally, after 9pm, I stop the garmin; I have completed the entire loop and I am ready to stop. Visibility is nil and I'm getting hungry!