Use this topic for posts to collect community stars for the Dryden Lake Lollipop course.
Here’s how it works.
After a warm Cornell Scenic Circuit and an even warmer Lakefront Loops 5K, I went home to my meeting, and then took a nap with the cat, waiting for the day to cool off. Around 9pm I began my run on this course. I don’t live far from the Jim Schug trailhead, so I began there, looped around the lake, and finished with the last and first parts of this course. Running on Jim Schug and Dryden Rail Trail at different times of the day means different wildlife will be out and about. Due to the rain earlier in the day, the amphibians were aplenty! (More frog and toad pics on my Strava.) Also out and about were lots of spiders whose eyes glitter in the headlamp light - I dubbed them aliens during a delusional last 10 miles of my first 50 mile race, when they were hanging from the undersides of leaves.
Lake Rd. wasn’t horrible, but the leg I am trying to rehab didn’t like the camber, so I spent as much time on the yellow lines as I could. I don’t recommend doing this on high traffic days, but at 10pm I only had to deal with two cars and my leg was happy.
After a quick stop back at home for a water break, I began the second, shorter half of the journey. I reached the sign by the village court just after midnight. Unfortunately Toad’s was closed. My energy faded with about a mile and a half to go, so I walked the rest of the course after Spring House Rd.
I wanted to get out early today for a Challenge course or two. When I found myself wide awake at 5:00 a.m. I figured it’s a good day to knock out the Dryden Lake loop and was running down the rail trail by 5:30. Dozens of rabbits’ eyes reflected of the headlamp glow in the pre-dawn miles. If 2022 was the Year of the Turtle on the DRT then this is now the Year of the Rabbit. The RunGo directions were spot on for the three or four turns. I saw one runner and a walker or two and otherwise had the 13.1 miles all to myself.
A wonderful day to Hike the longest Course!
So full of hope, ambition and energy 
er…fun)On the walk around the lake we looked for a good spot to sit for lunch. Only then realizing it was a road walk around the lake with no one really safe to sit. 
Great View Though!!
So we had to veer off trail back into the park (were we also found a bathroom btw, just fyi)
Had a nice lunch
But then realized the breeze was quite chilly when we stopped walking 
But man, 
we were all tuckered at the end!
You can see were we back tracked into the park and had lunch if anyone is curious where the bathrooms (outhouse) are
Long runs are not a priority for me right now (I’m training for 800m track races, including one at FLRC’s Trackapalooza in July) so I had planned on waiting until the end of my track season to run this one. But motivation struck today, so I took advantage of it and did my best to run a fast but controlled Lollipop.
I settled into a nice groove for the first 6 miles. It’s a gradual uphill, but it feels almost flat on fresh legs. I worked a bit harder to get up the big hill on Lake Road. It felt great to crest it knowing that I could coast down most of the way back. With gravity’s help I cruised my way to the finish. I pushed the last mile and wound up finishing in 1:26. En route I snagged a course record on the lake loop Strava segment, but there are some very fast runners signed up for the Challenge so that mark will surely be lowered soon.
This is one of my favorite courses so far. There’s plenty of nature to enjoy, and and no need to pay attention to roots, trail blazes, or RunGo directions.
