Looking snazzy in those green shirts!
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Jabba
After hanging out at Hammond Hill a bit, I grabbed a slice of pizza on the way to Duck Trails. The Ornithology Lab and Visitor Center is now open, with AC, nice bathrooms, and some exhibits. Definitely worth checking out. After loitering inside long enough, I head out on the trail. Felt pretty nice in the cooler woods and there are some new wildflowers showing.
Does anyone else see a resemblance between the Goldsworthy egg cairn and Jabba the Hut?
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This was part of my trail challenge day, so here are the links to all of my posts from the day: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Up next in my challenge was Duck Trails (I tried to map out the shortest drive). After getting lost briefly amid a pack of birdwatchers, I enjoyed this route just carrying my phone and my keys – no hydration pack or nutrition for such a short segment.
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If anyone was looking at the activity log they might have noticed I knocked out three of the trail courses early and in good time and then disappeared for six hours. After completing FH Fox I went home at 7:30 to do stuff with the wife and kids. Turns out the boys had been up since 6:00 rampaging around the house, which is unusual, and Hayley was already worn out. So much for finishing the last two courses before our planned family trip to the revamped Stewart Park splash pad. I couldn’t ditch them just to finish the runs.
Fast forward to about 1:15 p.m. After an hour in the splash pad toddler melee, playground time, several carousel rides, and lunch at home, both 4-year-olds surprisingly were ready to crash but yet good tempered. At 1:20 they were out like headlamps, which meant I maybe had time to finish Duck Trails and HHH before the 4:01 p.m. cutoff while my wife got a chill afternoon.
I grabbed my gear and hightailed it to Sapsucker. By now it was 90° and some of the loop is without tree cover. My legs felt like lead from the start. I slogged through what felt like a much slower pace, tore off my drenched shirt, and quickly took off for Hammond Hill at 2:10. Finishing the last course on time was sure gonna be close.
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Run Ribbit Run
The frogs are quite vocal in the large front pond by the visitor center and the ‘Stadlen’ pond after the road crossing every time I do this course. Ran with just my phone and despite slowing to a walk past numerous birders, logged my fastest time on this course (still slow due to some picture taking). The lily pond is almost covered over
and there are some new wildflowers
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Early morning run 
before work. Just a short one as I’ll be mucking a barn with 40+ horses tonight 
I PR’ed though so 
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In all the times I’ve run Duck Trails, I don’t think I’d taken a photo with the cairn. Now I have one with a bug too.
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Gosh it feels like forever since I’ve done any of the courses. 
But it felt so good to get back out this morning after a whole week off of running.
But I’m such a weird nerd 
I was excited to see freshly painted lines in the parking lot 
The week off of running on fresh legs and the cooler temp this morning, I shaved off ten more seconds on my time
Saw quite a few more runners than usual this morning
not sure if any were Challenger’s 
anyway great to always see others out there 
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A little lunchtime run through Duck Trails (+extra)
Found these beauties but do not touch.
1st off shouldn’t take anything from the sanctuary
2nd they are likely the poisonous Jack-o’-lantern 
but man are they pretty 
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What a lovely cool morning for a run. I was so lucky to have Kieran join me this morning. Sadly he is a bit injured and only home for a week so didn’t join the challenge this year.
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I finally made it back to Duck Trails! Glad I did better navigating the course than I did finding the start/finish sign. 
All the different parking lots …
It sure was humid this morning, but foot traffic and bugs were minimal.
I can’t believe another Challenge soon will be coming to an end. I do so enjoy them.
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With this run in the books I met my new unofficial goal of running 100 miles in the Challenge! I came prepared with bug spray to keep the hungry little predators at bay. Between Duck Trails and FH Fox yesterday, I got the last 7.4 miles I needed to hit 100. Would it have been easier to do one of the longer courses and finish in one fell swoop? No.
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I had wanted to run some of the Challenge courses faster, but having earned my medal, my goal recently has been to rest my foot in the lead-up to the cross-country season. The trails of Sapsucker Woods are perfect for a sore foot, so this course has been my go-to run recently. I ran/walked it with Sandy Gregorich today (after she ran the Groton Labor Day 5K, which I was sad to sit out from this year), and she took my photo at the end.
If you want to know more about racing with the FLRC/High Noon cross-country team, check out this announcement. I am co-captain with @adamengst—FLRC (me) and High Noon (Adam), and we are looking for runners who want to try hard even if it is amusingly ridiculous—most of us Challengers fit that description. We need over 50 runners at each race to fill out our age-group teams, and we have a lot of fun.
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