Ventured out on the course with my best water loving running buddy. We weren’t fast but all six crossings were thoroughly investigated. (Confession: we did break the leash rule at the water, I wasn’t as keen to get my feet wet. But no children were intimidated and no wildlife was harmed.)
My first sort-of-real run on this course, with 10 by 1-minute run/walk reps and a final half-mile hike to finish it off. Still nowhere near what I’d consider fast, but nice to complete a course at more than a walking pace! And at Sunday’s Lakefront Loops group run, I get to increase the run intervals to 90 seconds! The excitement! 
@tonya-engst and I hiked the course for a little pre-dinner exercise. The creek crossings are more of a challenge at the moment, and the one with the big trees in it has changed a bit with the weekend downpours.
8 by 90-second runs with 1-minute walks today brought my time down by 3 minutes. The beauty of run/walk progressions is that every effort gets faster by default. 
Ran this course with my SIL @lynsayayer on a perfect spring morning! Beautiful foliage and wildflowers have set in since the group run here a few weeks ago. There seems to be another tree down across the first stream (or maybe the water has just moved it to the path), and all the rain has made the creek crossings a bit…wetter. But delightful (and the hills are a challenging surprise every time!)
Seeing the Mayapples come up is a sure sign of spring each year!
This is a great course: so convenient having a quick accessible trail for when there isn’t time to commit to a longer effort.
I only had time for a shorter course before work this morning, and my dog wanted to come along, so I thought I’d give the Ellis Hollow trail another go (twice in 24 hours). I went as fast as felt safe with all the roots, rocks, and mud (last night’s rain made some of the hills pretty slippery) and was happy for the effort. There is some muck, especially toward the end where you bear left rather than going up to the utility pole, so trail shoes are recommended.
I saw someone finishing up at the parking lot when I was heading out. Took a quick look at the leaderboard for runs this am when I got back into service (I have no reception out there!) and I think it was Jessica Smith. Love to see runners out enjoying the courses!
Lola was happy for a quick drink at creek #4 (??)
I got a little turned around at the start and ended up running the first mini-loop backwards, but according to RunGo, I did cover the ground (and that’s the goal!)
It was a happy way to start the work week. Thanks for all you do @adamengst (and @tonya-engst) to put together the challenge each year.
That’s right—you can run this and any other Challenge course in whatever direction you want. Helps keep them fresh too. Though I’ll admit that even I have to think about these trails when I do the course in the other direction because of the overlapping loops. (And I usually come in on the side, since our land abuts the Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve on the other side of the power line cut.)
Well, it turns out that my trail shoes that I wore on Sunday on the Blueberry Patch were still wet from me hosing them off. Gross, I know. I had to bust out my new pair of Altra’s that I purchased sometime in the fall after the latest model came out and my husband ‘give’ me for Christmas.
I took a ‘before’ picture of my new shoes:
I decided to scan the QR code in case someone showed up after me, and I could ‘steal’ a community star, and then I was off.
This course is so beautiful!! Unlike Sunday, I didn’t want to embrace the muck because I wasn’t ready to get my new shoes all dirty. I was able to navigate the stream crossings, and most of the trail was dry. In the few spots that were wet, I was able to skirt around them.
My hamstrings immediately were like WTH are you doing to me?!?!? They did not appreciate two trail runs so close together when I haven’t ran trails in months! The first mile felt more like 5. I cussed the Run-Go hill climbing notices a couple of times. One was just past a stream crossing when it told me I had made it to the top of the hill when there was an obvious climb in front of me!! I also had a stress response when I heard ‘switchback’ (thanks Lick Brook), but that section wasn’t too bad.
I arrived at the finish, scanned the QR to finish then scanned it again to start. Someone had just pulled into the parking lot at that time. By the second stream crossing, the runner had caught me, so I pulled over to let him pass and marveled at his speed! By checking the activity log, I’m pretty sure it was Andy Klepack as we both got a Community star. Thank you Andy!!
The second loop seemed to fly by. As I was heading down the hill towards the driveway, I used my arm to swing around a tree and ended up slapping myself on the a$$. I found it in at more entertaining than it was.
I was shocked that I finished my second loop slightly faster than my first. And I was pleased with how my new shoes faired on the course!
I was planning on doing two loops this morning, but had a bunch of errands so got a late start on this hot hot day, and then made the mistake of putting expired milk in my coffee. No subsequent gastrodisasters on the trail, but didn’t have it in me for a second loop. Still, trail was mostly dry, as are my shoes for the rest of my errands. Will come back for a proper double effort on a cooler, better stomach day!
Heads up for those unfamiliar, the white posts on the blue trail are for a “story walk” in the summer, so any speedsters may want to get those fast efforts in before the (unaccusatorily) oblivious families arrive and block the whole path reading.
Simon (age 7) likes to try to make weekend plans for the rest of us, declaring things like “on Saturday, we will have pancakes for breakfast and then we will run the Ellis Hollow Challenge Course!” We don’t always go along with his plans, but that sounded like a good idea for today, so we did exactly that. It was a beautiful morning, and was our first challenge course of the year. Trails were nice and dry and well marked, and creek crossings easy. Glad we studied the course map ahead of time because RunGo wouldn’t work for me today, probably due to poor signal. Now Simon is already planning next Saturday’s run…
Glad to see everyone recording their 5K results over in the Lakefront Loops topic — it was a great weekend for a community 5K. I spent my mornings timing them, but managed to get home on Sunday and finish my weekend chores so I had time to run my home course with my 10 x 2-minute run/1-minute walk progression. The built-in advantage of getting to run more each workout is the my times keep getting faster and faster. One of these months I’ll run the whole thing straight through!
Stopped on my way home from work. After over a week of just one mile walks a day, it was nice to get back to trails and vert.
Oh my heart!
Lovely morning for a trail jog/hike. Weather was amazing and I saw lots of wild geraniums, northern starflowers, and a new to me flower (fringed polygala, ooh la la). Must have pulled a calf muscle at Thom B last weekend (blerg) so I walked the uphills. That gave me more time to enjoy the flowers and birdsong. The woods are glorious this time of year.
We must have just missed each other. It was a gorgeous morning to run it!
I think I saw you passing the kiosk just as I was arriving! yes, perfect day for it.
@DamianClemons is working on the ultra challenge today so the girls and I got in the car to go cheer him on! We met him in the parking lot where he was taking a moment to regroup, reapply sunscreen, hydrate, etc. He took off and the girls and I slowly followed with a nice hike. When we reached the kiosk, there he was waiting for us. He didn’t feel comfortable leaving us in the woods without cell service. I can’t imagine why, I’m impeccable with navigating trails. 
We then all went for ice cream and he continued on his quest. I’m so glad we could meet up with him.
