Choose Your Own Adventure

Remember those books? They were some of my favorites. I think I probably read most of the possible "adventures" because I would inevitably make a decision that resulted in some disastrous outcome, and then "cheat" and decide that's really not what I wanted to do. Today's run was similar to that. Except the penalty for choosing the wrong adventure was extra miles and not a few flips of a page.

I started off with the intention of running 10 miles out-and-back on the bridle path, coming back to the car, and then heading out for another out-and-back of some distance on the greenway. I wanted to do 14 miles (to bring my weekly total to 50 miles), but my back and hanstrings were pretty tight so I didn't want to push it. Matt considered possibly running to Graylan and back (about 7 miles round trip) since his knee/calf was still bothering him. I had been toying with the idea of adding Turkey Creek to the mix since it was supposed to be an easy run and I figured some hills would be good for me. That sealed the deal, and I figured I'd head down Graylan when Matt left me and run Turkey Creek in the "good" direction. Then Matt's calf started bothering him, so he turned at the water fountain instead.

I didn't want to bail on my new training plan for the day. I caught up to my friend and talked to her for a bit, then headed down Graylan. And here's the problem. I've run this loop before. However, I have run Turkey Creek more in the other direction. And I have never run it alone. I know it connects to Graylan, so I was confident I could figure it out. So down the hill I went. And up a small hill, which I didn't really remember. However, I saw some people on bikes, and I know Turkey Creek is a popular route. And then I saw either some high school or college teams. I considered that a good sign too because if I were a coach, I would have my team run Turkey Creek as a "good" long run towards the end of the season. Then I stopped seeing anything I recognized. And I felt like I had been on this road forever. Way longer than I should have been. So I figured that I really didn't turn down Graylan, but some other path. It looked like whatever road I was on was continuing towards the back of the park. I don't know the back of the park really well. Then I saw a trailhead up on my right. It looked like it went in the direction I wanted. So I had a decision to make. My thought process went something like this:

• I don't know the back of the park. If I get back there, I don't know if I'd be able to find my way back to the bridle trail.
• There was one time that we did a long run and jumped on some single track that paralleled Turkey Creek for a bit and finished up on Turkey Creek. This trail kind of looked like it.
• Either way, the trail must lead somewhere. It is marked, so if I follow the markers, I will get somewhere new. Since the trail looks like it heads in the direction I want, this unknown option is probably better than the other unknown option (aka continuing on the road towards the back of the park). Unfortunately, I didn't have contacts in, and this significantly hinders my ability to run single-track. I can't differentiate between a rock, a stick, a snake, a shadow, or nothing...

So, right or wrong I decided to do something (as Sean would say). I took the trail. This, as it turns out, was wrong. It was a little while before I saw someone heading in the opposite direction. I counted this as a good sign because it meant that the trail must have another outlet; also, because I hadn't seen this runner before, I figured that the outlet must be different than the inlet. Then I saw three women a little bit ahead of me. They weren't running too much slower. And I hadn't seen then before either. So I figured that the trail must have multiple inlets and outlets. However, I am an engineer and not a detective. Good thing. I asked them where the trail ended up, and they told me it was a loop. It started and ended on Graylan. Huh. About 2min later I saw another, larger trail ahead of me, and a wooden bridge that looked familiar. I heard a shout behind me, "we think that might be Turkey Creek." I told them it was and thanked them.

Wahooo! I made it. However, although it looked familiar, it apparently didn't look that familiar because I thought I was about mid Turkey Creek. I was not. Also, I had another decision to make. Right or left. I forget which way I went, but I got to Graylan about half a mile later. Dang it, wrong again! I wanted to be going in the other direction. Oh well, at least I knew where I was and miles are miles.

The rest of the run was uneventful. I made it back in a little over 14.5 miles total, which was my goal. I also learned that I should always do the exact opposite of what I think. When I downloaded the run, I realized that if I had run less than a quarter mile further on Graylan (I had turned down the right path), I would have hit the Turkey Creek trailhead as intended.