Lunchtime trail run

As I was headed over to the gym today, I bumped into Paul R. It was a great day for running, and I wasn't feeling particularly interested in spending it inside. Running with Paul is as good as a solid tempo workout. He likes to keep a manageable distance between the two of you: get too close behind him and he assumes the pace is too slow and speeds things up. We took a new route involving "the cut" out in a different direction from Malvern. After about 15-20 minutes of paved roads, we were on a back trail heading out towards some radio towers at the top of a pretty steep hill. The trails were blazed by what seemed to be local 4 wheelers and motocross riders. "The cut" was steep, unshaded trail that climbed straight up the hill to the top and crested at the radio towers. I'm not sure if Paul thought I wouldn't make it to the top, or if he just wanted to prolong the trail run, but we took a detour that meandered back and forth to the top. Which is worse: a quick painful death, or a long, slow, nagging one?

I promised myself I wouldn't stop to walk and didn't, for the most part, until we got to the top. Paul created some pretty good space between us, but I kept him in sight the whole way up. After we crested the hill, it was more up and down trail sections, until we finally took the long paved road down to the bottom. Paul mentioned after the 5-6 minute descent that it really put into perspective how high the hill actually was. True words.

We finished in about 50 minutes or so, and Paul estimated around 6.5 miles. Not too bad.