Ian, Erik and I drove down to Ipswich, MA to meet up with GAC club member, Norm, to run the Stonecat Ale 50 course. Great to meet Norm, and he was an excellent host. The course is a 12.5 mile trail loop, and our original plan was to run it twice, but after one time around, we all decided the heat was more than we cared for and called it a day. Fortunately, we did make quite a few wrong turns, so we got in some bonus miles.
The course itself was great. It winds through beautiful forests and around several ponds and bogs. We also saw several deer, including a buck that had at least six points. As for the terrain, the hills are relatively gradual for the most part, very different from the steep, roller coaster ups and downs of Pineland Farms or Twin Brooks, two of our popular training grounds up in Maine. It made for a very runnable course. The usual rocks and roots do dot the trails, and parts were fairly technical, but any New Englander would probably be used to that.
Hopefully this will be the last heat wave, as we ran in temperatures that got above 90 degrees with high humidity. There was also a poor air quality alert in effect because of the ozone levels. Not an easy day, but we all had fun. Norm also ran the Vermont 100, so it was nice to talk to him about that and relive the memories.
Ran 13.7 miles @ 9:51/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 151/171
Trails.
Moderately hilly.
Upper 80s to lower 90s, humid and sticky.
