Guana State Park - Saturday

Saturday was awesome.  Aaron got into town Friday night and we made plans for a weekend full of running adventures that would be modified because it was sooo cold.  When we woke up on Saturday he wasn’t game for heading out the door.  As much as I hate the cold I would still rather go in the morning especially when I have 20 to run.  Trying to make the most of the situation we headed down to the 26.2 Breast Cancer Marathon Expo to walk around.  I wish I was in the mood to shop because they had some great deals.  In honor of the event I wore my only two pink shirts on Sat. and Sun. 

Aaron and his 5k sticker I bough him at the expo.

After the expo we headed down to Guana River.  We were trusting the internet and a few people we asked at the expo that it would be worth driving the 45 min.  We thought there were going to be about 10 miles of trails.  Wrong!  There are easily 30 miles!  Granted not all in the park (only about 9 are) but still it made me sooo happy.  I loved getting to explore it with Aaron and have no clue where we were going until we found maps at the end.  It wasn’t stressful because it would be pretty difficult to get lost since there is water on both sides of the park.  

Proof that we paid.  At first we thought it was free for military but after running 

back up the road to ask the education center we found out it wasn't.  Back to the 

to get cash and back up to pay again.  We were already 1.75 miles into the run.

Heading off I had on my new Nathan backpack and I loved it.  It didn’t move or chafe at all.  The paths were all wide and mostly fire lanes.  The ground was compact and wasn’t very difficult.  Yes I will need to run more challenging trails but for now it was a baby step.  I started off slow but ended up negative splitting without any increase in effort.  So much wildlife: buzzards, wild bores (scary), ducks, cool looking plants, and an armadillo that could have cared less that he was two feet away from me.  

Post run at the trail head.

I finished soaking wet despite the colder weather (low 50s).  It was a little windy but manageable.  Cardio did great and I could have kept going.  Only negative was the left hip pain that started at mile 17.  We only stopped three times: twice to check trail markers and once at mile 14 to refill water/gatoraid at the car.  All the stops were less than a min or two.  I credit the success on the pre run Chick-fil-a biscuit: which I might have to do that again next time.  Or maybe it was because I had enough fluids and ate every two miles.  Waiting to run until lunch time turned out not to be so bad.

(pic)

After running we headed to St. Augustine nice and dirty but with clean clothes on.  It was freezing but we still had a great time.  We were just going to walk around the fort but we both got in free because of Aaron being in the military.  Even though he “didn’t want to be educated” Aaron ended up really enjoying it and might have read more plaques then me.  It’s amazing just how old the fort is.

(pic)

The biggest lesson I learned from this weekend is rest serves me well.  I biked and swam significantly less this week but ran the same.  I felt like I had so much more energy and was less fatigued.  It’s good to have a feeling like that after being trashed last week.