Raiders of the Lost (in the) Park

So this morning I decided I needed to go out and buy some trail running shoes. I've been doing some runs on the trails at local parks and after my experience running the Vineyard Stomp 5k I was getting a bit nervous about my footwear for the upcoming Moonlight Bootlegger 5k...so I went shopping. After looking around a bit at several stores I settled on a pair of New Balance 411v2 trail running shoes. They're stylish and felt good on my feet, and appeared to have all the rugged gripping devices I would ever need...and at less than $60 I felt they were just what I needed.

Now, I'm a sucker and a glutton for punishment. That's a given. So what do I decide to do after buying my new shoes? Break them in, of course. So I went out to a little wooded walking trail near one of the churches near me and went for a few laps. Clearly no one had used this trail in a while and I felt a bit like Indiana Jones coming through a cave filled with spider webs...I was covered from head to toe in webs by the time I finished a mile long run. Disgusted with the spiderwebs, and the generally boring terrain at this trail I packed up and rode a few miles down the road to Hagan Stone Park. I told myself I'd run a 5k along the Chatfield Trail, with which I'm fairly familiar. But, trying to be adventurous, I decided to run the trail in reverse from my past experiences. First mistake. I also decided that the rain wasn't that bad and it'd be ok running in the woods. Second mistake. Needless to say I got hopelessly lost at around the 2.5 miles mark and ended up coming out of the woods onto the service road. At which point the bottom let out. I got soaked, and ended up only getting in 2.75 miles, the last .25 miles of which I walked on pavement fearing damage to my new trail shoes. 

But, at least I got in almost 4 miles today. Hot, wet and bug-filled miles, but miles nonetheless.