Bear Mountain, Day Two

I got up at my usual 4:30 and went down to the Hampton Inn lobby to get cups of coffee for Denise and me. The North Face and Goretex race staff were already trickling down sleepily, not as frisky as they were the day before or would be in about 5 hours. Stepping outside and breathing in the early morning air, I could see a glow over the mountain to the east. Unlike Maryland, that glow in the east wasn't the sun, it was NYC.

Denise and I made it up to starting line in Bear Mountain State Park. The 5K race was the last to begin. Its a 5-star technical trail, the first Denise and I have ever experienced. Portions were so rocky that a runner had to jump from one small patch of mud to another to use the only soft, flat footing available. At other points, we were reduced to a rock scramble. The scenery was incredible, whether crossing babbling streams or running along the crest with steep drop-offs to a stream on one side and Hessian Lake on the other. Denise emerged at the end of the run tired, enthused, and an avid trail runner.

The Sunday competitors and spectators were not as campy as the Saturday crowd but running 3 to 13.1 miles on those trails is certainly a challenge. The weekend itself once again pushed back the mental barriers we all create for ourselves in our physically indolent lives that we let define and limit what we think we can do. Trail running is repeatedly showing me that many of our perceptions of our physical limits are artificial and limit us only if we let them.