Race Report: Wo-Zha-Wa Run (Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin)

I ran the Wo-Zha-Wa Run in the Wisconsin Dells last weekend.  This is my third or fourth entry in this race and it is one of my favorites to revisit every year.

The Race:

The Wo-Zha-Wa Run bills itself as "Wisconsin's Oldest Long Distance Run" and this was its 48th year. The race offers a 4-mile option and a half marathon. Having run a half marathon in the Wisconsin Dells once, I always opt for the 4-miler. The Dells is an extremely scenic tourist trap, and while the four-mile race is gorgeous, the half marathon has to avoid the crowds and trots runners out to some hilly but dull farmland outside of the Wisconsin Dells proper. I ran it once - never again.

Why this race?

Simply put, this race is swag city. The technical t-shirt and finishers medal are nice, but the real prize of the day is the Wisconsin Dells attractions pass given to all finishers. The pass offers free admission to a bunch of Dells-area attractions, including boat tours, mini golf, the amphibious Original Wisconsin Ducks[1] (DUKW) tours, and more. I'd guess the pass is worth about $60 if not more. Not bad for an extremely cheap race.

My training:

I'm training for my first 50K right now, and I've been doing a runstreak since June 1. I also do Crossfit a few days a week. My training plan is basically the FIRST (Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training) plan of one weekly long run, tempo run, and speedwork, plus daily running for the runstreak and crosstraining via Crossfit. Not a traditional training plan by any means, but it seems to work for me. I average 35-40 MPW under this plan.

Precedent

I'm slow. Rather, I used to be slow (oooh, that's foreshadowing!). I spent 4+ years as a 11-12 minute miler, and I could hit a 10 minute mile for a single mile on a treadmill once in awhile. But since I started training with the plan described above, things have improved. My last Wo-Zha-Wa run was my previous best, and I came in at just under 40 minutes. I was hoping for a big PR this time and aimed for 36:30. I felt confident about that goal.

Race day weather this year was perfect - 50s and sunny. I wore my InkNBurn Robot Capris and got a ton of comments on them.  I joked with a few people who commented on them prior to the race that my bionic legs would make me run faster.  Little did I know...

Mile One

While I had my Garmin on, I decided to run by feel for the first mile. I've run the race enough times to have the course in my head, and I figured I'd aim for a 8:50 pace for the first mile which sloped nicely downward so I could bank a little time for the big hill at mile 3. A mile in, a woman I was running nearby commented that we hit the first mile in 8:12 WHOOPS. But I felt good, so onward.

Mile Two

I kept pushing on, focusing on foot turnover and breathing. I collected my hi-five from the race's founder as I do every year at 1.25 miles, and I saw a cute little boy on the sidelines faceplant as he was trying to catch up to his dad who was running just ahead of me. A true runner, he instructed his son to "walk it off, kiddo!" and didn't slow his pace at all. Noice. I kept on keeping on and found that Mile 2 passed at a 8:08 pace. WHOOPS. But I still felt good, so onward.

Mile 3

The terrain changed as the course moved off of the nicely paved streets of downtown Wisconsin Dells and onto the shoulder of a highway. The road was gravelly and choppy so I had to pay more attention here. There were some gently rolling hills. It was nothing terrible but it definitely weeded out the people who don't train on hills. I dropped a few people I was running with during this point. And I knew the big hill was coming up, but so was some of the most scenic, wooded parts of the race. The leaves weren't turning yet as they were during previous years, but it was still a beautiful sight. And then came the big hill.

This was the first year that I didn't walk at least part of the hill. I put my head down and powered up it. And it didn't feel quite as big as it was in previous years. I was sure I lost some time on this hill, but no. I checked my Garmin and saw I made Mile 3 in 8:03. WHOOPS. And I was starting to feel a little gassed.

Mile 4

The race ends back at the Wisconsin Dells high school, finishing with a victory lap around the track. I struggled a bit at this point as we wound through residential streets.  And by "a bit" I mean I really did struggle.  I put up 8:40 for the final mile.  Which, in retrospect, isn't bad considering I had planned to run the whole race much slower.

Final official time: 33:51 Fastest mile (per Strava): 7:50

I collected my finisher awards and later found I was third in my age group. Me, a back of the pack runner! Damn. 29th overall out of 139, and 13th female overall.

I finally feel like I don't have to start my conversations about running with "I'm really slow, but...". I'm still not fast, but I'm finally getting faster. It's working.

Tough Mudder Wisconsin - September 12, 2015

I did the Wisconsin Tough Mudder on Saturday.  If you haven't done the race before, you may know it as the long mud run (12-ish miles) with the electric shock obstacle (as opposed to Spartan Race, Warrior Dash, or the zillion other mud runs that have popped up).  I've done plenty of other mud runs and lots of other regular running races, but this was my first Tough Mudder.

Tough Mudder is not timed; rather, it is about teamwork.  Some of the obstacles are literally impossible to do without a team.  At first, that was really off-putting to me.  I'm a solo runner and I like to race the clock.  That said, the teamwork stuff was actually pretty cool.  Most of my team consisted of friends-of-friends who I hadn't met prior to the day of, and over the course of run I felt like I really got to know these people and could happily hang with them over some beers anytime.   I guess helping people in and out of mud will do that.

The Course

The course varies from state to state of course, but they really hit a home run in Wisconsin by having this at Road America.  They used the miles of rocky, rooty, rollercoaster hills on their offroading trails and it was fantastic.  My trail runner heart had a blast bombing down the hills and chugging up the steep inclines.  I want to go back and run the trails again and again.  There were plenty of long segments of running in between the obstacles, so unlike some of the shorter obstacles courses, there was plenty of time to stretch the legs.  I loved it.

The Obstacles

Honestly?  Pretty fun.  There were tall walls to scale, barbed wire to snake under, mud to forge,  heavy logs to carry, etc.  Some of the more memorable obstacles included the "Arctic Enema" which was a waterslide that lands in chest-deep ice water, "Everest" which is a slick half-pipe that you run up (and if you are part of the 95% who can't scale it without help, you hope for some strong arms to grab you and haul you over the crest - plenty of people are willing to lend a hand to help a fellow Mudder, so no problem there).  I loved watching King of the Swingers which involved jumping off of a 15 foot platform to grab a swinging bar and landing in deep water.  Incredibly fun to watch, but as a non-swimmer I had to opt out of this one.  "Electroshock Therapy" involves shocking electrical wires that you basically have to put your head down and power through.  I took a good shock to the hip that rocked me, but other than that it was okay.

I made some pretty big assumptions that Tough Mudder would have the same AROO!BEASTMODECROSSFIT4LYFE attitude that the Spartan Races have, but it doesn't.  Tough Mudder is about working with your team to make it through any way you want.  If you want to run Tough Mudder, that's cool - no one will look down on you for making a run of the course.  If you want to walk it with your friends, that's cool too.  Make it an 11 mile party?  Sweet.  You do your Tough Mudder your way.  I've been on both ends of the spectrum, from the balls-out Spartan Races to the "let's take 2 hours for this 5K and then go get a cosmo and donuts" Dirty Girl mud runs, and this was a nice in-between.

So, all that said, was this the smartest race to run 3 weeks before my 50K?  Maybe not.  The potential for injury in an obstacle course race is pretty big as there's lots of room to fall, turn an ankle, etc., but I think I got a huge benefit from the hillwork I did and the time on the trail.  I'd definitely do it again in a heartbeat, especially off-season.

Finally, here's the obligatory team before and after pics.

Photo Credits:  Jeff Hammes.  Aren't these amazing photos?  I am blown away by how great the pictures turned out.

Shoe Review: The Hoka Speedgoat

As a disclaimer, I'm a huge Hoka fan. I've worn the Stinson Trails, the Constants and the Bondi Bs previously, so I've been counting down until fall which is when the Hoka One One Facebook page said their new Speedgoat model would be available. So imagine my surprise when I checked Running Warehouse in August and found that they claimed to have a pair in stock in my size. I ordered.  They arrived.  And I put on some miles.

Background:

By way of comparison, I had been running in my current Hoka Constants for about 450 miles. The Constant is Hoka's answer to the stability shoe, and I found them to be like a cross between the Hoka Stinson Trail and the Brooks Adrenaline. I mostly like them.  The issues I had with the Constants were relatively minor: they have a worrisome pressure point on the right foot which never caused any real problems. More troubling, they are such a horrible shade of lavender that no matter what I wore, my shoes looked silly. #runnergirlproblems Hokas aren't exactly the sexiest running shoes on the market, so when you combine their clownshoe-shape with a ridiculous color, you end up with some pretty silly feet.  #notcute So with the Constants starting to show some signs of real wear, I realized it was time to free myself from my purple prison and order some new shoes so I could break them in with plenty of time for a bunch of fall races.  With that in mind, I ordered the Women's Hoka Speedgoats, in glorious non-purple coral and blue.

What arrived was something else.  Something far more purple.

SERIOUSLY? THEY SENT ME THE PURPLE SHOES? As it turned out, the box was mislabeled - it said coral and aqua but contained the purple shoes.  I was torn:  I did not want purple, but I did want my shoes. I had to decide to either take advantage of Running Warehouse's return policy, or nut up and wear purple.  So I choose to start wearing purple. Aside from their purpleness, the shoes look great. The grippy treads look like they'll grab the trail nicely, and with Hoka's signature marshmallow cushioning I won't feel every little pebble under my feet which is my big complaint about pretty much every other shoe. The placement of the Hoka name on the shoe is a little odd - I like it, but doesn't it look like it says HO HO? Or is it just me? #ordoesitsayOHOH

Initial Impressions:

I took them out for a short 4 mile run on pavement/park path just to see how they felt.  Because I like to match, I pulled out one of my few purple tech shirts #InkNBurn and realized it actually looks great with the shoes. Will I grow to love purple? Doubtful. Maybe. I don't know.

I slip the shoes on and they fit true to size. My feet are not petite #yeti and I like my shoes roomy, and there's nothing unexpected about the general fit of the shoe. I have read other reviews that say the shoes feel sloppy or that the sizing is off, but that was not my experience. Perhaps I can attribute that to knowing Hokas and knowing how they fit on me. I immediately notice that they feel infinitely more breathable than the Constants, which is good. The Speedgoats have ample ventilation, while the Constants were definitely a little suffocating.

The shoes performed well on their initial outing on pavement/park path.  I was most impressed with their grippiness:  I crossed a few wooden footbridges that are notoriously slippery when wet, but the Hokas handled them well - no slippage, and no cause for slowing.

I checked my feet after the run and found no hot spots, no blisters, no redness, no negative effects.  So far, so good.

Trail:

In the weeks that followed I had the chance to take the Hokas out on some trail, including the well-groomed trails at Minooka Park and the wild singletrack at Estabrook Park.  They performed just as I expected:  very grippy, and not too much play on uneven terrain.  They handled roots and rocks easily. I did notice that the deep treads did pick up more than the usual amount of debris on the Estabrook trails.  I found myself kicking off some excess mud more than I'd like.

Complaints and Concerns:

I do have a few concerns about the Speedgoats.  I've read other reviews of them and haven't seen this mentioned so maybe it is  "me problem" but the top of the tongue is inexplicably razor sharp and it jabs right into my ankles if I'm wearing no-show socks.  The obvious solution is to wear higher socks, but I'm surprised that this is even a problem.

The other concern is that I'm noticing a bit of rub along my pinkie-toe on longer runs.  I've heard that the toebox width is a common criticism with Hokas although it hasn't been a problem for me until now, and it only seems to happen with certain socks.  Again, perhaps an easy fix just by figuring out which socks don't work with these shoes.  I'll need to do some more experimentation.

Overall, I like the Speedgoats a lot and I'm happy with my purchase.  Because of the toe/rubbing problem that I've developed I didn't trust them to run the Badgerland 24-12-6 (and really, I didn't need trail shoes for a track race anyway) but I am hoping to have them squared away for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50K in October.

Thoughts on a 100 Day Runstreak

I've heard it time and time again:  rest days are important.  You can't run every day because your body needs to recover.  Running every day is a recipe for injury.  Respect the rest day.

But then I read about the runstreakers - the men and women who run every single day, rain or shine, sometimes for years.  Sometimes for decades.  I read a few articles with mild interest but didn't think much more about it.  While there are plenty of article extolling the virtues of the rest day, I reasoned that running just a mile each day probably isn't going to be harmful to someone who isn't injury prone and who is used to running distances.  But it wasn't something I had considered for myself.  I like my rest days.

Then on June 1, 2015, my Crossfit box posted a message with its workout of the day challenging us all to run one mile each day for a full week.  Since running is my thing, I considered doing a run streak of my own: something more than a week, but less than forever.  So I challenged myself to run every day in the month of June.  The rules:  one mile.  It can be slow.  It can be outside or on a treadmill.  But it has to be at least a mile.  I declared my intention on Strava, thereby making it officially official so I couldn't back out.

It wasn't easy.  My first half marathon of the year was in mid-June and I was worried about not taking a few days off of running beforehand.  That fear was unfounded, and I PRd my race.  Then I got a bad cough and chest cold and wondered how anyone could run through feeling sick.  I lamented about it on Facebook and some runstreak friends told me to get out there and do my mile.  I did, and strangely enough, I felt better.  Before I knew it, June was done and I had ran all 30 days.

Then July ticked by and then August.  I ran at least a mile each day, usually more.  And I became a stronger runner.  Sure, there were days when my calves just felt tired.  Never painful, never injured, but tired.  Those would have been cause for a rest day in my pre-streak times, but the runstreak version of myself just ran an easy mile on those days.  There were days that weather and scheduling made a run difficult, but with some finagling I always managed to find ten minutes to eke out a mile, even if it was a treadmill mile.  Most days, I felt good.  I put up decent mileage each week, and even in the heat of summer my "easy" pace got quicker.  Whereas last year I struggled to put up a single ten minute mile, this year 9:30 became a comfortable pace for a reasonable number of miles.

Robot Capris from InkNBurn.  I seriously love them.

I never intended to have my run streak last 100 days.  It lasted through races, through speedwork, through tough Crossfit days where two-a-day workouts were the only way for me to get my run in.  It lasted through illness and bad weather.   And now, on Day 100 - a milestone far greater than I ever intended to see - I don't see a reason to stop.

Ah yes, a self-indulgent photo montage.  I'm celebrating, okay?  

I find that I have less excuses not to run.  Before my run streak, a little ache or a bit of laziness led me to declare a rest day when rest probably wasn't needed.  Now I just go do it because it is what I do.  No excuses, no laziness, no looking for a reason not to run:  I just go do it.

I can't imagine I'll be a lifetime runstreaker - bronchitis or something awful in my respiratory system usually gets the best of me at some point and I'm not sure I'll be able to run through that.  But until then I'll keep on going, grateful for each day.  Maybe on to 200.

A Festival of Suffering (aka Badgerland Striders 24-12-6 hour race)

Hot and humid.

No shade.

No cloud cover, no sign of rain.

And you're running on a track.  For hours.

This was the Badgerland Striders 24-12-6 hour race.  I ran the six hour version, and before I give the wrong impression, let me assure you that it is a fantastic race.  Well run, great volunteers, great site.  An all-around class act event.

It was just really tough on such a hot day.

My goals:  

We've had an extremely mild summer, so I expected that a goal of 50K was totally reasonable. Race day weather had other ideas though: mid-eighties and humid, with a "real feel" temp of 90. With no shade and no breeze, that's rough conditions for a race. Ultimately, the heat kept me from hitting 50K over the course of six hours. My secondary goal was to eke out something just over marathon distance, and in the event of a really hot day I at least wanted to get a 20-mile training run out of the way. I ended up with 103 laps for 25.4 miles. I had nothing left to give at the end, so I have no regrets about how I ran the race. I feel like it was a good training run for my 50K in October, and I feel like I can manage my heavy race calendar over the next four weeks pretty well now that I have this high mileage run in tough conditions out of the way.

The race:

Back to the beginning: this race has a number of options - there's a 6-hour, a 12-hour, and a 24-hour race. For the people wanting to escape the heat, they offer a 6 and 12-hour option at night. There are also distance divisions where you pick a goal mileage, like a marathon distance, 50K, etc. - and keep going until you get there.  I opted for the 6-hour daytime version of the race.

Because this race is so customizable, it attracts a lot of people with interesting goals and great stories.  One of the volunteers mentioned that they have a repeat racer who aims to run his age in miles each year - he's 73 this year. One young woman was aiming for a goal of ten miles and she kept going past her goal to eleven miles.  Her dad was running with her and he was so proud of her accomplishment.  It was great to see.

The race is chip-timed, so each lap is counted. Pretty neat.

The race is held at the Germantown (Wisconsin) High School track. Runners are welcome to set up their own "aid stations" along the track, and quite a few families cheered on their runners from beneath shaded awnings and tents. The race also provided a great aid station with the usual ultra fare: water, Heed, Coke, PB&J sandwiches, oranges, watermelon, trail mix, chips, cookies and more. I brought my own cooler with ice and drinks, and although it was totally unnecessary since the aid station was so well-equipped, it was nice to have a place I could stash my shirt every few laps so I could put on an ice cold shirt every so often to cool down.

Pre-race, before the cloud cover burned off.

The day started out nicely, with plenty of cloud cover and a dense fog. The forecast suggested that the cloud cover would burn off just before race time but we were fortunate and it hung on until around 10:30.  The nice weather was tempered by the fact that they were inexplicably playing Michael Jackson's early catalog over the loudspeakers. I don't dislike MJ, not by any means, but I'm more of a Thriller-era fan. After about an hour of listening to that music I began to wonder if North Korea was taking notes as this seemed like an effective way to torture prisoners. I had enough and I went for my headphones. I listened to Amy Poehler's "Yes, Please." I love running with audiobooks, and I enjoyed that one for about an hour. I kept a steady pace for the first two hours and felt great, although I pretty much never need to hear Michael Jackson again in my whole entire life.

Around 10:45 the weather decided it had given us enough time to put in some miles, and it cranked up the heat. Heat plus humidity equals suffering, and suffer we did. The hot black track with no shade and no breeze made it feel much hotter than the actual temperature. There were times when the heat was absolutely choking. There were a few drops at this point, including one of the 24-hour runners who was totally burning up the track all morning. He was running so strong - I'm not sure what happened but I was surprised to see him go.  It was a sobering reminder that no matter how good your training is, shit can in fact happen on race day.

The race director provided mileage updates about ten minutes after each hour, and for the first two hours I was happily on target, around 10:30 - 11:00 miles - very sustainable - but I knew that the heat was going to be a game-changer. Plus, after I pass ten miles in any run, I become intimate friends with the restroom for awhile. I'll spare the details but hitting the restroom every 2 laps does not help one's 50K aspirations. By hour three I had given up my 31 mile goal, which I figured would happen with the heat, but I still wanted to get in something over marathon distance.

Boredom?

When I decided I was going to do this race, friends asked me how I was going to run around a 400 meter track for six hours without being bored. Part of the reason I signed up for this race because I thought it would be a test of mental toughness. And as it turns out, I was anything but bored. I listened to part of an audiobook, a podcast and some music. I socialized with other runners - I'm not usually much of a talker when I run but oh were these some of the nicest people - you couldn't help but chat for a lap or two before digging back into the task at hand. It never felt boring.

But the fiddling with my iPhone to access audiobook and podcasts did hurt me a bit. I crashed Strava twice in the process. The first time I only lost a few minutes of running, but the second time I lost a whole hour so I just shut the program down. That was a really discouraging - I love my Strava data, and I think if I had a better way of gauging my pace I would have been able to manage my mileage better later in the race.

After noon I started taking advantage of the cooler I had lugged to the sidelines and was stacking ice under my hat to deal with the heat. It worked well for awhile, and then it just gave me headaches. My hat was a great idea though - a ten dollar grab from Wal Mart and it kept the sun off of my face. Money well spent.  Around this time I also got some texts from my husband and son, and those gave me a boost.  I took a selfie to send them - my "I've been running for over three hours and it's hot and kind of miserable but I'm going to smile and pretend I'm A-OK and not actually dying" face.

Not dying!  Not dying!

After I abandoned my 31 mile goal I asked if I was on track to hit 27 miles. I was positive that I was but it turns out: I wasn't. I took it pretty hard and got discouraged. I really felt like I was still running relatively strongly, but apparently that wasn't so. I walked a lot after that. Physically I was beaten by the heat but mentally I was pushing on okay until then. The news that I wasn't going to hit just over marathon distance definitely took the wind out of my sails. It was tough after that. Very few people were running with any regularity at this point and eventually it really evolved into a timed carcass-drag to the six hour mark. My heart rate shot up and got fluttery a few times and that was enough to keep me to a brisk walk at the end. I crossed the timing mats at 6 hours, accepted a delicious frozen custard and enjoyed the shade of someone else's canopy for awhile.

This definitely would have been a different race in different weather, and now I understand why there are night running options. Overall, it was an educational race for me in that I learned what works for me (Sprite, please!) and what doesn't (food, mostly. And heat). If next year's forecast is like this one, I'll probably pass on this race but if we had something that was even a hair less humid I'll come back. It was fun, I met some great and really inspiring people, and it is a good opportunity to really define a goal and push myself.

And one final note:  somehow I managed to get a sunburn on my ass.  I promise, my ass was fully covered for the duration of the run.  I'm not sure how it happened, but, well...ow.

Rave Run: Waukesha to Wales via the Glacial Drumlin Trail

The Glacial Drumlin Trail is a 51 mile rails-to-trails path that connects Waukesha, Wisconsin with Cottage Grove.  The trail is flat, scenic, and on any mild-weathered Saturday home to bikers, runners, rollerbladers and walkers.  Some areas of the trail are canopied by trees, and other sections are wide open to the sky.  You'll find parks and towns along the trail, and you'll cruise by rivers, lakes and of course, drumlins!  (I had to look it up, too.  A drumlin is an elongated hill akin to an overturned spoon.  They are created by glacial activity).

But there's one particular section of the trail that I love:

Waukesha to Wales

7.0 miles each way (14 mile round trip)

You can begin this run by parking at the Fox River Sanctuary in Waukesha, located at 810 College Avenue.  The E.B. Shurts building has restrooms and a bubbler (that's a drinking fountain to you out-of-towners).  The trailhead is just to the West of the Shurts building, and it isn't particularly well marked, but you'll find the path leading into the woods fairly easily.  Make your way over the Fox River via a beautiful footbridge, pass the (active) railroad track and you're on the trail.

Along the way to Wales you'll find several street crossings, but they don't detract from the beauty and variety along the trail.  Wildlife is abundant, the plants are varied and beautiful.  You'll find Sunset Park on the left side of the trail a few miles in, featuring the an all-important (well, important to me) restroom.  Beyond that point the trail offers more variety in its scenery.  You'll find a handful of signs along the trail describing the scenery but I feel like the trail could use a few more informational points, particularly ones that describe the more obscure natural landmarks and formations.  Before you know it, you'll find Mile 7 of the trail in Wales, Wisconsin, and the must-stop site:  Mama D's Coffee.  (As you read this blog, you'll notice that I have a fondness for stopping for food on my runs.  For me, it is less about being fast and more about having fun).  

Mama D's is a sweet little coffee shop just off of the trail in Wales.   It caters to trailgoers like bikers and runners and features fantastic bakery and, of course, coffee.  You'll almost certainly run into fellow runners and bikers while you are there.  On my last trip there I enjoyed a Sunrise Muffin and a very good cup of coffee.  I wanted to stay longer and just enjoy the company of the other trailgoers, but I managed to force myself back on the trail for the return trip home.  

If you go:

There is no fee for walkers/runners/hikers or people under 16 on the path.  If you are over 16 and bike or rollerblade, you'll need a trail pass.  There are pass purchase stations along the trail, and Mama D's also sells trail passes.

Glacial Drumlin Trail East to West Cue Sheet

Trail Map

Happy running!

Estabrook Park (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

Milwaukee runners know that our fair city has a lot to offer by way of beautiful trails, great city routes and parks.  Estabrook Park stands out as one of Milwaukee's more unique offerings.

Nestled along the Milwaukee River just south of the Bayshore Town Center, Estabrook Park has a lot to offer the casual park-goer, including clean playgrounds, paved walking paths, a disc golf course and a dog park.  But for the runner, two things about Estabrook stand out:  the gnarly river trails, and the Biergarten.

The Trails

Estabrook Park plays host to a segment of the paved Oak Leaf Trail, Milwaukee's award-winning multiuse trail.  While the Oak Leaf Trail provides a nice way to get to Estabrook Park, that's not the trail I'm raving about.  The trail runners will want to get a little closer to the river where they'll find some gorgeous riverside singletrack.  Hills, gnarly roots, challenging steps, and rocky paths are all part of the charm of this riverside gem.  The condition of the trail depends greatly on the weather, and a big rain can make a huge difference.  A few years ago, segments of the trail were more or less underwater for much of the spring (although some brave souls forged new paths on dryer ground so the general trail was relatively passable).  Mountain biking is technically prohibited in this area, but the telltale bike tracks will remind you to use caution.  Estabrook Park's official maps only claim about 1.5 miles of trail in this area, although by my measure they stretch at least four miles as you can begin the trail as far away as North Avenue.

The view is okay.  I love running by the river.

This was the home of one of my first trail-running faceplants.  Nothing like going back to work after a lunchtime trail run with a bloody forehead.  

The Biergarten

Estabrook Park is host to the first Biergarten (you know...German for Beer Garden) to open in the United States since the prohibition.  This little parkside beerhouse offers a selection of German and American beers and a small food menu.  For the runner, this little oasis is perfectly situated:  there's nothing like a nice trail run followed by an ice cold brew in a frosty mug.

My $8 beer.  Worth every penny on a hot day.

There are few things to know about the Biergarten before you make a trip:  first, bring some ID with you.  I occasionally get carded there when I purchase my adult beverages, and I am far from 21.  Second, they do require a $5 deposit for their glassware, and they don't accept debit or credit cards, so be prepared with some extra cash.  The Biergarten's hours are limited and it is only open seasonally, so plan ahead if you want to enjoy a beer after your run.