Mill Stone 50k Preview Run
On Saturday, Feb 9th, 2013, the Rock Hill Striders hosted a preview run of the Mill Stone 50k trail race course. In either late July or early August was the last time that I had taken to these trails on the ASC Greenway.
Really, it could have still been August in my opinion. The weather had me out in shorts and a try-top. This is not your typical January morning. By the time my Garmin flashed up that we had run a mile, the sweat was already running down the side of my face.
The way they have it setup runners will be making three 10.5 mile loops of the course. We run from the picnic table area over to the Leroy Springer Center and then back. The trails run near each other but for the most part, they hardly overlap.
I guess it was the warm temps because the first 5 miles, I felt awful. By the time, we reached the Springer Center, I was seriously contemplating just doing one loop and moving my long run back to Sunday.
Over the next hour, I kept taking my Cliff Blocks and this seemed to be helping. We finished our first loop, and I headed for my car to "down" a half a bottle of Nuun that I had prepared beforehand.
Heading back out for a short loop with a few others that wanted some more miles, I started to feel a little better. I never really felt great but at least I didn't feel any worse.
Finally, just Scott and I were left. We kept at it until my Garmin read 20 miles. In reality we were easy pushing 21 to 21.5 miles with all of the twist and turns that my Garmin failed to record.
I had to thank Scott for dragging me along. I knew he was doing 20 and I just needed to push myself to keep up with him.
The course isn't overly technical. There are numerous climbs, twists, and turns. There are also a number of bridges to cross unless one wants their shoes wet.
Runners will definitely be challenged by the nature of the course, but if you love a good run through the woods, this could be a course for you.
Big thanks to Craig Marshall for organizing this run.
More details about the course can be found here.
Sharing one thought at time,
The Cool Down Runner
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