Reedy Creek at Umstead State Park

Time: 112:54
Distance: 16.62 miles
Pace: 6:46
Map

Last night I stayed at the luxurious Motel 6. Just because I have a job doesn't mean that I've made it. I noticed on my drive to Tom Bodet's best that Umstead State Park wasn't too far away. I decided in the morning to run in the park before visiting more stores.

I found the Reedy Creek lot without a problem and noticed there were already have a dozen cars already parked. I asked a group of women about a loop that I could run and they suggested the Mills something loop. I took their advice but found the trail to be filled of roots, rocks and damp leaves. It was a cold and drizzly morning which was not conducive to running fast on a sinuous trail. At about 20 minutes into the run I came across a main road and decided to turn right. I was headed in the direction of the parking lot and not too far away from my car when I spotted three guys clipping along. I was going to have to find another 40 minutes of running and was thankful that some decent runners were out and about.

I introduced myself and we got to talking about running, North Carolina, collegiate athletics, Umstead Park and more. Turns out that Liam Revel ran at Boston University during my time at Brown. He was a 3:50 1500 meter runner and still logs close to 100 miles a week. We had a good laugh about Jochen Dieckfoss, a German, who also ran at Boston University and was a stud cross-country runner and steeple-chaser.

Joe attended the University of Rochester in New York and is currently studying at Duke. He was a 5k/10k guy in college. Next year Joe will start work at Deutchebank so I assume that he is getting his MBA. I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't recall the third guy's name, but I never really heard it when we made introductions. He was very quiet throughout the run.

The trio was putting in 10 miles on the day and I had already logged nearly five when I joined them. They ended up running closer to 12 which means I nearly hit 17 miles. I was definitely fatigued by the end of the run, but was pleased at how I handled the hilly terrain. I probably would have struggled to find another five miles if I were to go it alone. Funny when five miles would have been tough and an extra 12 doesn't seem so bad.