Catching up from late Summer...

Between work being busy, a 2.5 month house remodel, and DRC training starting up, I've been busy running but haven't had much time to sit down and write about it. So, I'll do a little chronology since late summer until last weekend's big adventure, which gets its own post.

Half Marathon Training

DRC training has been really fun this season. Debbie had a huge 2:30 pace group all to herself (usually two pace leaders, but this group really could have used 3, as it started out twice the size of a normal group) and since I was a "seasoned vet," I pitched in by being the caboose of our group, checking on stragglers, keeping tabs on who we lost so we could make sure they got back okay, etc.

It was a really rewarding experience to help runners reach new distance milestones, share some of the things I've learned along the way, and just enjoy the group's enthusiasm and hard work. I've considered being a pace leader next season, but I'm not sure I'm committed to the attendance requirements enough to do that. Plus, if I want to run the 20 miler at Whispering Pines in April, maybe it makes more sense to do the marathon training instead? I dunno. Still pondering.

Trails with Rosie

When I wasn't running with DRC, I was running with Rosie on a trail somewhere. We ran Eagle Mountain Lake, which she loved but I was only so-so about for some reason. I guess I like more woodsy trails and the terrain there was more hill country-like... scrubby mesquite trees, limestone, etc. It's very pretty and extremely runnable, but for some reason, I just couldn't get into it. Which make me seem super lame when you look at the pictures. Maybe I was just grumpy that day?

Then we went down to another Endurance Buzz race, the punishing Rough Creek. Rosie and I "only" did the 10k and were extremely grateful after the fact, because "rough" is right. Debbie did the half marathon and it was brutal. I have yet to see a picture that depicts how actually tough the hills were. Here's my best attempt, as I stood at the top and wondered if I could afford a helicopter rescue.

Had to bear crawl down this backwards.

And it's not so much that they were very steep, but that they were made of loose rock that just vanished under your shoes like wet fingers touching cotton candy. Plus, the day warmed up quickly and there was exactly no shade out there. The folks doing the 40 miler... oh man were they troopers.

During the boring part between the hills and the start/finish.

However, Rosie won 3rd overall in the 10k, but cracked her sternum in a fall at the top of the hill pictured above, so there was definitely collateral damage. Especially since the following week, we had plans to run the Lost Loop 12k and camp out at Lake Texoma the night before.

My first camping trip!

At the time, I didn't even realize how much pain she was in, but she was tough and we went ahead with our plans and I'm so grateful we did! It was a beautiful weekend and the Crosstimbers/Lost Loop trail is amazingly fun and diverse and challenging.

I could have done so much more with this weird floating rock formation. Disappointed in my lack of creativity.

Rosie wisely walked the whole thing (much to her chagrin), though I'm so slow and her legs are so long that we actually ended up together for much of the course, which was great because some parts were kinda scary and I would have been nervous to be alone.

So, I'm crushing hard on that trail and can't wait to get out there again. Unfortunately, I have a wedding to attend in Houston the weekend of Crosstimbers, so I'll have to wait a while. *sad face* I think most small races are 100% labor of love, but these two that Teresa puts on are even more so. It's the most low key race environment ever, but still well marked and great food and happy volunteers. Just wonderful in every way.

Somewhere in there, Rosie and I ran an equestrian trail up by Lake Lavon in northeast of Dallas. I hated it. Nothing but getting smacked by spider webs in the face. I spent most of the run shrieking and flailing. Never run trails without a tall, fast person ahead of you, kids! I have no pictures of this one, and I'm okay with that.

Showdown Half

Two weeks later, I got back on the road and did the Showdown Half Marathon (Hook 'em, Horns!) with Tina and Holly, both of whom were in varying stages of a nasty cold, so my time was pretty lousy, but since I was gimping a little bit, it was a good thing to hang back and take it slow. The rolling country course was very pleasant and not nearly as "hilly" as some claim, and the finish line goodies were first rate. Great medal, great shirt, great food, close parking. Can't really ask for more. It was my first Active Joe race and I'm looking forward to more (more on that in my next post).

Holly, Joanna (who I don't actually know), me, and Tina

Rockledge Rumble Tune-Up

Even though it wasn't her favorite trail, Rosie agreed to set out for Cedar Hill State Park with me to get some trail time in two weeks before my longest run ever, the Rockledge Rumble 30k. More on that in my next post, but I felt like mentioning this, because we actually both really enjoyed this trail the second time around. We did it in the spring and apart from some nice wildflower displays, it was rather ho-hum. But we'd only done the 8 mile loop. This time we did the 12 mile loop and it was really lovely! This is still a trail I'd avoid in the summer, though. It's more exposed than I would want and the snakes are aplenty, but it's pleasant, runnable, and nice vistas.

And that gets us up to last weekend...

Isle Du Bois (is the worst!)

Last year, Endurance Buzz's Isle Du Bois trail race was set to be my first trail race. Rosie and I were all jacked up for it, but unsure of what to expect. The "plenty of roots and rocks" description should have been a tip-off... all trails have lots of roots and rocks, but when it becomes the description of the trail, well.. it's LOTS of roots and rocks.

Anyway, Mother Nature took care of us and sent an ice storm that canceled our race along with the Dallas Marathon.

Ever since, we've wondered what we missed out on. So, when the North Texas Trail Runners hosted a run at IDB a couple of weeks ago, we went for it.

It's not the worst drive out to Pilot Point, around an hour from Dallas. The lake is low but nice, with a lovely beach area, playgrounds, and restrooms that didn't make me run away screaming (though I also didn't dawdle).

The trail is 4 loops (A-E, but A and B are basically one), and they connect in sort of stacking loops that go out to the lake in the middle of loop E. So, if you want any kind of view, you have to go out to loop E.

Doing the full loop is about 10.5 miles, so you kinda have to be in it to win it if you want any scenic reward for your trek.

And this is where I start complaining...

Okay, the views are okay, and you can pretty much just walk down to the lake when you get out there on loop E, which is fine, but you are walking through basically a giant ant mound to get there. Like, literally, don't stop moving or they will eat you alive, probably.

Neat.

So, there's that. But wait, there are more "no, thank you" moments at IDB. The temps were supposed to get up to 100+ the day we went, so we wanted to try and only do about 8 miles, so we were going to do 4 miles out and 4 miles back. But the 4 miles out were so grim and we had enough water left, that we decided to do the full loop just to avoid retracing our steps through not wonderful terrain.

And second half did getting a little more pleasant to look at, but by then, the rocks really started to get tedious. We found that we couldn't even run most of the trail. It was 10 yards of runnable dirt (or worst, sand), then 10 yards of rocks, over and over and over.

It was like running through a construction zone... like romping through rubble. Every time I'd start us running again, we'd hit loose rocks the size of lemons, which is just too unstable to run on safely (I'm sure plenty of people can, but I really don't know how). Especially as we got tired and our footing became less trustworthy.

There were a few nice inclines to mountain-goat up, but nothing special.

All in all, ugh. We weren't even done before we decided that we'd be volunteering at this year's IDB race. It's just no fun at all to run. So many better choices around Dallas.

That said, the beach entry to the lake was wonderfully refreshing after 3.5 hours of dragging ass around the rocks. I don't like being in lake water, but this hit the spot.

Anyway, at least now we know and, really, any time spent with good running friends is time well spent, even if our feet aren't fond of where we spent the time.

My Crush on Big Cedar Wilderness Trail

I love me some brand spanking new trail. Well, new to me, anyway.  But I wasn't too sure about Big Cedar, which is just north of Cedar Hill and Cedar Ridge Preserve down by Joe Pool Lake. I just hadn't heard much about it compared to the other two, and assumed it was a lesser trail system.

AU CONTRAIRE, my friends! Big Cedar had all the things I long for in a trail, plus some bonus candy that I wasn't expecting.

But first, let me set the scene: Rosie and I met Debbie at 7. There are a bunch of other runners also meeting, but they're faster than us, so we plan to just do our thing bringing up the rear. Also, for mid-July in Dallas, the weather was absolutely perfect. Low humidity, nice breezes, sunny (but the trails we ran were 90% shady). Just a beautiful day!

We were running the Ranger (white) loop, and then would add on if we felt like it. We started out on Ranger, then the group tucked over on the Dragonfly loop, which was an extra easy mile. Most of the main trail is shady, but you do cross through some utility easements that, while sunny (boo) must just be bursting with wildflowers in the spring and early summer (yay) and offer up some really lovely views out across the hills and valleys around there (more yay). So, that little bit of exposed running is worth it, even in the summer.

Near the exit to the trail head is this brick-paved hill. I've since come to learn it's called the Brick Climb, but I have named it Beyoncé hill. Thankfully, the bricks (set sideways so the holes are exposed) offer fantastic traction on this steep but fairly short climb, but it is just shy of requiring you to bear-crawl up the darn thing. We walked up it, huffing and puffing and begging for mercy (as I semi-joked that I wanted to do it again), got to the top and had a choice of either going back to the car or taking a intermediate/advanced trail called Man Bites Dog.

We quickly found the "advanced" portion of the loop... a long gravel slope that you really have to fight your way down to avoid losing your footing in the loose gravel. From there it was smooth sailing back to a bypass that took us... right to the bottom of Beyoncé Hill! I surprised myself by doing a little fist pump in my head, and charged up that sucker, running this time, like a wild horse. Well, a wild horse with two tired legs and asthma.

WOO! Man, I felt so good after that climb, despite my big time wind sucking! I dunno what it is, but a tough climb just fires me up like nothing else. Especially to have done it running the second time. I guess any time you discover a well spring of "Fuck yeah, I got this!" that you didn't know you had, it gets you jacked up.

From there, however, we started following the (many) Exit to Trail Head signs back to the parking lot and called it a day, but it was clearly one of those euphoric trail runs that left us all craving more.

I can't quit thinking about Beyoncé Hill and Big Cedar, even with my sore quads reminding me of how tough it was. I thought CRP was my favorite trail in Dallas, but it's relatively short at only about 6 miles. Meanwhile, Big Cedar has many of the same features (rocky slopes, nice views, shade), but much more area to explore. There's comfort in knowing a trail (and still loving it for its difficulty and complexity), but there's also that sense of adventure running a new trail that I think I'll get to enjoy for a long time out at Big Cedar. Ranger is certainly the longest trail, as all the other trails loop off of it, but we barely scratched the surface of the rest of the trail system.

The only downside to it is that it's a DORBA trail, which is good because they do a phenomenal job maintaining the trails and building new trails. But it's bad because mountain bikers often do not realize they scare the shit out of us by not announcing themselves as soon as they see us rather than 5 seconds before they're slamming the brakes to avoid hitting us.

Dear mountain bikers,
Love you guys, really and truly. But please understand that as noisy as you THINK you may be, we absolutely do not hear you unless you announce yourself. One quick, "Bike back!" as soon as you see us gives us time to find a safe place (no poison ivy or snakes) to step off the trail and get out of your way. And believe me, we do NOT want to be in your way. 

Your friends,
Trail Runners

I feel better getting that off my chest.

Anyway, other notables from the run were seeing my first BIG snake. I'd seen a little one out at Rowlett a while back, but this one was "shriek and run the other way" worthy... unless you're Debbie, who walked right up to it and said hello. She said it was a rat snake, which is still too close to "rattle snake" for my taste. Luckily the big guy (and I mean big) was charging across the trail rather than curled up sunning himself or something crazy. So we let him on by and then zipped by so he didn't get a chance to change his mind and come kill us.

The other notable was that Rosie brought me a salted caramel Gu to try. Oh man, was that thing sweet, but so delicious and given my energy level at the end of the run, I'd have to say it was successful. I think for our 2 hours of running, I ate only half a Payday, that packet of Gu, and a Probar Bolt gel. And I still had at least half a liter of water left in my hydration pack and could have gone another 3 miles. So maybe I'll welcome some of those packages runner gu/gummies back into my life.

More experimenting ahead! Happy trails!

Possum Kingdom 20k - 2014

Well, after a false start due to ice at Isle du Bois, I finally ran my first trail race yesterday. I had some reservations the day before when I realized I was going to a place called Possum Kingdom where the starting line is at Bug Beach. Possums and bugs. Things I'm not super fond of! Alas, I ran into exactly zero possums (well, maybe one roadkill version while driving), but plenty of mosquitoes in the bathrooms at Bug Beach (so tip #1 for PK: use the porta-potties).

Naturally, there is a cold front moving in the day AFTER this race, so while it was nice at the start, it got warm quickly, especially as the start is pretty much straight uphill for the first mile and a half.

And worse, the downhills from that just pounded my knees. I should have taken those slower, I guess, because I ended up having some bad pain in my left knee for a couple of miles after that. I ended up walking for probably half a mile, wincing every time I planted my foot/leg in a way that made it hurt, but eventually, it just... went away! It was bad enough that I thought if it didn't get better, I was going to have to DNF at the 6 mile aid station, which would have sucked. But I wasn't about to trash my knee.

Luckily, I fell back with a couple of other friends (and even behind both of them for a while), but caught back up as my knee started to behave, and stayed with them and a few other folks the rest of the way. As per usual with running, the latter miles fell into a nice rhythm and the prospect of a nearby finish line was enough to pull me through the sandy finish.

I ended up with a 3:22 finish for 12 miles, exactly 1 hour longer than 13.5 on the road. I went into this one with almost zero compete level in my heart, and mostly stayed that way from start to finish, though I really thought 3:30 was the best I could expect, time-wise, so I was pleasantly surprised. Still, I really didn't care much about the time, and didn't look at my Runkeeper at all. I put everything into Rock 'n Roll, so this race was just my reward for all that work and progress, and it was really a perfect marker for that.

Lake vista early on in the run

This was my first Endurance Buzz race (which figures, since it was my first trail race), and what a great job they do. Even though I only knew 3 other people there, it was a very familial environment with people taking care of each other. Amazing to me was that the folks running 52 miles or 52k would pass us with big smiles and a "Looking great! Keep it up!" as we 20k folks are slogging along. Different animals, these trail maniacs.

I found it very helpful to have memorized the mile markers where the aid stations would be, especially with water bottles running dry much faster than I'd been used to. Plus, the stations had a buffet of wonderful food choices, from Oreos to dill pickles. It's nice to have a selection, because you never really know what will sound good. I grazed there (mile 6.5 and 9.5) and ate two of my Payday mini bars, which as usual were exactly the boost I needed. I seriously need to get Payday to sponsor my running. I can sing the praises of those little guys all day long.

One thing I did wrong was not eating soon enough. It was 4+ miles before I even ate 3 jelly beans (Happy Pills) at the first unmanned aid station, and was 6.5 before the first full aid station where I ate more. Should have tucked into my payday bar at mile 4.

Also wonder if I need to down some endurolyte tablets or something along the way. I don't really like Gatorade or Nuun or things like that, but I know the salt in my snacks probably aren't enough for warm runs.

The course itself is certainly the most diverse I've ever run. From soft, easy single- or double-track to deep, annoying sand, to small rocks, boulders, and roots/stumps, this course had everything but mud and water. There are some really nice views along the way, though Possum Kingdom Lake was VERY low and has been for several years, so it's a little sad to think how much nicer it must have used to look.

There was a fair amount of two-way traffic on the trail, which was good and bad. I think I enjoyed the areas where it was a loop and we were on our own and not having to get out of the way of faster runners in the opposite direction. But it was cool to see how easy they made it look and how friendly they were, so that definitely enhanced the "newbie" experience for me.

For this race, I'd probably invest in some gaiters or plan to stop and shake sand out of your shoes after the Hamilton Rd. crossing (that's where the sand is done with for the most part, until the final couple of miles). It felt like I had sandpaper socks on and I HAD to stop and dump my shoes out or I would have had raw feet by the end. Maybe my shoes are more porous or something.

Rosie, who finished 30 minutes ahead of me and 5th in her division, because she's awesome, and I had talked about doing Whispering Pines next month, and after the race, she said, "No way. I'll come volunteer if you run, but I'm done." And I said, "Yeah, I have no interest in doing that now. I'm done."

Well... I woke up this morning, my quads throbbing, and thought, "Yeah, I want to do Whispering Pines." It's only 10 miles! :) I really didn't feel nearly as bad yesterday for how hard the race felt, if that makes sense. And today, the day after, my quads are sore, but that's really it. I feel great otherwise.

So, I need to see how it fits into my schedule, but yeah, WP's probably going to happen. I'm going to have to find recipes that use lots of honey if I keep running these EB races. I think I'm kinda hooked. Of course, all it may take is a confrontation with a snake to send me back to full time road running. :)

Happy trails!

Grapevine Lake North Shore Trail

We continued our trail running adventures in preparation for Isle du Bois out a Grapevine Lake and the North Shore trail Friday afternoon. We thought we'd avoid a good bit of bike traffic by going out on a weekday, and given that we still saw a fair bit, I think it was a good move.

We started from Rockledge Park, which costs $5 to enter. It's the parking closest to the freeway and a pretty obvious out and back  path, so it's a good place to start. But as you can see on this map, there are some other options if you want to drive the back roads a bit. And assuming you're not running all 18 miles of the trail (9 out and back), you can explore the trail from a few different directions and never see the same things twice.

I did my first trail run out here and only managed 2 miles before I had to turn around and head back. It was tough and felt very technical. But after Cedar Ridge Preserve, this felt pretty tame and we were able to run a lot of it.

I realized yesterday that the first time I ran it, at some point I got going the wrong way. The trail runs counterclockwise with clear (once you know to look for the clues) western and eastern one-way trails that run fairly close to each other. I think where I screwed up the first time was when you get near a fairly long wooden bridge early in the trail. The bridge is just a few yards ahead of you but the path actually turns down into a rocky ravine.

My guess is, I looked down there and thought, "Surely nobody in their right mind would be expected to run or bike down into that." Obviously my estimation of what looks difficult has changed in the last few weeks. We got it right this time and were taken on a lovely adventure through the woods.

Our plan was to run to Murrell Park, about 3.5 miles out and then head back. It ended up being more like 8 miles even though we never quite got to Murrell Park (it was just through some woods, one of the mountain bikers told us, but we were at 4 miles then, so we headed back). I guess you factor in a little GPS fudging on these things.

I did run out of water, despite a full 4 bottles on my belt, so maybe next time, I'd get to Murrell and refill, as there's supposedly running water there (seasonally available). Good to know for summer, anyway. It's either that or a Camelbak, I guess. Luckily, Rosie brought a couple of bottles of water and I guzzled one without stopping for air as soon as we got to the car. Phew!

Anyway, this is a really lovely trail with moderate challenge and plenty of interest throughout. Unlike Rowlett, which is a mix of quite challenging areas with areas where you could actually look up and enjoy the surroundings and trust your footing, this one only had a few "whoa" spots (including a few water crossings that might be a little intense after a heavy rain) but little opportunity to just take in the surroundings without actually stopping.

Part of the challenge was fallen leaves hiding some footing issues (roots, rocks, lumpy ground), so you had to be ready for a surprise, uneven footfall for 95% of the trail. In that respect, it's a good practice maintaining focus for a long stretch of time.

In the end, we did 7.91 miles in 2:22, averaging about 17 minute miles. This included a bit of walking, particularly at road crossings (there are a few maintenance type roads you cross), and moving out of the way of cyclists, and then chatting up some cyclists to make sure we were headed back on the correct path at the turnaround.

Meanwhile, my foolish error of not putting my calf compression sleeves on after this run bit me at 2 a.m. when I woke up with my calves and feet throbbing. That doesn't happen when I wear those or put them on after long runs (it was too warm to wear them today). Wish I could get full-body compression gear! Just make me into a giant sausage after long runs....

Rowlett Creek Preserve Trail Review

For our less-technical weekday run, Rosie and I headed northeast to Rowlett, where we were told we'd find smoother, but just as scenic trails to run. Because we're doing shorter, more technical runs on Saturdays, we wanted to log some more miles. In the end, it didn't end up being that many more miles but we ran for nearly 2 hours, which I guess is the equivalent of a long run.

Let me make an aside here that I cannot believe I just said, "Well, I guess 2 hours is a long run." I ran for 2 hours, you guys, and it was no big deal! And we really ran a great deal of it. No run/walk intervals, though trails naturally have you walking some, and a couple of times, my legs were just lead.

Not my photo, this is a red tailed hawk, aka chickenhawk

Anyway, the preserve runs between Rowlett Creek and around a utility easement that's parallel to the creek. The various trail loops meander all over this long narrow area with a few of the more difficult trails that shoot off toward the residential areas (but still appear to be woodsy). You can see DORBA's details on the trail here and a map here. The parking lot tees right into the middle of the preserve, so you have to choose whether to start north or south.

Our route amounted to 7.3 miles and took us about 1:53 to complete running between 15-16 minute miles (including stops to look at the map, gawk at nature, and a few walk breaks... I don't have auto-pause enabled on my Runkeeper).

We headed south first, taking the second trail (#3) as you walk straight past the port-a-potty at the end of the parking lot. It looks like it's going to head down the utility easement, but it turns into the woods on the right and you are on your way. The trails all seem to turn back on themselves here and there, so it's a little disorienting at times, but they're well marked at any forks in the road and maps are posted occasionally so you can get your bearings.

The advice we got, given our goal of fairly easy running, was to avoid trails 7, 14, 13, and 12. Trails are rated from green to blue to black, easiest to hardest, and between the green and blue (we didn't do any black), blue were definitely a little harder, but not significantly. Those ratings are probably more important for mountain bikers, who you'll need to keep an eye/ear out for.

Back to our route: We started with Loops 3, 4, and 5 (5a and 6 are shut down due to DART rail line construction), which took us back to the parking. Part of 5 is a paved utility road. Don't be alarmed. It's not a trap.

We then headed out on on the trail that takes off nearer to the entrance of the parking, over by the pergola thing. Not far down this path, you have to choose between 1a and 1.

Cartoon chickenhawk

1a has a steep river crossing at the very start, but it's not as bad as it looks. Rosie and I both got across unassisted without getting our shoes wet. If it's rained recently, I can't guarantee the same result, however. Just be careful here, but don't be unnecessarily afraid of it. It's worth the nice trail on the other side, where we saw a big ol' chickenhawk hanging out in a tree. Ah say, ah say, Nature!

The trail then goes out into some open farmland for loop 9, which is pretty boring but worth getting through for the nice run back down loops 8 and 1 and back to the parking lot, which I was pretty happy to see.

The southern portion we did was about 3.25 miles, and north was another 3-ish miles, if you're looking for shorter routes. To be honest, I was plenty tired after just doing the south, but we had more miles to chew up and I'm glad we did. The whole place is just lovely (except for loop 9).

One of these days, I want to take a peek at the trails we skipped. What does a black-rated trail look like?

Anyway, very pleased to have gotten to know this trail. It makes for a great training run because it's not so hard that it wears you out mentally or physically as fast as more technical trails, but it's also never boring (except for loop 9).

And despite the easier terrain, I could definitely feel those little stabilizing muscles around my knees and ankles working overtime. It just wasn't like every. single. footfall. required 100% focus to avoid turning an ankle or slipping. I get really tired on trails where the footing is so unsteady, I can't ever look up to enjoy the beauty around me. Feels like I'd be better off just hiking, and BTW, give me a damn walking stick if I'm going to do that.

Cedar Ridge Preserve Trail Review

I'm very new to trail running, and I'm anal retentive about preparing for runs, so the combination of the two means I've done lots of searching to find info on trails I'm planning to run. Sadly, there's very little out there that's terribly useful.

As such, I'm going to try and describe the trail runs we do, so if you're looking for info on a trail, you have some idea of what's going on.

Here's the map of the trail and here's Audubon Dallas' page on the preserve.

The route we took ended up being right at 5 miles:

1. Start on Cattail Pond Trail and skip the entrances to Possumhaw Trail (or do this one and tack on ~.5 mile, which I'd probably do next time).
2. Turn off on Cedar Break Trail and do the whole thing until you run back into Cattail Pond trail.
3. Take off on Fossil Valley Trail (the one I read was quite hard... more on difficultly later).
4. At the end of Fossil Valley, take Escarpment Trail. 
5. Then take the Bluebonnet Trail loop when you get to it, and that pretty much ends back in view of the parking lot.

Cedar Break is a mix of easy and challenging sections, but honestly, if you can do it, you can do Fossil Valley, too. Take a break to enjoy the little lookout at Cattail Pond the Boy Scouts built before heading up Escarpment because that SOB is uphill the whole damn way.

Bluebonnet is pleasant and fairly easy, but in the middle where it cuts back, there's a Trail sign with an arrow pointing back the way you just came, and there are two other directions to go. One is downhill and one is uphill. Take the uphill. The downhill goes down to a residential area and you sure don't want to have to climb back up it to get back on the real trail.

There's another unmarked fork in the road earlier on in this otherwise well-marked route, but I can't remember where exactly (end of Fossil Valley maybe?). If you get to it, go to the right, the more well-traveled path.

Both Rosie and I are in pretty good cardio shape, but we were both shocked by how much huffing and puffing we were doing at various times throughout the run. I felt my quads burning during some of the climbs, so it's a great workout. It was amazing to watch another runner (with a Dallas Fire and Rescue shirt on) bound past us on a rocky, rooty portion that we were walking.

I never fell, but I sure slipped on muddy/wet rocks pretty significantly a few times. My ice skating skills come in handy, I guess. 99% of any step ups or "stair"-like terrain are well-maintained, so you're not really having to scramble up large drop-offs.

Also, if you want the avoid the uphill Escarpment climb, you can do this route in reverse, but hills are good for you, so don't do that. ;)

Anyway, really lovely trail and no bikes. Only hikers and runners (and a few dogs) as far as I could tell, so you don't have to worry about getting creamed around the next corner. Plus a few lake (Joe Pool) views along the way, and a fun lookout tower you can climb up and take pics of valley below:

Happy running!