Forest Path, 5 Mile Run

November 23, 2024

It’s the weekend! And while Liz has a ton of work work to still do, we headed out to take advantage of the Saturday. Because a weekend day means we can put in time for a long run (without having to wake up crazy early).

We drove and parked by the White Lake Community Library. There’s a trail that is easily accessible near the parking lot, and this is where we started our run.

We opted to go South/Southeast. While Liz has run this trail before, she went towards town; we decided to go the opposite direction, a part of the trail that was new to both of us.

Selfie, before the run.

A long stretch of the path. Interestingly, I think we ended up bridging two different paths on our run.

Where we started, that was technically the White Lake Pathway, which leads North/Northwest, and leads into downtown Whitehall.

Where we travelled, we eventually hit the Fred Meijer Berry Junction Trail, which goes much further (and much further south).

The appearance of benches along the path was a nice addition. But they felt like temptation, like these lures trying to pull us away from our pace/tempo, calling us to just sit and rest for a few minutes. Every time I passed one of these benches, in my head I said to myself “Not today, Satan!”

Liz had some trouble in the first few miles, due mostly to our slower pace. I think she had trouble adjusting to the slower pace, and was feeling some pain/discomfort. But after the second mile, we picked things up a little and that seemed to help a lot.

For me, a big win was Mile 3. I honestly don’t recall much from this portion of the run, and I more or less blanked out, thinking about work or something else. I remember coming out of my reverie, and realizing I was running. As far as things go, I assume this is a good place to be – to be so comfortable that you actually forget you’re running.

The last mile or so was more of a struggle. For me, everything leading up to Mile 4 was fine and comfortable. I started to feel the run a bit more, as we hit our last mile.

For the last 1/2 mile to the end, Liz picked up the pace and I did my best to keep up. We actually made pretty good time (for the last part of the run, Mile 4 – 5, we were under 14 minutes).

For me, not having run very much lately, it felt good to be able to put in some distance and get into the swing of things again. 5 miles felt like me stretching my bones, getting warmed up before I tackle some serious distance.

Which is crazy for me to say, as there was a time I struggled to run 2 minutes without needing to take a break.

I’m able to run 5 miles without a ton of effort. Granted, it’s a pretty slow ass 5 miles… but it’s fairly consistent. Looking forward to what this means, in terms of me being able to add more distance (and me reducing my time per mile).