Well, it worked out due to other family activities that my long run fell on Labor Day. I needed to run 26 miles, so I decided to add a little extra and run a marathon. Maybe hike a marathon as you will see later.
I chose Chickasaw Trace in Columbia, Tennessee for a number of reasons. First, it had an 8 mile loop and I kept telling myself 3 laps that is all, just 3 laps. Second, it is less than 30 minutes from the house. Finally, with the Duck River running alongside some of the trail, I thought the scenery would be great.
Although the trails are geared toward mountain bikers, they have areas for remote controlled cars and remote controlled planes.
Here is a map of the park:
Well, I arrived shortly before the park was supposed to be open and the gate was not locked and several cars had already entered to start their Labor Day holiday. There was even a group with their planes already in the air. Well, I found my parking spot down by the trail head and began to put my running vest together with my hydration and my fanny pack with my fuel. I use Nuun Hydration for my electrolytes and Honey Stinger chews for my fuel. Once I was comfortable with how everything felt, I started my run. Below are some pictures from different sections of the trail.
Did I mention this was meant for Mountain Bikers? Here are some photos from the technical side of the trails.
So what do you do when you come across a technical part of the trail?
There were usually a 1,2 or 3 at the technical skills for easy, hard and expert. I usually ran down the easy.
That was probably the longest run I had completed based on time on my feet. Here are some screen shots from my day.
Country Road Runner 