Before dawn, I drove from my home in Ames, stopping by work (ISU) to get some things going, to Slater. I parked in the parking lot by the baseball fields in Earl Grimm Park. I did a little walk/warm up to where there is an official split between High Trestle and Heart of Iowa (HoI) trails.
I started running right at about sunrise and had a very stiff tailwind. I got to watch the sunrise over the open fields between Slater and Huxley. I tried to relax, enjoy the day, and let the wind push me to start. The trail is really open in that first section, but it starts to get more shelter once in and past Huxley.
Huxley has some weird turns, where the trail joins a sidewalk, crosses the road, and then backtracks on the other side. I only had one mini mishap where I had to take about 3-4 extra steps the wrong way, but nothing major. From Huxley, I cruised it out on the downhill stretch until the Skunk River (Cambridge), where the trail slowly climbs over the next mile or so. This came at just the wrong time for me personally (mile 9ish), and the hill just sapped my legs a bit. The trail rolled a bit from there, and had I brought any nutrition, I think this stretch would've been more fun.
I finished at the parking lot/trail head in Collins, where my wife picked me up and brought me to the car in Slater. I went to work after that.
This was a solid training run for me, but I was a touch disappointed I couldn't get that pace a little lower. I surely will be back, as this was truly an enjoyable route to experience small town, big field Iowa. (Not to mention that it's a short-ish drive from my house).
Weather was cool (35-40 degrees), partly cloudy, NW wind 20-30 mph. In the summer, there are plenty of trail heads to get water and use the bathroom, but winter the water is not available at these stops (nor did I stop for anything).