Girls wanted to go shopping at the Grove City Outlets so this was the perfect opportunity. This trail section is 2 hours from home and being a point to point it is logistically not the easiest run but with these outlets sitting just North of the center of this route, today was the day.
The weather was amazing. 50 degrees and sunshine. The fall leaves covered the trail but didn’t make it any harder to navigate. Other humans were scarce for the first 10 miles but once I got closer to the state park centers the sightings picked up. I even crossed patches with a couple local trail runners that I know.
I had set a personal goal of sub 4 hours so I pushed the pace to 8:30 on the first 20 miles to bank some time know the last 6+ miles were nasty. I was beginning to loose hope on the sub 4 with a few miles left as the pace continues to slow but fortunately the last mile was runnable again and I was able to pour it on and reach the finish with a few seconds to spare.
I carried 2 liters in my pack with 1200 calories of Skratch mixed in. Other than that I took a few electrolyte tablets and salt tabs along the way. I’m not a big fueler on short runs like this so that was plenty to get me through.
This is a beautiful course that would have been more majestic a couple of weeks ago in peak fall season.