Highbanks Take 2

Last week on April fools day I went to Highbanks metro park in Columbus to do a hill workout. I have heard that this park had rolling hills and was challenging. I went there after school on Thursday with the sun shining and it finally starting to feel like spring. I had looked online at the different trails to try and determine the best route.

I had never been there before so without knowing really where I was or what trail I was on I set off. In reading the map they didn't mark the trails with the different symbols that they used on the actual trail they marked it with colors. Only I didn't realize that the symbols were marked in the appropriate colors. So last Thursday I set off down one path thinking I knew where I was going (I consider myself to be pretty good at reading maps) and half way through the run I was getting the feeling that I was not on the path that I thought I was on. I was correct that I had gone completely gone down a different path than I wanted to originally go down. Stupid map.

I needed more time and mileage so I went down another trial that had a flyer of a big giant bird on it and said "Observation deck one mile."

It was the perfect mileage so I set off. I found out once reaching the observation deck that the park had discovered a nest of a bald eagle. They had signs pointing where the eagle was suppose to be so I looked, but I didn't see a bird or nest. So turning around I felt slightly defeated. Not knowing where I was going, no bird sighting, and struggling a little bit with the hills. Although these hills were not as difficult as the other park I went to run hills at, Chestnut Ridge.

Today I went back to Highbanks to tackle the hills again and do better than I did that last time. This time I knew where I was going and about how long I wanted to run. I went the same route as I had taken the previous time. I had it in my head that I would do the same loop with a slightly longer version to reach my time and mileage. I ran again to the observation deck again, now knowing that the eagles nest is on the other side of the river not on the side closest to the deck (the newspaper had quite a lot about this particular park and the eagles nest itself which all would have been helpful to read the first time I guess). This time there was a park guide there with binoculars to look and find the bird. I was able not only to find the nest but I got to see the eagle was stirring. I still couldn't see much but I can now say I have seen a bald eagle.

I finished the loop which I did much quicker this time, partially because I was running better but also because I knew where I was going. This having run the course once before really seems to help me a lot. I still needed about 1o more minutes and so I decided mid run to switch the mileage from 5 miles to 6 miles and turn this run into my longer mid week run. I finished in great time. Overall the second time around was a much better experience. I even felt pretty good through the sun and the warmer weather. Better than my long run on Saturday of 11 miles. Not fun being thrown into hot weather on the longest run of the week.