Trail run at Fairmount!

I wished I joined the Fairmount runners on their Sat morning trail runs earlier! But my Fridays nights are usually filled with those stuff that resulted in a late sleep-in on Saturdays... Anyway, I will make it a point to go for Saturday trainings from now on.

At 8.20am (ungodly hour right?) Nadia and I met to take the septa subway to city hall, where we had to change to bus 33 to 20th Fairmount ave. I wasn't sure of the bus stop at first and approached the bus 32 conductor. But before I could speak to him, I stared in amazement when the lady in front of me planted a kiss on his skin. The thing I couldn't figure out is that she had paid for her bus fare so the kiss is definitely not for the sake of hitching a free ride. Anyway, the friendly driver gave me proper directions to the bus stop and within 5 mins from reaching the stop, bus 33 came along, much to our delight. The inconvenient problem with Philly is that 20th and Fairmount is actually rather close to where we live, in fact, we can run up to the place in 30 mins at a comfortable pace, but there are just no direct public transport route to the place.

Soon, we found ourselves near the Eastern State Pennetary, waiting for Bennett, my club president to arrive and fetch us to the hills at Fairmount to run. Accompanying us was Steve, the first club member I really got to know, since the time when we walked together to the pub for happy hour. He's working at the Upenn Alumni house so Nadia and I had quite a few topics to chat with him about. Sometimes, I think he's really kind-hearted and innocent compared to the other Americans I have come to know here. I wonder if he ever loses his temper before but I doubt. This kind of people are really suited for a job in the education and service industry I realize.

As we whizzed past the green scenery in Benett's car, I just stared in awe out of the window. There were many stone bridges which towered over us, hills that dwarfed those along the roadside of Macritchie reservoirs and the neverending stretch of the Schuylkill river. When we alighted, the sight of the entrance to the trail just reminded me so much of Macritchie Reservoir and the gush of memories to my head left me dizzy with nostalgia. We just started our stopwatch and lost ourselves among the greenaries.

But Macritchie can never be as hilly as where we ran. During the annual cross country race, there will be this steep slope before the route opens into the main road that everyone dreads. But here, there are an uncountable number of them. I wished I have at least gymmed for the past 5 days before coming here. However, the pace was comfortable and we had to slow down most of the time to avoid slipping down the muddy downhill sections and to land properly on the rocks as we ran along the face of the hill. One interesting thing about the trail is that instead of normal wooden bridges that span across the river, there were huge pipe like stone structures instead. One careless slip on it will just send one stumbling down into an abyss of stones and whatnots. But on the whole, I felt this great sense of accomplishment as we ran back into the carpark. At least the fattening food I have eaten over the last five days now have somewhere to escape. Steve sent us to the university area after Bennett dropped us off near the Arts museum. (see I said he's nice) Nadia and I indulged in a Dunkin Donuts' breakfast before heading off home.