Trail Running at Theo Wirth Park

Saturday, Pharmie and I had a GREAT day! Although it started out with some white stuff that we weren’t ready for:

Most of that crap melted, we ran some errands, picked up some new trail running shoes for Pharmie, and we headed out to Theo Wirth Park so she could try out those new shoes. She’s thinking about a 50K trail run in a few weeks!! Here she is putting on her new trail running shoes for the first time near Theo Wirth:

I biked at first while Pharmie ran. She ran past the stream and the abandoned mill:

We got out to the single-track trails. We entered the trail at the bottom right of this map:

We headed north through the first part of single-track, took the paved trail around to the main loop, and I locked up my bike (at the blue box near the middle of the map). I ran the twisting 3.4 mile loop behind Pharmie. So get ready... you’re about to see a lot of hot ass shots.

Between the pines


Running up the rocky climb










Some of that “white stuff” was lingering around


Over a MTB obstacle




Workin’ a hill near the end of the loop


Direct link on YouTube.

We ran the 3.4 mile loop (Pharmie’s first trail run ever) in under 32:00. I unlocked my bike and we grabbed a quick photo:

This time, I biked the loop (twice) as Pharmie ran one more loop. I caught a cyclo-cross rider at the end of my first loop and felt like a hot-shot. ;) I tried to push the pace a little more on the second loop, even though my quads were burning! I grazed a lot of trees, nailed too many rocks with my pedals, and nearly slid-out a few times. But my second lap was my fastest lap that I’ve ever posted at Theo Wirth Park!! I rode a 17:53 first lap, and a 16:30 second lap! (I’ve never been under 17:00 before!)

Pharmie had finished her loop just before me, so she was waiting as I finished up. I rode as she ran the final single-track south. We ran around the stream once more on our way back to the car:

All-in-all, Pharmie put in about 10.5 miles of trail running, and I MTBed 10.5 miles and ran 3.4 miles of trails as well. What a GREAT (albeit it chilly) afternoon together!!