It was another humid morning in good ole Austin and a great day to have a great day! Was today’s run going to feel good in this heat? I wagered not. I laced up my shoes anyway to find out.

It was time to discover a new running route and this selection came recommended from Janel who found a pond near our new home that included ducks! This sounded good to me and it would be the closest I would ever come to being a runner like the legendary Oregon ducks.

As I got started on my way, the humidity immediately made me five pounds lighter and it would be a battle between 75% humidity and the 80s for heat the rest of the run. A scorcher. This is what I deserve for not being as disciplined for getting up before the sun such as another blogger I follow, Mike, who gets up at 3:30 a.m. to run almost every day. AKA – A stud! Here is his link if you want to follow him here: https://330amrunning.blog

The duck pond was about one mile away and once I got there, I saw about 30 ducks! There was a fun array of colors and even one mama supporting six ducklings to her name. She must have been the Catholic Mama Duck with raising so many ducklings. My Mom could probably relate with having to do the same with having all us boys. On a bright note, luckily none of them chased me which was helpful because I didn’t feel like I could outrun them.

I had about an hour and 30 minutes scheduled in my heart to run so I decided to try the local Greenbelt entrance I found on a map the night before. Trail running terrain was less abundant in my neighborhood so I had my fingers crossed that there would be a new fun adventure to be found.

After about a mile and a half of running, I turned into my new local Greenbelt and found the Slaughter Creek Trail. It was time to get lost!

The trail split quickly and there were many different routes to choose from. Deer trails, overgrown trails, possible snake trails, and the main path. I went with the main path for a solid 30 feet before it divided into multiple routes. On my first fork in the road, I decided the left turn was meant to be followed because it traveled along a creek.

After hitting the second mile mark, the path pretty quickly turned into a one person width and the upkeep was excellent. I passed one other person whose black lab decided to pace me for a solid ten feet before determining I was not food. The path continued winding along the creek and I couldn’t be happier to be in the shade with an easier terrain for the pounding of my feet.

Mile 3, or what I thought was mile 3, was my first adventure (see getting lost) turn and I came upon five deer! After nearly wetting myself with the crashes they made through the forest, I decided to pick a different route. The path had gone away from the creek and I tried to find the main trail. I felt a bit of the draining heat at this point and I was approaching the 30 minute mark with a little less pep to my step from when I started. Plus, my heart rate was at 300 beats per minute after nearly running into the deer.

After about 40 minutes and somewhere around 4ish miles, I popped out to a neighborhood in Somewhere, Austin Texas. That was a solid 30 minutes of trail running from where I had originally entered the trail and I counted myself lucky to have found a good chunk of trail near me. Now if I could find my way back…

At this point, the heat was cooking me up and the next two miles were not so glorious. I put a smile on my face to cope and my shirt and shorts weight now carried the same amount of liquid as a small lake. No magazine cover photo for your average runner Paul here.

I couldn’t complain about the terrain difficulty though. As you see below, it was pretty flat and not many rocks to blame a slower pace on:

By mile 6 and the hour mark, I recognized where I had entered the trail and started my way back towards that area. Even though it rained the night before, the path was hard as ever and I got into a nice groove to clip off my last mile of trail running. Success! I wasn’t meant to live on Slaughter Trail forever!

On my way home, I logged a couple laps at our friendly neighborhood park to get my total time up to 1 hour and 20 minutes. I threw a walk break in for a minute or so and determined that going for another 10 minutes wouldn’t include much running and that was that. 8 miles later I was happy to have cleared an hour on the trails and not get chased by any wildlife!

Next week, I’m hoping to find out where more of these side trails lead. I would also like to not fall or get lost but that would take out too much of the fun and thrill of trail running. Hope you had a chance to see a fun new route near you and if so, I would love to hear about it!

Average Runner Paul