I am in Virginia visiting with some friends and we went up to Pocahontas State Park to run trails this morning.  It’s a great State Park, with lots of different trails to run.  I had a two and a half hour run scheduled, so I chose to run the trail that went around the whole park .. the Findley Station Trail.  

The trail was mostly on forest roads, so I was able to run quite quickly.  The gravel surface was not too challenging and the terrain was much less hilly than I am used to in Pennsylvania. 

I was really enjoying the run, even though the first mile or so was uphill.  About five miles into the run, the trail left the forest roads and went downhill towards a river that was below the spillway from the main lake in the park.

I came up to the river and was surprised to realize that the trail actually crossed the river.  It had rained for the past twenty four hours and so the river was flowing quite strongly.  I stopped and had to make a decision.  Do I attempt to cross the river or not?

I didn’t really want to turn around and run back the way I had come, so I decided I would cross the river. To do so, I needed to find a sturdy piece of wood. I needed something, that I could use to help me brace myself agains the current of the river.  I hunted around and found a nice solid branch, that was about four feet long and a couple of inches in diameter.

Using the branch as support, I made my way across the river.  From my backpacking days, I knew that the safest way to cross the river was to face upstream and walk slowly across sideways, using the branch to balance myself, as I took each step. The water ended up being quite deep (over my knees), but by taking my time, I made it safely to the other side.

After the river crossing, the rest of my run was uneventful. I ran in wet shoes with wet feet, but decided that this was a good thing.  I realized that this is how my feet will feel on the SwimRun race, I have scheduled next year.

All in all, I had a great run and learned some new trail running skills that I am sure will benefit me in the future.  The river crossing was fun, and running in wet shoes, was not as bad as I had feared.