Trails - 1, Chris - 0

an addiction is an addiction...

I remember watching Winnie the Pooh as a kid and thinking that the Hundred Acre Wood was a really scary place. There was that one episode where Rabbit is having his birthday party and Pooh and Piglet get lost in the Scary Woods, a section of the Hundred Acre Wood where Piglet says that the Heffalumps and Woozles live and they have to sing a song to help them not get scared. Real shit.

Preservation Park in Guelph is very much like the Hundred Acre Wood.

They both have scared me deeply in my life.

So last week I was excited to run some miles on some different surfaces in Guelph. When looking for a place to live in the city some five months ago, I remember driving by what looked like the trailhead of some badass trails. Going home and Google Earthing the neighborhood, I found what looked like a large wooded area that connected to the trailhead I found, only 200m from the house we were about to sign for.

I was pumped.

I love that feeling of running in a new area and just going out and being able to explore. Trails are really a luxury; having run most of my off-days on the streets of Sauga in highschool, I was excited to have the sweet Guelph trail network at my disposal when coming to school here. Going out without a defined route but a number of minutes to fill up was always one of my favorite things about running when travelling, and to be able to do it right by the house I’d be living in for the next few years of my life got me excited.

So last week I trekked out to Preservation Park to run.

It kicked my ass.

I don’t want to say that the place wasn’t awesome. Because it was. Some of the softest and coolest trails that I’ve seen thus far in the city. Awesome wooden platforms that pushed the path through amazing scenery.  A great atmosphere that really made you feel secluded from the suburbs that surrounded it, perfect for the relaxed off-day run. Except I got so lost it wasn’t funny.

I tried following the trail markers and somehow ended up trying to get my boy scout’s orienteering badge. It was not fun. Logs across streams, muddy patches that stretched for K’s, bumblebees that scared the shit out of me… an uncomfortable affair to say the least. Worst of all, I didn’t know how to get out… and I lost how I got in. Ankles were really close to being turned, gashes were even closer to being produced and mental toughness was almost shot. Eventually I mountaineered my way out of the park and got back onto the good stuff, and the run continued, but yeah… it was really scary for a bit there.

Moral of the story; don’t follow the red spray-paint.

well said watson

- chris