Hibernia Park, Coatesville, PA 5/20 Race report: The second trail run of the series was significantly different from this first trail run held at Warwick park. Just two weeks difference, the temperature was about 25 degrees cooler, the air was damp, the earth was muddy, the terrain was not as steep, the times were longer, and the location was at Hibernia Park. The trail run start was a loop on a bridle path in the woods for about 3/4 of mile back to the start area, then brought us into another section of the woods across the field. The path in the woods was goopy- glop mud, some runners tried to avoid the mess by hitting the shubbery to the right or left, and some went right into the risk of loosing their shoe to the mud. A descent to the creek where we were hopping wet boulders and rocks, slipping and sliding to avoid falling into the water. Everything a trail runner wants, including climbs. We made our way back up from the creek and back to the goopy paths to the finish line. Warwick's run was a slight decline to the finish line, where Hibernia was a significantly different finish. We ran uphill through the grass field to cross the line. My time was almost 2 mins slower than 2 wks ago for a 5k trail run. Not as many hills, but just enough sticky mud to slow us up and to cover the lower legs and all of my running shoes!
Trail Runner, Kate Endres, had this to say about Hibernia Park's run vs Warwick Park's run: "I thought that last night’s (Hibernia) course comprised all the aspects of why people like to do trail runs. Enough mud to make it sloppy fun, a semi-treacherous descent toward the river, a few trees trunks and large rocks to leap over, and hills that were not terribly steep nor terribly long. I felt that the run two weeks ago was more challenging but latnight's run (Hibernia) was really fun, although surprisingly my time was also better on that first run. That course (Warwick) was all about hills, and not quite enough mud, tree trunks or boulders for my liking. I will be at the next Warwick Park run (hoping for a course change), but I am really looking forward to the next Hybernia Park run!
