Preview:
The mostly unknown and highly underrated Bison Ridge trail in South Park, Allegheny County, is over six miles in length with varying terrain that can easily prepare you for any ultramarathon event east of the Mississippi. Mud pits, undulating shaded and sunny areas, logs, washouts, creeks, foot bridges, straight-ups/downs and a few switchbacks make it top-notch.
Step one at Bison Ridge is learning to navigate it. You'll need to give yourself about a half day to find all the blazes, as the trail takes breaks at various road crossings and clearings, sometimes resuming in obscure locations that can't be immediately seen until you're within 20 feet or so. Then, once you've navigated the whole trail, you'll need to do the trail going one direction a few times before reversing, as parts of it can look unfamiliar from different angles. In other words, you can find yourself going down a satellite or dead-end trail which wastes part of your original plan.
To make each lap seven miles, I decided to utilize about 7/8 of Bison Ridge itself, plus the use of 4/5 of the Maple Spring loop, a short paved trail that cuts through the middle of the park.
Result:
Thirteen miles in 2:25 (DNF - Haha). Not a cop-out, but I partially blame my inadequate Asics Gel Venture 3's, which are great shoes, but not fully adequate or competitive. Needless to say I suddenly became disabled with 2nd metatarsal overload in my left foot near the end of lap one, and eventually had to retire after one and two-thirds laps of the three I'd intended to do. I've had problems with my left foot since spraining it in late August, in an area of the outer midfoot which is right overtop of a plantar wart I've had for almost 10 years. It's fast getting time to have it taken care of, if I intend to run high miles without getting struck down by these bone alignment issues.
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