This past Friday, I woke up at 6 AM and prepped for a journey much more exciting than a regular day of work: a long run!
Gorgeous VA Beach morning 
See, hubs had to work (his company is based out of Virginia Beach) so I tagged along on the trip out and we had a mini-vacation out of it We left on Thursday night, after I got out of work and headed out to spend two nights ocean front 
I was lucky enough to have a bit of an idea on what route I would take, thanks to Melody and Jessica’s rave run feature from this past summer.
After just 3-ish miles…very sweaty! Humidity was HIGH!
Since we were staying at the Hampton Inn, which was off 10th street, I adapted the route and headed north on the boardwalk, onto Ocean Front Ave, off of 64th street into First Landing State Park.
Once I reached the park, I headed onto Cape Henry Trail, a wide, shady and packed dirt multi-use trail. There were plenty of runners, walkers and cyclists out and about and it was quite relaxing.
Cape Henry Trail in First Landing State Park.
I hit a pretty comfortable stride and made the turn around right after about 3 miles into the trail run (apx 7.5 miles into the run) and headed back. I was planning on hitting 20 miles on Friday, so I figured that I would just do that repeat once more, then run back and be at an even 20.
Until…this happened…
Wipeout!
Yeah, I tweeted the above ^^ picture out, after tripping on a teeny little knobby root thingy. I did ball up in my fall though, and minimized injury – just got really dirty (sweat + sandy dirt on your skin is NOT pretty) and bruised my knee. Still, I decided to play it safe and headed back toward the beach.
All smiles back on the beach!
I went back the same way I came, but this time, once I reached the boardwalk, I took off my shoes and ran barefoot in the sand for a mile. AMAZING! My first time, ever! It was hard, but I felt so free and happy.
Footprints in the sand
14 miles after I embarked upon on Friday morning long run adventure – over pavement, trail and beach – I was sweaty, tired and dirty – but you could NOT wipe that smile off of my face for the rest of the weekend – after all, Saturday meant more running – the Wicked 10K!
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What’s your favorite type of surface to run on?
Krissy,
We rode our bikes to First Landing State park from our house in Virginia Beach back when we called Va Bch home. It is a beautiful area, but sorry to hear about your fall. Hope you still enjoyed your weekend at the beach!
The fall fortunately was just a teeny roadbump on an otherwise super fun weekend! So great meeting you and Christine!~!!
Running on the beach is so beautiful … and so challenging! The last time I ran on sand, I planned to do 30 minutes, but I didn’t last that long–it was super tough!
Agree! It is hard…but so pretty!!!
Sorry you fell- I have fallen on a trail before and it hurt. Glad that you weren’t hurt other than some scrapes and probably bruises. I grew up on the beach so I have done lots of barefoot running in the sand. You just have to be careful for glass etc.
Good call on checking for debris in the sand, Tasha!!!
Looks like a beautiful run until the little bobble, glad you’re ok!
Thanks, Jenn!
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Glad you didn’t get more injured! I’m definitely a paved-trail kind of girl. Next up would be asphalt and then sidewalk. I’m such an uber klutz that I haven’t tried trail running yet.
ps-I have that same hat!