Reflections

Trail running is ... It is a roller coaster ride of adrenaline, mixed with sense enhancing drugs au natural. I couldn't resist the opportunity to trail run a Rocky Hill Ranch Dirty Du and talked two friends into signing up as well. At this point in the month I had run a marathon breaking my PB by 25 minutes (okay so the time I beat was 5 years ago buy hey), Ran another PB in a ten miler the next weekend and volunteered at a marathon. This was the following week, no problem right? I had my trepidations, one being I had been steering clear of the trails during my marathon training to make sure I stayed healthy, but I think I would have been fine training trails really, even so that is what I did and what I was worried about looking at the race ahead of me. The start time was the most reasonable I had seen in a long time (9 a.m) which allowed me to sleep until a decent hour before picking my friends up and heading to the start. My promise to them, coffee in the morning for one, cheeseburger after the race for the other. We pulled into the race site filled with mountain bikers, I just knew they could spot me a road runner from a mile away and know. I didn't care, I was happy to be outside and the three of us just kept repeating how it was a fun run we were going to enjoy. My legs had been feeling heavy the past week, so my plan was to just start running plain and simple and let the chips fall where they may. I stood at the start line riddled with goose pimples but remembering how fast I heated up at the ten miler, there was a small group running this one so the race organizer stood there and told us what to look for when we were running as far as flags etc., and that we would have water stops but would have to fill our own cups. Finally we were ready and the run began, we hung as one massive swarm of mosquito like runners for about the first mile and then the faster guys took off and the pack began to thin, G and I hung together, with R behind us. The route was winding but soft on the feet for the most part. We came to a water stop at what I thought to be half way and G stopped, we got water and she said she was going to need to walk for awhile due to her knee. We joked around for a bit there until she assured me she would be fine and encouraged me to run ahead. The rush of excitement pushed me onward as I continued the snake like run, winding around. The trail wound so much I almost felt dizzy at the same time it really felt like a roller coaster and was pretty fun. I felt like the scene in Return of the Jedi where they are chasing each other through the forest. I looked at my watch to try and determine where we were at in the run, but couldn't tell. All I knew was to keep running and as D taught me look for the flats, so that is what I focused on. Before I knew it I was coming around the campground into the finish, 1:49 not bad for a trail run. The guy doing the timing gave me accolades and then I was off back on the course to look for G and R. The run was WELL worth it and R and I had a well-earned cheeseburger that night, recounting the run and what a great time we had. Onward!!!