Saturday 2/19/11

Woke up around 6:20am this morning, made a cup of coffee and headed to cheer on our half marathon/full marathon training team members at the start of their long run. It was fun seeing the 100 or so people out there going at it early on a Saturday morning. I then came home to eat some breakfast and then headed down to Burlington, KY for the trail race. The distances were supposed to be 5 miles (one loop) and 10 miles (two loops). On the start line we were informed that it was a 5.2 mile loop, so the long race would actually be 10.4 miles. As soon as we hit the trail it was caked in slippery mud. After about half a mile it went to single track (mountain biking trail) and constant switchbacks. It was fun just running in a single file line in the muddy woods with a bunch of strangers. Runners are weird. The trails were pretty much up and down and looping all around the entire way. I almost felt dizzy at one point. After about 2 miles I was following a guy in a green shirt. We came up on another guy in a green singlet who had taken a wrong turn and decided to run with us for a bit. He and I chatted for a bit and we realized it was the first trail race for either of us. I laughed and said that must be why we were the only two people out there without trail shoes on! In the last 2 miles of the loop there are a ton of ramps, banked turns/bridges built for the mountain bikers. If I was into that I would be out here all the time. Green singlet guy took off at 4.5 miles, I passed green shirt guy and then I was by myself the 6 miles. I did the first loop in about 42 minutes and the second loop in about 45 minutes. Total time was 1:27:04 on my watch (8:22 pace). I could tell I haven't done much trail running recently because of how weak my legs felt the second loop. Times like this I miss the trail running we did out in Oregon. I have no clue what place I came in, but what I am really looking forward to is the pictures they were taking out there. As soon as they are up I will probably post them on here to show how ugly a runner I am. Carrie and I headed to Clifton tonight for some delicious Indian food, then went to The Esquire Theater to see the King's Speech. Anybody who has not seen this movie has to go see it. Absolutely amazing flick. Early morning again tomorrow, time to hit the hay.