I ran my very first ever "trail" race on Saturday. No, I didn't start with a 5k or even a 10k. Somehow I jumped right to the half marathon. When I trained for my first half marathon in the spring, I diligently followed a training plan by Hal Higdon. I dedicated about 14 weeks to training for it. This time around, I only had SIX weeks dedicated to training for the trail half. I went into it realizing my time was going to be different. A veteran trail runner told me to add about an hour to my previous half marathon time and that should be my expected finish time. I finished my first (road) half in 2:06:46. I made a goal for myself of finishing the trail half in under three hours.
I'm so glad I had set a realistic expectation for myself. (I even had a back up goal of 3.5 hours in case I fell short of the three hour goal...I just wanted to finish before the BMX bikers lapped me. ;) ) With this relaxed goal I was able to enjoy my "training" runs and really focus on finishing rather than focusing on a specific speed or time. By the end of training for my road half I had started to really dread training and was sooooo ready for the race to be done and over with so I could do something (anything!) other than running. I didn't want to get to that point this time, so I had a very relaxed training approach. Fortunately, I was able to reach my goal with an official finish time of 2:54:44.
The actual race itself was unlike anything I've experienced before. In more ways than one! First, the camaraderie is amazing. I rarely felt "alone" because you chat with whomever happens to be running near you at the time. (Keep in mind this is predominately a single-file type trail.) I had complete conversations with people without really making face to face contact. I talked to a lot of backs of heads. For the first four miles I was in with a pack of roller derby girls. The. Most. Fun. EVER. They were hilarious. Made me want to dust off my skates and join the derby. Seriously. We laughed and giggled, and "boxed out" anyone trying to pass us. (In completely fun and joking ways...we did follow "trail courtesy" don't worry.) I ran with a guy who was using this half as part of his training plan for an Iron Man. Holy smokes was he inspirational. I ran with a 65 year old man who had the audacity to refer to this half as a "sprint distance." He runs so many races/events that he said only about 4 days out of a year are "training" runs. I ran with a gal who has written books and blogs about her experiences competing while traveling the country. Her next event is an "extreme" triathlon in Florida. I ran with a few Navy folks. One got stung in the leg and though he was massively built was taken down by a little bug. (Somehow this made me chuckle, though admittedly I should have been more compassionate.) I slowed down to walk at one point and a random stranger came along side me and said "Oh no, you can't slow down, you've been my inspiration for the last five miles." I grunted a very unlady like response and kept running. I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely woman who had JUST returned from Kabul, Afghanistan. She's a civilian working with the military. She flew in last week. Her family came to cheer her on and she came up and high-fived me after I finished. I got to meet her family who thought we knew each other. She shrugged as said, "Nope, but we bonded through miles 10 to 12." (This is the gal who is in the photograph with me on my previous blog post with the bib #30.)
I've never felt so physically depleted in my life. I was so spent that I had to walk most of the last half mile. And yet, I had a blast! (It was slightly less fun when I was writhing in pain a few hours post-race because I was sooooo hungry my stomach cramped and convulsed when I tried to nibble on a cracker. Poor Jeff thought I broke a rib or something.) Will I run it again next year. YES! Maybe I'll actually devote the 12 weeks to training and aim for a 2.5 hour finish time. I'm thinking I'd like to run a 10k trail race in the spring. 10k seems to be my distance of preference. Looking at my "splits" I had really great times for the first six miles and dropped off drastically each mile thereafter. So...who wants to run it with me next year??? :)
