You must do the things you think you cannot do.
~
Eleanor Roosevelt

Monday, February 27, 2012

My first real trail run

Newbie Trail Run w/Mike O Group by tracyrunning at Garmin Connect - Details

Typically we have church on Sunday mornings, but we planned to miss church yesterday so we could get an early start to the eastern shore to visit Bill's family for the day.

This gave me the opportunity to join the group of trail runners from our local running club. They start at 8 and end at varying times so I'm not sure I'll be able to join them again any time soon, but I was glad for this opportunity.

This particular run was a little different than normal because many of the regulars were away at a race in Howard County (Hi, Miss Zippy!) so the organizer advertised it as being perfect for Newbies. Yay me!

I'm standing, 4th from left, in teal

We headed out in one big group with a handful of folks branching off after a mile or so for the 9 mile loop. I considering - very briefly - joining them but thought better of it.
I'm standing on the left, still in teal

It was really fun, bounding over logs, crossing creeks and running across big rocks, but it was also a lot of work. Our pace was around 12ish for most of the run, and I was struggling up some of the hills.

Though I was feeling pretty bad a$$ just for being able to keep up until one of the veterans told us that the hills on this run were about a 2 out of 5. The trails on the other side of the road from us were much tougher. Baby steps, right?
My groovy leprechaun shoes

I stumbled a few times but didn't crash, thank goodness. At the end, my Garmin read 4.88 but the regulars assured me it was a 5 mile trail. Apparently Garmin isn't very accurate when there are a lot of switchbacks. I didn't know that.

They opened up the chuck wagon (the back of the organizer's SUV) for bananas, bagels and beer, and we stood around and chatted for a bit. I was really tired and pretty much frozen so I'm sure I was a stunning conversationalist, but I did have a great time.

Trail running...yay or nay for you?
Yay for me. I loved it!

3 comments:

Dan said...

diggin' the shoes, T! My Doc just told me he wasn't happy about my recent & non-trivial weight gain... so I hope to try some local trails to help my burn some spare calorie-makers I've been holding on to...

THANKS for the inspiration!

misszippy said...

Hello to you, too! Yep, the club challenge was here on Sunday (but I didn't do it!).

I love trail running--I really want to do one trail run/week, but haven't figured out how to fit that in yet. A 50k is in my future for sure. Wanna join me?

*~*~* Tracy said...

Get thee hence to the trails, Dan! You won't be sorry!

And yes, I would totally love to join you Miss Zippy! I too am struggling with fitting in what I want to do on top of what I should do.

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