Post Race Report

I ran my first 10K Saturday morning and loved it!  While the race itself was not perfect, I like the distance and felt really good the whole time.  Some of my training runs every week are longer than 6 miles, so at the end I still had a lot left in my legs and felt like I could have kept going. 

This was another Evergreen Trail run and took place at Dash Point St. Park.  I really enjoyed the trails and how pretty it was. 

Drawbacks, there were a few.  One could not be helped and that was the rain that created all the mud.  Deep, slippery, dangerous mud.  It was a little unsettling to see how many people were injured along the course.  I have never concentrated so hard during a race.  Every step was slippery, lot's of mud puddles, several wooden boardwalks over water and gaps.  Some of the boardwalks had broken boards, some were really slick and had no non-skid stuff on them, and there were wooden stairs with zero non-skid stuff on them.  Usually I can look ahead during a trail run  and note rocks, roots etc and avoid them without have to watch my feet.  Not this race.  I ran head down almost the whole way. 

There was very little passing room,and side stepping to get out of the way was a slippery affair anyway.  The longer distance runners (who had to do the loop multiple times) end up lapping you, passing you from behind and oncoming.  I'm used to this with Evergreen courses, but this is the first race I have been pushed and tripped by other runners.  Not cool.

I'm willing to chalk it up to me running with my head down (everyone actually was running head down) and not seeing them until the last minute and it being slippery and the tripping pushing was them trying to avoid falling.

I totally want to do this one again.  Even if it is during the rainy season, but I hope they hit this spot again in the summer.  I had a blast running with one of the ladies from Stroller Fitness.  She filled in for Michelle, and she did a great job.  It was her first trail run and she is not really a runner.  She kept up and she made me laugh with the running commentary and squeals I kept hearing.   

If I do it again I think I will do it alone.  I feel like this would be a good one to get in my pace and just go.  For as slippery as it was I felt like I could have gone faster in some parts and not walked as much, also would start closer to the front.  It's so hard to pass on trail runs and I'm kind of over getting stuck behind slower runners for longer than my patients can tolerate. 

All in all it was a fun time.