Slip Sliding Away

Saturday was the latest in the Rock Cut Trail Run series--the 15K version. I missed the 10K in February as I was in Minneapolis that weekend...that weekend, you may recall, was crazy cold, but my insane training partners Sue, Michele, and Jeremy all ran the 10K nonetheless. Having missed that run (and given that I do trail running only slightly faster than I mountain bike), I'm very much out of the running for any sort of series award, which made the 15K (and will make the 20K) just variations on a training run theme.

Last week was sort of odd weather-wise--really bad storms Sunday night, cooler temps through the week, then snow on Thursday...all of which made the trails slightly sloppy on Saturday. It was fairly chilly--35-40-ish--not cold enough to freeze things, but warm enough for plenty of mud along the course. Being the flatlander, non-trail runner that I am, I wasn't really sure how to handle running through the mud, so for the most part, I tried to avoid it at all costs. I did a decent job of that until the creek crossing about 1/4 mile from the finish line...where I had no option but to run through ~6" of water/mud to cross to the other side. I guess I've officially christened my trail shoes--as soon as the blogger cooperates, I'll post a picture of the mud-fest they've become...but it was a blast.

In addition to having a great time (meaning I had fun--my actual time wasn't that great because I ended up getting slightly off-course along with about 5 other runners and we ran an additional ~1/2 mile or so by the time we got back to the course) and getting a little muddy, I also think I finally figured out how to pace myself. I ran my race this time--a novel idea, admittedly, but one I've struggled with. I typically go out too fast and want to shoot myself about half way through a race, but this time I took off at a decent pace and held it pretty well through the whole course. I'm not the most agile person, so I know I slowed up on the single-track parts of the course, but nonetheless, I felt great through the whole run and had just enough left at the end to kick it into the finish (and considering how many little hills there were, that's a victory in and of itself). Even better, I wasn't worried about how everyone else around me was doing--I passed people only when I was ready to, not because I thought I had something to prove, and I didn't let it bother me when I got passed. The fact that I remembered how much fun it can be to be outside and playing in the mud is just an added bonus on top of my little pacing epiphany...

All in all, progress...