Notes
This was a doozie of a race-- I completely underestimated it. Well, rather, I should say I "misinterpreted" it. I thought it was going to be a normal 5ish mile run, and since it was scheduled to replace a 5 tempo that I had scheduled as part of my marathon training, I figured I'd run it at a 7:20 pace. A 7:20 pace 5 mile tempo run is something that I have done MANY times before, so it shouldn't have been an issue.
I started off strong. The first quarter mile, I was frolicking along at 7:10 with little effort. I slowed my pace a tad just so I didn't get into trouble. I had this in the bag-- I was feeling good!
Well, that is, until we hit the wooded trails not too much later. Initially, I didn't think it was anything to worry about. Then I quickly realized-- I was wrong. A majority of this trail run was uphill. For the most part, it was a gradual uphill slope... but then, we hit these vertical inclines, that were pure mud from the torrential downpour the night before. I knew I was screwed as soon as I tried traversing the first one. I had to navigate to the side of the hill, where the foliage was, to try and gain traction... and even then, I was not going up the hill very fast. To say I walked it is exaggerating! My time was FLYING out the window, and there was nothing I could do about it. I haven't trained on trails, and I haven't trained on hills... so it was a double whammy!
Oh well... I enjoyed the challenge. It was a super fun (albeit excruciating) run, and I'm glad that I did it. Instead of finisher medals, they gave challenger coins, which was a cool surprise. After all was said and done, I actually finished relatively well... so I'm not un-happy with the results at all. I guess I wasn't the only one struggling!