Fun in the Mud

I got to run my first race of the year last Saturday. It's not quite the running season, in fact it's considered the off season with all this rain. But one race prides its self on getting lots of rain: The Bridle Trails Winter Trail Running Festival.

I ran this race two years ago and I believe it was the first race I competed in that didn't take place on pavement, so in a sense it was my first trail race and looking back I haven't competed on pavement since. I love trail running.

This race also happens to be on my home turf. Bridle Trails Park is a network of about 30 miles of trails and it's located a mile or two from my work, so I usually run there during my lunch breaks.

This running festival has a few different races: A 5.2 mile, 10.4 mile, 50k pairs, 50k teams, & 50k solo. The 50k (31.2 mile) race takes place at night time, so not only are you running through the forest in the mud, but at night time with headlamps. Of course I wanted to run the 50k solo.

My personal trainer/coach (Jenni LOL) politely reminded me that I should get a physical from my doctor before running any more super long races since it had been about 5 years since my last physical. I didn't meet those requirements in time and so I ended picking between the 5 or 10 miler. I choose the 5 miler because that was the race I ran two years ago and I wanted to see if I could beat my time.



Here's the start of the race. Can you find me? LOL The race was a lot of fun and really muddy this year. I ended up beating my old time by about 45 seconds and finished in 43:24.

Here's the aftershot, mud and all.



I'm excited to try and compete in more trail running and ultramarathons this year and improve my time and see more beautiful trails. I guess I better visit that doctor first