This race holds a little special place in my heart because it was my first trail race. The last two years, I’ve done the 5k. This year, my friend Melissa convinced me to register for the 10k. Don’t get me wrong; I like trail running, but I prefer the shorter distances. Maybe because there’s less opportunity for me to get hurt?
Like many other races this year, this one was entirely virtual and participants had about two weeks to complete it. I’m always afraid that I’ll get lost on the trail, so I planned to run it with Melissa. Other than my husband, she’s the only person I’ve run with since COVID. Last night, she texted to ask if her friend Gina, who’s also in our running group, could join. My friend Eileen (also in our group) saw that we were going and asked if she could tag along.
My anxiety was pretty high because I found out the course wasn’t marked. As I mentioned above, I’m always worried I’ll get lost – and this wasn’t a course that any of us were super familiar with. There are four trails in the park, and the race course went on bits and pieces of all four.
Luckily, my husband’s run the 10k the last few years, so he pulled up the route on the Garmin Connect app. He sent it to me, but I wasn’t able to upload it to my Forerunner 235. I sent it to Melissa and her device wasn’t compatible, either. She sent it to Gina – success! Mike was also planning to run the 10k, and since he’s much faster than us, said that once he finished he’d turn around and come looking for us in case we got lost.
We arrived that morning, and Gina’s friend Ashley also joined us so we had a little group of five. I was a little anxious since my group runs since COVID have been strictly Melissa and me, but I know that Gina has been extremely careful (and was tested earlier this week) and that Eileen has been as well.
We got started and I remembered the first part of the course – mainly the steep downhill before we got into the woods. Gina was keeping an eye on her watch so we had an idea of the course. However, we misread part of the route and ended up going backwards. We didn’t even realize it until Mike passed us going the right way – oops! The course was muddy but not awful. There was one steep, muddy incline with nothing to grab on to. My feet kept slipping, so I asked Melissa to literally give me a hand push my butt up. That’s what friends are for!
We completed the first loop and stopped to say goodbye to Eileen, as she was doing the 5k. We also took a group photo!
On the second loop, we paid more attention and went in the right direction! True to his word, Mike circled back and found us – and it was a good thing because there was a little trail right before the finish that takes you back into the woods for about a quarter mile because you finish back in the parking lot.
Overall, it was a good race! Like I said, the trail was a little muddy but I’ve run in a lot worse. This course has lots of roots and rocks so you definitely have to keep your eyes on the ground. It was colder – 39 degrees when we started – but the sun was out, so there were a handful of people and dogs hiking. Everyone was really nice about stepping aside to let us pass.
This was actually Race One in a three race series, so next up we have the Waverly 1/4 Marathon.
I Was Running 