Today I ran a great trail race, short and sweet, a 5 Mile muddy run wearing a skirt. It was a Trails Roc event, and the charity was a group who raises money for prom dresses for girls who don't necessarily have the money to buy their own. It's a great group of people, and over the winted I did the Cast A Shadow Snowshoe race with these folks and figured they'd be a nice group to support.
I ended up 10th in a field of 113 runners, which is probably my best finish ever for an event of this size. There were no age group awards, but I was first in the 40-49 age group, so felt pretty good about that also, considering I lost my shoe, twice, in the mud.
Rules of the race were simple, follow the trail, keep the orange flags on your right, and don't avoid the mud. I ran the whole thing pretty much at my redline, but still felt good at the finish, though next weeks Hyner View Challenge Trail Race will tell alot more with 16.5 miles of running and 4200 feet of climbing.
The short and sweet of it was I did 5 miles in 45:56 in muddy conditions, and my achilles felt pretty good, as I have been having some issues with it because of all of the hillwork I have been doing. So I started doing some exercises to help build strength in my lower legs and hopefully prevent future issues.
So far year to date I have run 236 miles and climbed 17,500 feet in elevation. I am trying to get in at least one run with 1000 feet of climbing per week. I am also shooting for 25 miles a week, and maybe will get my bucket list goal of 1000 miles in a year this year.
Well, it's been a good year so far. Plan is to run 9 tomorrow with Kris, and have a mellow week after that with a couple of 6 milers, resting up for the Hyner.
Here are some shots from todays race. It's a stellar outfit.
