The Loop

This was my first trail race since Palo Duro Canyon 50K in Ocotober of ’07.  It felt good to be back!

I wanted to run with my friend Lindsay but when the gun went off I bolted and somehow wound up ahead of her.  This was a mistake, as I am barely in 10K shape and she trained for Jemez Mountains and was thinking of running 20K today.  I think she came around me sometime before the half way point and I didn’t see her again until the finish. 

I love running out at Emma Long; this is my favorite course of the Trail Series, and I was enjoying my time out there.  I chatted it up quite a bit with folks–things like reminding Scott Carey about how he was with me on my first trail run out at Bastrop with the Eglis.  I met some new people and even saw my doctor out there doing her first trail race ever (she did well)!  But I just couldn’t go fast.  It’s not cardiovascular, as I can talk and whatnot and I don’t feel tired when I finish.  It’s just my legs won’t move any speedier.  Lots of fitness to work on there,  Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I’d had a vague hope that I would run this 10K as fast as I’d run one of my 30K loops out there 2 years ago, but I couldn’t do that.  I finished in 1:23.  (HA!  I just looked in my log, and my loops at the Loop in ’07 were 1:12, 1:13 and 1:23.12–even though it’s the slowest one, I only missed it by 30 seconds so, considering the course is now the correct length, I did beat it!)

It was fun to hang out with Lindsay and Marcia, both of whom had done the 10K as well.  I waited to see my other friends (Stephanie, Carrie, Kelley) come in.  It was a mixed day for folks.  All in all, I hung out until almost 12:00. 

I was pretty happy with my day until I had to listen to someone make some really thoughtless and rude comments, which pissed me off for a few minutes.  But after a bit, I snapped out of that, and I’m still happy with it, especially in light of only getting the "all clear" to run 2 weeks ago.  I hope that my fitness will improve to the point that I can do the 30K at the Bluffs in 3 weeks.  (Yes, I do realize that violates the 10% rule of training increase but I can be careful, I think.)  In any case, I am looking forward to more trail runs.

Just took a little trip down memory lane; I double-checked my friend Stephanie’s 2007 Loop results by looking at my class summary from the first Trail Series Prep group.  That was a great group of people, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.  Several of them became good friends that I keep up with to this day.  Dan made me feel good today; he bumped me as he ran past me, lapping me during his 30K.  When I jokingly yelled out at him, "Hey, buddy, watch where you’re going!"  he looked over his shoulder and called back, "It’s not my fault!  You taught me everything I know about trails."  Awwww.