A Trail Tale

This morning started a bit early for me on a Saturday. Meg and I woke up at 4 am to make it to the Run Toto Run trail race in KC. We picked up Ben and were ready to go at the 8 am start. I had planned to do the 50K and Meg the 20 mile. But as I would later realize, I had bitten off a little more than I could chew. Decked out in my Mizuno 3/4 tights, BT top and gloves, I was ready to go!

As the race started I tried to get up toward the front and keep the leaders in my sight. I wasn't sure who was doing the 50K and who was doing the 20 miler. After about 2 miles it was obvious the guy in first place was long gone!! So, I settled in behind the 2nd place guy and we started talking. He was a very nice guy and I discovered he was doing the 20 miler. With the amount of snow that was still on the ground, most of our steps were in fresh snow. That made some spots difficult to trudge through. The trail was pretty technical and provided many ups and downs. I usually got left on the downhills (a little scared to fall I guess), then would catch back up on the uphills.

As we approached the one lap finish, I told Brian that I was going to stop and change my very wet socks, so I wished him luck. After putting some fresh new swiftwick socks on I started out on the 2nd lap. I noticed that with the amount of people that had been on the course, the terrain had changed significantly. I found it more slippery and felt my ankles twisting on several turns. It was lonely at the start of the 2nd loop as there was no one around for quite awhile. I finally started to catch some of the 10 milers, who had started an hour later than us. This made it a little more difficult to keep a pace up. Most people were very nice and let me pass, but in other spots there was just no where to move and I ended up staying behind them until an opening. In one of these situations, I was following along and we took a turn and started up a huge hill. Half way up the hill I thought to myself, "I don't remember this". Once I finally got to the top, I looked around and realized we had taken a wrong turn. As I looked out through the trees I saw the wide open field that we were supposed to have been going through. So, all the way back down the hill I went. This little detour kind of damaged my spirits, but I tried to put it behind me.

As I weaved through the people on my way to the end of the 2nd lap, I realized that my legs were really starting to hurt. Especially the hip flexors and calves from stomping through the deeper snow. So as I reached the end of the lap I decided I had better call it a day. I felt bad for having stopped short, but I knew there was no way my legs could make it 10 more miles up and down the hills. i finished in 3 hours and 11 minutes, which wasn't too bad. I don't know what place I ended up, but it was a great race anyway. Thanks to Bad Ben and Sophia of the Trail Nerds for putting on a great event. Meg ran so well and I believe got 2nd place! Actually faster than in the summer!