Hello and happy Monday! I’m coming in with the first recap in my “one race a month” summer/fall series. This past Saturday, J and I ran our first official trail race. This race was a fun hodgepodge of other firsts: my shortest race ever (at 2.35 miles), my first time running twice in one day, my first evening race, and my first (very minor) race injury. More on that in a moment!

Rewinding back to Saturday morning, I started the day with 8 easy miles with some of the Oiselle girls. Knowing the race was so short, I wanted to get a long-ish run done in the morning. It was fantastic to do it with friends, especially since the day was incredibly humid and the run was a bit of a slog to get through. After a shower and a power wedding planning session, J and I headed over to JP to stroll around Porchfest. From there we zipped down to the train and rolled out to the end of the orange line, where we boarded a quick shuttle bus to the Stone Zoo/race start. Bib pickup and bag check were quick and easy and porto potty lines were short, so we were off for a warm-up jog within 15 minutes. The humidity was pretty hot and heavy at the point (literally) so we weren’t particularly surprised to line up at the start line just as the skies opened up and the rain began to pour down. The first tiny bit of doubt crossed my mind at this point, as I glanced down at my relatively well-worn sneakers…

With no time goal in mind, we started off at a pretty solid clip along the road before we turned into the woods. J was in his element and was speeding along the wet, rocky terrain up a couple of steeper scrambles, and I was able to hold on behind him until about a mile and half in when my foot slid off of a wet rock and wrenched to the side with a thunk. I let loose a couple of expletives but it didn’t hurt too much, so I picked it back up at a slightly more conservative pace, keeping a close eye on my footing for the rest of the race. We finished down a smaller hill onto a grass field, and I kicked it in at a 6:35 pace for the last .2 miles. My final time was 18:14, which brought me in 140th out of 899 finishers. My splits ended up surprisingly even at 8:26 and 8:25 for the two full miles.

After the race I snagged an ice pack from the med tent and we made a beeline with friends over to the beer tent. There was unlimited Bantam cider on offer, which I was super pleased about. Despite the rain, the after party was a ton of fun! After a couple of drinks we called it quits and headed home for some much-needed late-night enchiladas and warm showers.

Overall, this was a fun first trail race experience and a great party! My ankle was pretty swollen for about 24 hours but is already on its way back to normal. My main takeaway is definitely that if I’m going to do more trail running, it’s worth investing in some shoes with proper tread. I’ve been lusting after these but would love any suggestions if you have lightweight trail shoes you recommend!! I think I’m ready for more trail stuff, especially longer/drier races where I have a better chance to keep my feet properly under my body 🙂

Weekly recap: (26.8 miles total)

• Monday: 5 hilly Maine miles
• Tuesday: 90 minute vinyasa yoga
• Wednesday: Speedwork! 8×2 minutes at 5k pace with 2 minute recoveries for 6.3 total miles
• Thursday: 4 easy miles
• Friday: 75 minute heated power yoga
• Saturday: 8 morning miles + warmup + race for 11.4 total miles
• Sunday: Off

Linking up with The Weekly Wrap (hosted by Hoho Runs and Miss Sippipiddlin), with Eat Pray Run DC for her training linkup, and with the Jess’s (Jess Runs ATL and The Right Fits).