Dirt!

It's seven miles- How bad can it be?

Bad.

I did a trail race Sunday with Alyssa, Anna and crew. The race was in Fitchburg and sponsored by the North Medford Club. When I was registering for the race, the little voice said: "5K, 5K..." Did I listen? Do I ever? So I signed up for the 7 mile race.



The weather was pretty hot but it wasn't bad in the woods. Of course I slid off a rock after about 1/50th of a mile into the race and took a pretty good digger. I was already in last place so it didn't matter much. That sort of set the tone for the rest of the race- I fell at least four or five more times. I'm blaming it on the shoes. Gotta get trail shoes. Or maybe not do trail races. Decisions.

I never really hit any kind of stride or got my breathing right. With the varied terrain, I had a hard time finding any rhythm. Kind of like the difference between mountain biking and road cycling. The course was very nice and extremely well marked. Very scenic. Who knew you could find that in Fitchburg??

Alyssa, Anna, Christine and pretty much everyone else did really well. I was also impressed by the male/female ratio. Maybe there is something to this trail running thing.

Time? 1:47:00-ish. That's about a 15:20/mile for you math whizzes. Hey- it was a fun event and at least I didn't get trashed by a nun.

You all know how I feel about Crocs. If you didn't, you do now. :o)