Star Spangled Trail Half Marathon!

My run buddy was after me to run a trail half marathon with her at the end of the 4th of July weekend (this past Sunday the 6th).  Because of my leg pain (IT band syndrome) I didn't commit.  Tom and I are running the Boilermaker in Utica on the 13th and I didn't want to aggravate my leg on the trail and then have a poor run the following weekend.  Almost the entire month of June I went back and forth wanting to run the trail run, but thinking it was a bad idea physically.  I even ordered some flag print shorts and a new blue running singlet -hoping deep inside I would be able to run the race.

So Saturday I just kept thinking that I wanted to do the race.  The week prior I was finally running up to 5 miles pain free (sounds like I'm ready for 13.1 again right?  NO, HA!)  Really the thing that was drawing me the most was the promise of beautiful mountain/forest views.  I knew that if I went it would be difficult and I would probably not be fast at all, but I just really wanted to see the trails.  I'm not a trail runner, but I do love hiking and the solitude of the woods.  Finally at 10:30 PM Saturday night I made plans with Jacki to meet at 6:15 AM and head over (up into the Adirondack Mountains) to the race.  

The race was at Paul Smith's College VIC.  What a great place this is!  It is an interpretive center with the purpose of getting people engaged in the natural ecosystem of the Adirondack Mountains of New York State.  There are over 25 miles of hiking trails and it is BEAUTIFUL there!  Lots of different types of forest, ponds, bogs, mountain streams, and hiking shelter lean-to.  If you get the chance, get your family over there this summer!  Some of the trails are easy enough for little kids, and there are also challenging trails for more serious hikers.  

Sometimes it's just so fun to dress up!

We arrived early enough to get registered and pick up our packets before the marathon participants started at 8 AM.  There were 9 of them.  I think 6 men and 3 women.  WOW these people looked like they ate mountains for breakfast.  Very serious runners.  The marathon course was the half marathon loop twice.  The course was unassisted -so no potties, water (although there ended up being one stop with water at the halfway mark), or foods on the course.  This meant that you had to carry anything you wanted with you.  This was the biggest deterrent for me to not do the marathon, because I seem to still require more water than I can comfortably carry for that distance.  Luckily due to having a two loop course the marathon participants left support items under the shelter of the building to be used before they headed out for their second loop.  

The half marathon didn't start until 9 AM so we spent the next hour eating, hydrating, applying Body Glide and checking our packs to make sure we had everything we wanted to bring with us stashed carefully away.  I packed two packets of Jelly Belly Spots Beans, a PowerGel, two 8 oz. bottles of Gatorade, and a pot of Burt's Bees body balm (to take care of any potential chaffing during the race) and my cell phone.  I carried my water and phone in my Fitletic hydration belt on my front and my other items in my Spibelt across my back.  I refilled my Gatorade bottles with water at the water stop and finished the rest of the bottle before continuing on mid-race.  

The weather was perfect.  Mostly sunny and slightly cool when we started the race and never very hot when you were under the forest cover.  A little warm when you were in open field in some spots.  And the views from the trails were absolutely gorgeous!  

Peaceful footbridge over a mountain stream

The marathon leaders passed me and they were a sight to see!  One minute they were there, bounding over tree roots and rocks like they weren't even there and the next minute I couldn't even see them anymore.  How they can run that fast on the trails is beyond me!  I stumbled several times, but thankfully never fell!  

Some of the time it was pretty hard to see the trail.  Note the red and white striped tag on the tree!

Everything for me was pretty good until about mile 9.  That is when my IT band just couldn't take it anymore.  I had to power walk the last 4 miles and eventually even walking was excruciating.  But, because the views were so nice and I was all by myself out in the forest it didn't seem like such a big deal.  I wanted (like anyone would) to be able to jog to the finish line, but it wasn't happening.  Oh well :)  Guess I should have done the 10K instead!  HA!  Thankfully Jacki had some Aleve with her and that made my leg very happy pretty quickly. 

Another pretty creek bed along the trail.

Salty and hungry we packed up and got two slices of greasy pizza each on the way home.  

What a great experience!  How lucky I am to live in a land where I am free to run and enjoy the outdoors!

Thank you for reading and consider getting out into some deep nature soon!