First Race of the Year

Sometimes I find it fun to torture myself with 16 miles of trail racing (if you can call what I did "racing") on little to no training and 4 hours of sleep the night before. So I have been running. About 8-10 miles per week. I even went out to the Swampstomper trail twice in the past few months to get used to picking my feet up high enough to get over the roots. I also did a practice fall on the Wolf River trails a few weeks ago, but luckily, that part of my training wasn't needed this past Sunday. I really have not been training for the sleep deprivation. Running on less than half of your nightly requirement does interesting things to your depth perception and focus. Something about drifting off while running over roots and across streams makes it harder to stay upright.

It was much warmer this year than last, probably by 20+ degrees. What a difference being above the freezing mark makes. The trails weren't very muddy, which probably made for a fast course. Not that I would know. I was thrilled to be running with speedy Casey again, and we had a great group of 3 or more through most of the race. We let my teammate Steve lead after the turnaround, and he quickly took off into the distance, never to be seen again. Or at least until the finish line.

I was terribly sore Sunday afternoon, but embarrassingly it was mostly from Saturday's yoga class that stretched my pitiful hamstrings right to their limit. My three hour nap helped cure the sleep hangover, and the bar food that evening helped replenish my muscle glycogen.

It's almost race season again, and now that the Little Rock Half Marathon people have categorized me as "elite," I must begin actual training. Next week.