Virtual Run for Sherry....

Today was the day! I printed my bib for the Virtual Run for Sherry Arnold two weeks ago. Actually I printed TWO because I don't do long runs solo...

This AM J-Ninja and I met for a 9 mile trail run.

Beginning of the trail...

Adding in some trail runs is part of our training for the 50k in June, which will be a trail run. So it is in our best interest to get in some miles on trails. Obviously, since I bit it before the half mile mark, I need practice on trails.

We took off on a mountain bike trail marked "Beginner". We laughed a bit about it being a beginner trail and dodged and jumped over stumps and branches. As we headed away from our cars we felt pretty awesome, hard core running on a trail....Then BAM! I must have tripped over a stump, J-Ninja didn't see what it was, but something grabbed my foot and I ate it. I got up and looked at my Garmin to see how far I made it before I fell...only .36 of a mile. It was going to be a loooong 9 miles.

I got up and dusted myself off. No blood. No harm. We kept going, seemingly deeper into the woods. We weaved and turned and made our way further and further. Our plan was to do 4.5 miles out and turn around. At approximately 2.6 miles J-Ninja said, "Wait. Is that my truck?" Dang. We had just run one giant circle. We shed some layers and crossed to road to the more technical bike trail. It truly was more difficult.

I wore my New Balance Minimus WT10 trail shoes. We'll see how well my calves tolerated them. I may not be able to walk for a week.





We ran, this time truly deeper and deeper into the woods. We popped out and ran through a campsite and down a huge hill. When we came to a four lane road we decided to turn around and head back. As we came back into the woods the trail didn't seem familiar but I figured we would be fine. Surely we would end up back near the paved road that led to the cars. We weaved in and out of trees. Then around mile 8.6 I tripped over a stump, again. I let it happen. I didn't fight it. I went down in slow motion and hit the soft, sandy, pine needle-covered ground. Falling on the soft ground is so, so much better than falling on pavement. I'll take a trail-bite over a pavement-crash any day.

I got up with again no harm done. We quickly realized we were deep in the woods and would not be back to the car by the 9 mile mark. We settled in with the fact that this was going to be more than a 9 mile run. When we saw the main road we decided to hop off the trail and follow the run to the drive that led to our cars. Who knows how far the trail would have taken us before we would weave our way back to the road. We made our way back to the cars with 9.56 miles. Not too shabby for our first trail run! Our overall time was pretty slow but it included me falling.  Twice. Laughing at me quite a bit, J-Ninja catching herself from falling a few times (she's too coordinated to hang out with me), stopping to catch our bearings, and balancing across small, strange bridges designed for mountain bikes. This was no road run......Awesome!

Virtual Run for Sherry

So there you have it, our first trail run in training for our 50k! I think it went well, two falls, no blood, no broken bones....And 9 miles for Sherry!