It was 46 degrees with a feels like 43 and I had no other tech Tee's thanks to the only one being drenched during Saturday's race, I was nervous and pissed off about it. My capris didn't have a pocket for my Energy gu so I had to wear my shorts. After much debate on a shirt, I chose the KDF race shirt.. thankfully it was a dri-fit tech tee so it was comfortable but I usually do not wear race shirts at races.... I had no choice.
Much to my horror, the GPS actually found the park and then I found the parking lot and start.... I had a half hour to think, and think, make excuse after excuse to start my Tahoe and get the F*^K out of there.... the thoughts going on in my head - - - - -
Get gone while you still can - you should've stayed in bed... shouldn't have even bothered with this - you didn't train properly for this - you aren't a real trail runner, you don't belong here - you ran yesterday's half way too fast to have recovered just enough - you won't make it to mile 5, let alone finish".
I can honestly say that I am so glad I rarely, if ever - listen to reason or logic. It hurt, it was freaking tough and it went from cloudy and windy, insanely cold to really warm and sunny.
The original plan was to hike hills, but people in front and behind were going at a really good pace of 11-12 min/mile so I just kept up with them for the first 5 or 6 miles before doing any hill hiking. Surprisingly I wasn't feeling too bad, my legs actually were feeling well enough except for the minor issue of my left foot feeling like I was running on needles.
Mile 1 - 10:14
Mile 2 - 11:48
Mile 3 - 11:37
Mile 4 - 10:35
Mile 5 - 11:03
Mile 6 - 12:43
It started getting tough......er at this point, but I just kept telling myself that these trails were awesome and I was actually having a good time other than the fact it was timed. I took it easy on the hills at this point, hiking when I had to and "running" when I could. I had passed quite people, people in this area were very kind and always ready to let you pass... unlike the trail races in my area.
Mile 7 - 12:44
Mile 8 - 12:25
Mile 9 - 13:42
Mile 10 - 13:09
At this point I did stop at an aid station for water, orange gatorade and half of a banana. The people who I had passed up earlier had caught up to me, but I was alright with that. This wasn't a race for me, I was there to enjoy the trails, enjoy the people (and the good looking guys ;) ) so it was okay with me.
Mile 11 - 13:08
Mile 12 - 10:46
Mile 13 - 10:50
Mile 13.1 - 8:53
Honestly, my garmin was a mile off but who cares... I am going with their GPS measurements.
I finished the Backside Trail Half Marathon in 2:24:45 with an average of 11:07 min/mile, quite a bit faster than I figured I would finish. I expected around 2:45:00 or even 3 hours, so getting under 2 and a half hours is a great thing.
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