Why yes, I will take a 10 miler instead of a 50K...thank you!

After last week's crazy, cold, WET half marathon, I was very tempted to ask my running buddy Shannon, if we could do the 10 miler at Isle Du Bois instead of the 50K that we had signed up for. Originally, I had agreed to run the 50k with Shannon since she wanted to do one for her birthday so we signed up, and then for some reason both of us raced the whole month BEFORE the 50K!  She did 2 marathons in November and then the half last week at White Rock and I had the 50K, Wild Hare, and the half last week.  Needless to say I could tell my body was exhausted.  Running was becoming more of a thing I had to do instead of something I wanted to do.  Hello, McFly, can you say burnout?  And I was so tired all this week...the cozy sleeping weather didn't help, but I think I took a nap every day!  Well, so I texted Shannon and just asked if she would be interested in dropping down to the 10 miler.  After a couple of days of thinking about it, she agreed that it was probably smart and that she was tired too.  You have no idea how happy I was to get that phone call!  YESSSSSSSSS!   My mood immediately changed from something I was dreading on Saturday - distance wise, running with Shannon would have been a blast - now I got to run with Shannon AND not worry about time and just have FUN! Double bonus!  Then on Wednesday, I found out that our friend Greg, aka Ninja, was going to sign up and do the 10 miler also.  So plans were made and I picked Ninja up and we met Shannon at 6:30 this morning and headed out to Pilot Point, TX for the trails.

It was soooo cold when we got there.  I think the car said 32 degrees.  So we went and picked up our packet and ran back to the car.  We holed up in the car for a good 45 minutes before our race started.  There were a couple of bathroom breaks for everyone. One in which someone who shall remain nameless (Ninja) went into the ladies bathroom!  Poor ladies! :-) At 8:25 we got out of the car, I think Ninja had already gone up to the start line by then, and we headed up to the start line.

Soooo cold!  Let's get running!

So we start the race and the first mile was on sidewalk, which was nice.  Then we hit the trails.  The trails were awesome.  They were VERY rocky in parts and lots of switchbacks.  You were always seeing other racers on the course.  (Which didn't make good for if you needed to go to the bathroom we would realize about mile 6!)  Shannon was very nervous about the rocks because of her spill that she took at the Chupa race back in October when she landed on a rock and couldn't finish the race.  So we walked the rocky parts and that wound up being a lot.  It was fine though because it was actually nice to look up and not constantly at the ground.  The trees were gorgeous and we saw 2 deer!

Can you see the deer? A mom and a baby!

That is one reason why trail running is so much better than road running! I can see deer or I can see a building!  Ummmm yeh, give me a deer!  As long as they don't chase me!  Then as we were running we came up on the one manned aid station and low and behold, Mama C. was there!  We knew she and Marci were working the station so we were really looking forward to seeing them!

Shannon, Me, and Mama C. (I think Marci was on the phone.)

Finally Mama C kicked us out of the aid station and told us that we had a race to run!  We were having such a good time visiting with our buddies.  So off we went...About mile 7, our friend Tracy ran up on us and we wound up running the last 3 miles in together.  We had so much fun.  I had met her at Wild Hare with Corina.  We laughed and talked the whole last 3 miles and picked up the pace the last part. In fact, I think our last mile was our second fastest one of the day, but there was very little rocks. 

We finished the race in 2:55.  Those walks killed our time, but I realized that sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses and that is what we did today.  It was awesome and this time the parts I walked weren't because my knee hurt. I felt fine so I enjoyed it much more.  I will say, I was so exhausted by the time I got home you would have thought I had run the 50K!

As far as race goes, great race!  Everything was awesome from the aid station volunteers to muffins to course marking.  It was just a very well put on race.  I am so glad for it too because I want to go run that trail again!  I will definitely be back next year!  It was a great local race and it was so much fun to see all our friends out there!  There were so many!  

I am so thankful for this past year and all my wonderful running friends I have made!  This has definitely been a great year!