Dirty Legs Spring Run # 1

Proud to announce that I had a couple firsts today.

First race of the year.

First trail run , ever.

First women overall.

First age group.

And to be completely honest , I'm flippin psyched!

A couple weeks ago my dailymile friend Roxanne (please add as friend , she is training for her first Ironman and needs all the support she can get) informed me of SV Endurance Dirty Legs Trail Run. I signed up for the 5k , at only $20 , with technical tee AND practically in my backyard I totally jumped on it. Now I have never run on trails, EVER. So this was a leap of faith. With all the encouragement and positive feedback about trail runs from my Dm'ers I was very excited.

To start the Sunday morning off , I was late. Arrived there 6 minutes before race time , but all was smooth with checking in and getting ready. Before we had left the house I had told my husband that I was shooting for a 9 minute pace, not until we started and I hit that second rocky hill did I think " um no way , just be consistent" . 3/4 mile in I was doing great I was behind 2 men that were leading the pack and had 2 women on my tail.

What I thought was just going to be a "come out and try this thing," turned in to a "race this thing" . With only 2 women behind me I felt I could easily finish top 3 , and maybe win. That was until the trails became super narrow ( I swear not even a foot wide) and STEEP climbs. I was passed by the women duo and their trail running shoes. I slowed down to a fast walk, I was very shocked with this climb. I had imagined glorious flat trails not mountain climbing.

1/4 mile later, I was weaving up a mountain (probably was a small hill but bear with me) and lost sight of the duo. I recovered with my walking and decided to be strong and pick up the pace. As I started going I saw the duo and they were now walking, I caught up with them and walked behind them . Please dont think we were wusses, but it was steep and unstable. Once the hills became more tolerable I booked it, I kept a strong pace and powered through the hills.

Now when you would have we made it to the top, but we only went higher. NEVER ENDING! At some point one of the women broke away from her friend and passed me. At that point I knew I needed to kick it up a notch. She might have passed me, but her friend sure as heck wasn't. For about 1/4 mile I stayed about 3 yards behind her, unable to catch up. I will give her credit, she was strong up those hills, but I was faster when we leveled out. There were only a few level points and the last 1/2 mile was all down a STEEP hill. Still behind her we were BOOKING it down that hill, but you can only run so fast down hill! I never knew when the bottom/finish was coming, but the women in front and behind of me did. I saw her pick up pace in front and I could hear the footsteps pick up speed behind me. I was slowly catching up with the girl in front and then I saw the turn for the finish line. And who was waiting at that turn? My little family, and there was no way in hell I was going to let them see Mom lose. I unleashed myself and was neck and neck with the leader. WE WERE FLYING! I heard her give it her all and I don't know where I pulled the last of what I had, but I just COULD NOT let her beat me . I thought to myself "I am a mom and I'm strong," sounds lame but I really did say that to myself. And by a stride I crossed the finish line and beat her!

I then pulled over to the right , and to add another "first" to my list I threw up my breakfast.

My time was 28:36 , thats not bad for climbing Mt. Everest and having to slow down to walk. I couldn't be happier and if I wasn't busy "unloading" my breakfast, I probably would have had tears in my eyes from joy.

I recieved a great medal and for first place won a pair of injinji socks which I was very happy to recieve after reading ThatGuyWhoRuns review!

Now half way through that run I thought, this is NOT for me . When I finished, I realized that this could only make me stronger. Am I IN LOVE with trail running? No, but I do have a little crush.