I may be slightly delusional on this topic, but when it comes to running I don’t really consider myself to be competitive. Unless, you’re talking about finishing a race strong and trying to pass other runners as we near the finish line. That’s different.
Early in the year I came up with the idea of running a certain number of miles, not early enough, of course, to come up with a totally balanced schedule to reach my goal, but definitely within the realm of possibility. As the year passed, my goal evolved to include running new to me races, as well as a mini aspiration to run 3 half marathon in 3 consecutive months. Today I made that goal.
One of the coolest things about running is that no two runs are ever exactly the same. The three halves I ran recently have a single thing in common – the 13.1 mile distance. The first one was crazy humid, the course was on roads traveled simultaneously by runners and cars and the last couple of miles were the most taxing. September’s race in Saratoga was, at times, on the road, but it also included trails and paths through a park. It was relatively flat and the weather wasn’t particularly sunny, yet it was pretty comfortable temperature-wise. That run also felt far easier than any of the other longer races that I’ve run. Honestly, it was satisfying as hell.
Today’s race was a straight up trail run and the conditions were a little gnarly – lots of wet leaves, crazy roots and rocks and fair amount of mud. Pretty much textbook autumn trail conditions, I think. This race, the Hairy Gorilla, was new to me. I’ve done the Squirrely Six, which is the alternate race, a couple of times but I hadn’t ever challenged myself to go the entire distance. Until this morning…
The lunar b*tches were an intact threesome with two of us committed to the half. The weather was the best I’ve ever experienced at this event – comfortable temperature, reasonably dry with peeks of sun along the way. There were spots which were absolutely quagmires and I personally nearly went down twice. I’m actually curious to see how my back feels tomorrow after “catching” myself as I stumbled over pesky roots and doing my best to stay on my feet. I witnessed a couple of spills, but nothing with apparent injuries, and the worst conditions of this race was still better than the best conditions in the Seven Sisters.
The views were phenomenal, water and snack stops plentiful, and the people I encountered unfailingly pleasant. I got to cross the finish line with one of my peeps and we had enough time post-race to soak in some wood smoke from the warming fires and have a bite to eat before heading down off the mountain. I’m on pace to meet my 1000 miles for 2016 goal with a feasible 21.5 miles a week for the remainder of the year. I think I got this.
DelSo 
The conditions for this race were some of the best in years! If only it was a *little* less muddy, my time would have suffered less. 🙂