Terrier tracks

Saturday, I got up and got dressed for my run with the Striders. It felt cold and it was, at about 32 degrees Fahrenheit and wind gusts of about 35mph. Wasn't planning to run too far, as I knew I had a race to run on Sunday. An easy 4 miles seemed like a good idea. Well, if you spend your run talking, you sometimes get dragged along. I did just over 6 miles and felt really good doing it. Considering that I've been skipping my weekday runs, for the most part, it shouldn't feel that easy. Can't wait until it gets warmer and I can really up the mileage (and maybe get outside during the week, as well)

Sunday morning I woke up to a temperature of 12 degrees. Twelve degrees! That's crazy! If it had just been a run in the park, I probably would have skipped it, but I had told our running coordinator that I would show up for the race, so off I went. I put on about four layers plus my winter coat and packed another sweatshirt and pants to pull on over my running clothes after the race, when I would be wet. I stuffed some napkins in all my pockets for the inevitable runny nose I would get and packed a Luna bar for post race energy, if needed.

The race was The North Fork Bank Winter Trail 3 x 2 relay I've never run in a team race or in a trail race before. I found the rest of the Striders and got put in a team with the other two female runners who showed up. We discussed it among ourselves and decided that I would take the first leg. The three of us took off up the trail for a one mile warmup. The trails were not too bad. Mostly groomed pathways with the only difficulty being to avoid the frozen ruts where vehicles had driven through. As we got back to the starting area I asked if we were supposed to have numbers? Christina realized that the numbers were still in the car, so she went back to the parking lot to get them. While we were standing around, I noticed that a large group of runners seemed to be leaving. ARRGGG! The race had started! So I took off without my number, hoping that it wouldn't be a problem.

I loved running in the woods. The trees broke the wind and it was so quiet with everyone's footfalls deadened by the leaf litter. I didn't bring my Forerunner, so I had no idea how fast I was going. The leg was only 2 miles so I pushed it to the point where I felt like I was working hard. When I reached the 1 mile mark, I looked at my watch and estimated that I had done it in a bit over 9 minutes. Cool! I kept up that pace and managed to complete my leg in about 18:30.

Here's our team
That's Sue on the left, with the food in her hands, Christina in the center and me on the right in the coat. The running club that was coordinating the race had hot soup, cocoa and various baked goods for the runners. Food always tastes so much better after you've beat yourself up.