Run All the Races!

Oh boy, oh boy.

Anyone else feel like this after this weekend?

I was getting text messages all weekend with New York friends saying they were thinking about me since the NYC Marathon was happening. And with my twitter feed blowing up about the king of all races (aka NYC Marathon), and the Florida Ironman that was happening, I have a seriously urge to run all of the races. All of them!

Of course, my bank account and probably my body would hate that idea. So I am trying to keep a level mind about these things. That hardly ever works for me, but there's always a first time!

I debated pretty hard on Sunday whether I wanted to do my long run on the road or head back to the trails. Running around Cougar Mountain just sounded so much more interesting than slogging down the Burke Gilman. So I took my booty back to the trails!

This little tyke had to stay home this time. A - I didn't
feel like having another panic attack on the freeway from a
puking pup and, B - I wanted to run longer than
he could handle.

It was another beautiful day on Cougar Mountain. I wanted to run somewhere between 2 and 2.5 hours.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of people out and about. I like trail running better when I hardly run into anyone!

Nonetheless, I was happy to be out on the trails instead of slogging down the road in Seattle! I wasn't too worried about losing my way this time, except for the section that was renamed, so I was kind of confused at one point but made it through just fine!

The trail I took wasn't my favorite. There was one section that was super technical - lots of roots and rocks and things to trip over and it was very steep down.

I was afraid I was going to twist an ankle and had to take it super slowly. I think one of my miles in this section took almost 18 minutes!

There were lots of branches and trees that had fallen from the wind storm the day before. At one point there was suddenly a huge tree blocking my path. I had to stand there and figure out how to navigate it. I ended up crawling on all fours underneath to get to the other side.

I made a deal with myself that if I took my long run to the trails this weekend that I would have to road-run next weekend. And I'm ready!

I ended up running for about 2 hours and 18 minutes, so I'm not too worried about crossing the finish line of the marathon much anymore. I'm mostly just silly excited! And, luckily, I'm not sore at all today and feel really good, so I must have done something right!