Trail Running

It's like a foot massage, only with mud and twisted ankles and squirrels!

Monday afternoon, as reward for chaining myself to revisions for three days, I drove out to Government Canyon State Natural Area for a trail run. [More photos of GC in this-here blog post. And this one here.]

Here's how it went, by the numbers...

8.5 = running miles

1:55 = hours and minutes to complete

13.5 = my minutes-per-mile pace

15 = minutes-per-mile pace suggested by Runner's World for beginning trail runners

11 = my minutes-per-mile pace in the half-marathon

2 = liters of water in my hydration pack

1 = liters I drank

0.5 = granola bars eaten (Cascadian Farms sample size)

5 = crap photos shot with my cell phone

20+ = ankle tweaks

0 = minutes of daylight left when I finished

General notes:

Take a headlamp.

Norah Jones's Lonestar is the perfect song for running through cedar and live oak.

On a normal run, my eyes focus mostly long-range, with some sideways movement. On this trail, which was extremely rocky, they focused very short-range, with little side-to-side. Upshot: not many glances at the scenery. Will investigate smoother trail.

My parents gave me good, sturdy ankles (thank you!).

I love trail running.

Do you? If so, check for routes at Trails.com and Rails to Trails!

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