Stewart Mountain 10 Mile

This post is late in coming, but nevertheless I wanted to report briefly on the Stewart Mountain 10 Mile race. I loved this race and look forward to improving on my time next year. I got wet, muddy, and I ran up a small (200m) mountain trail. I’m very glad that I followed the advice of a number of people and signed up for this event. Trail running is awesome. I’m not necessarily great at it, but this type of running makes me feel like a kid running through the forest. Cross-country running still feels like work (aka pain), however it gives me great joy to run through puddles and creeks, jump over fallen trees, and run up steep mossy embankments. Also, it seems that I do well on courses with terrain and serious ascents and descents.

I did injure myself at this race. I decided to follow someone through an icy puddle instead of going around the obstacle. I saw the guy infront of me go down, but I was already committed to the puddle. Despite being cautious, I managed a pretty serious fall (lots of blood and some new scars!). Another runner kindly helped me up and the adrenaline gave me enough of a kick to catch up with the pack I was with before the fall.

This race took place right toward the end of semester, so I’m not sure if it was the best use of my time. Again, I really enjoyed myself. Better planning around my workload would make events like this easier to accomodate. At this race, I managed to run 10 miles in 1:09:32 and place third overall. The top two guys were over three minutes faster than me, so I’ve got a long way to go before being able to run with the lead pack.