Evergreen Trail Runs

My most recent foray into the world of walking has been participating in a series of trail runs.  It started with a 5 mile trail run at Soaring Eagle.  These are held by Evergreen Trail Runs, who do this sort of thing all the time.  I went with Leslie, and we finished up the 5 miles (walking) - in about 90 minutes. Meanwhile, Parul ran the 10 mile version.. the bum. 

Here's a couple of mugshots for ya from the first trail run/walk.





Five miles on a trail isn't like five miles on pavement.  It means much more frequent elevation changes, winding paths, and obstacles like roots, rocks, fallen logs, etc.  This particular course started out on a broad well maintained trail which you can see in the second photo (which was taken as we finished, actually).  About a half mile in, it veered off into the woods though.

I found myself breathing harder, but we kept up a pretty good pace. Our official finishing time was 1 hour 45 minutes, but we started about 15 minutes late, thanks to traffic. It meant we were all alone for most of the course, too.  I peg us at 90 minutes, then, averaging a 18 minute mile. Not bad for tough terrain.

Every time I go on an adventure like this, I learn something. This time it was:

Carbs near the end = turbo boost.

Now - I'm not generally supposed to have carbs while on the Dukan diet at this phase. Then again, Dukan wants you walking 20 minutes a day.. I was above and beyond that a good bit (considering I'd already done 30 minutes earlier in the day before the tail run).

I was feeling pretty tired by the time we hit the aid station at the 4 mile mark.  When we got there, a really nice guy was manning the station with a friend of his. He said they both belong to a blues rock group called Ravenwolf.  I got some water, and then Leslie asked me if I wanted some M&M's.  My first thought was..

Candy, er.. no.  Then I asked, do they always have these? Leslie said yeah - it's quick carbs, it'll give you an energy boost in about 3 minutes. Prior to that, I was feeling worn out - I'd worked all day and then been walking 4 miles in the woods.

Sure enough - about 3 minutes after I had some, I got a definite energy boost. Leslie cracked at me, "Sure, sure, NOW you take the lead." Hey, Leslie - if you read this.. you know how you keep asking me if I want to go faster? You walk at my pace and above. If anything, I'm slowing you down.  As they say in that one place... you go, girl. 

There's also a fellow who goes on these runs all the time who is legally blind - and he completes them mostly without trouble. I really have no excuses for not doing these on a regular basis. :)

Consequently:

I went to the Dash Point 10K (About 8 miles) a little while ago, and completed it in 2 hours.

I am going to the Steilacoom run (See here) - on 10/21, another 10K.

OK, long post, sorry for the potential 'TLDR' here.