On sunday morning I ran the Unlimited Breadsticks Trail Half Marathon for the second year in a row. I finished the course in 2:27:35, which is 14 minutes quicker than last year. While it did rain some during the race, the ground stayed dry enough to allow me to keep a consistent pace.
Trail conditions were much improved from last year, so I had actually been hoping for a greater improvement to my time than what I got, but I suppose that my time isn’t bad for a trail half considering the hills and slightly long distance. Still it was an advantage in having done the race once before. It allowed me to have some idea of how much progress I had made, and when there was a large hill around the corner.
On Sunday morning I ran the Unlimited Breadsticks Half Marathon along the Seneca Trail in Victor. I finished the race in 2:41:55 which was a little slow, but my time was limited more by the trail conditions than my training.
A light rain began just before the race, and while the water in the air didn’t bother me the water on the trail was a real problem. I usually love my toe shoes, but they have very little traction and turned into a real liability in this race. While I only went down hard once, I was slipping and sliding for the first nine miles of the course. With my speed being limited not by my lungs or my legs, but rather my my traction I feel that I easily could have taken 15 minutes off of my time had the trail simply been drier. Trails opening up to grassy fields are typically my least favorite sections of a trail run, but in this race they were my one chance to actually run on this course.
Around mile nine there was a half mile of gravel path that I practically sprinted to try and make up time, but of course races don’t quite work like that. The final few miles were not as muddy, but I was still being cautious and only able to get up to full speed on occasional sections.
Overall though, my time was still over 15 minutes quicker than the 0SPF race, and I would love to get the opportunity to explore these trails again when the conditions are better.
My next race is the Wineglass Marathon which will thankfully be free of mud. I feel that my training is in good shape heading into this race and that I have a real chance of getting a Marathon PR for the first time in years.
On sunday morning I ran the Unlimited Breadsticks Trail Half Marathon for the second year in a row. I finished the course in 2:27:35, which is 14 minutes quicker than last year. While it did rain some during the race, the ground stayed dry enough to allow me to keep a consistent pace.
