Hot and Hilly Trail Race

On tuesday night I ran the Run Our Trails race in Mendon Ponds. I finished the race in 1:02:46 and 48th place. This race had been postponed from a week earlier due to the heat, and while this week was much better it was still a very warm night.

The 5ish mile course took place on the east side of Mendon Ponds Park which is dry but very hilly. I struggled a bit with the first mile of the race as the hills and technical single track made it hard for me to get going. The middle section of the course flattened out a bit and gave me a chance to find my groove, and I feel like I kept running well even once the course returned to more hills for the last section.

My biggest problem on the course was probably the downhill sections. These are meant to be a reprieve from all of the climbing, but given their steepness I had trouble trusting my footing and had to slow down far more than I wanted to.