Dirty Trail Series Conclusion

So Saturday was a big day for me...it was the conclusion (tear) to one of my favorite race series this year the Dirty Trail Series.

This one was a 12K...the farthest I had run in a while in a formal race setting. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a few butterflies going on. But I was prepped, conditioned and ready to RUMBLE! 

Race day was COLD! We had the babysitter arrive early so we had plenty of time to make our way out to Peninsula. The ride out what easy and I had all my stuff (GU's, earband, headphones, etc.) prepacked and ready to go for our early start.

Registration was crazy! It took like 40 minutes to get my number and race swag. But I had a feeling being that the last race I did in the series 10 people got disqualified because they missed a turn that the staff was on the course making sure there was no confusion this time around.

In line my husband and I met a nice guy from California named Gary. He runs up mountains out there for fun. It was great to hear about his adventures! We finally hit the front of the line and I got my number and my super cool sweatshirt. I wore it to run in and let me tell you it was comfy and I put my iPod in the pouch and it didn't giggle! Then we found out the race was going to be delayed by a few minutes as the line of people that needed to register was still super long.

I was okay with the delay as I wanted to get a good warm up in and get acclimated with my surroundings. I got my sweatshirt on and my new Nike Ear band and I was off to warm up....warm up went well. Then, I started noticing that the line was dwindling so I gave my husband a heads up and we headed towards the start line.

The guys that started the race were funny..."no putting water on your head today..." I was pleasantly surprised how good the start was. My husband was excited as I started in the top half of the group.

In the first mile about a half a dozen of us stopped for a moment and almost missed a turn that we were advised of before we started. I was crossing my fingers that I was going the correct way.

Miles 2-4.5 my splits were okay, no great but a-okay. Then around the four mile mark I tripped on a root. The good news is just like last time I got up really quickly and shook it off. I just have a few scratches to remember the race by ...oh well! :) Miles 4.5-6.5 weren't too shabby. My splits  were improving and I was feeling pretty good. However, around that point we hit the rock stairs. The stairs were so steep and slippery I walked them. I didn't want to fall again....

The people at the aid stations were so nice. There were two and you had a choice of Gatorade or water. I loved the guy at the last aid station who told me I was about a mile away from the finish.

The finish was awesome. My husband met me in the field and told me I had about a half a mile to go and told me where the finish was. That was a huge boost right at the end of things. Also a number of staff members and spectators surrounded the finish which made it even more exciting!  I ended up finishing about 3 minutes off my goal time. I was pretty pleased with how things went!

I'm so glad I participated in a number of races in the Dirty Trail Series this year. One thing that was awesome about this year is that I discovered my love of trail running. Excited to hit the trails again in their 2014 series!