I ran my first trail race on Saturday. The Evergreen Trail Runs Squak Mountain 12k. I registered last week because a friend was running it and I thought it would be good training for Mt St Helens. I have not run a lot of trails, just a few runs on Cougar Mountain and at the Redmond Watershed.

The 12k started at 9:30. Laine and I got there about 8:45. it was chilly but they had a tent with a space heater which was toasty. The race started on time and we were off, up the first of many steep hills. It was an elevation gain of 2,550. It was a mix of very narrow trails and wide gravel road. It was hard. It was hard going up the steep hills and hard running down them.

Picture by Herb Purganan

Picture by Herb Purganan

I finished in 2:04, first in my age group, out of 2. The race was well supported for a trail race. On the top and bottom there was a table with chips, m&m, cookies, peanut butter sandwiches, water and Nuun. There was also soup and hot chocolate at the finish.

I think is was a well run race. I don’t know if I will race a trail again, but I will definitely start running on them more.