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.
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.