I think it’s because I almost never train on trails, and when there are cross-country segments in races it slows me down.

Not that I’m fast or anything … I just like maintaining or improving my pace!

Lately, we’ve been hitting the trails to help some of my friends train. They’re running a cross-country half marathon in September. Since it is five days after my Rock and Roll Half Marathon, I’m going to pass on that race … but I’ve gone along for the ride (er, run)!

This weekend, we took a trip to a wildlife refuge to try the trails. We did a shorter loop as a warm-up while waiting for some friends (they went to the wrong entrance of the park). It was a partially-shady, gravelly road.

After joining our friends, we took another trail, this one was a dirt path for foot traffic only. It was narrow and winding, and we really had to watch for tree roots!

(Also, I was in the front and kept running through spider webs. Eww!)

Still, it was shady and felt a lot cooler “inside” the forest, and was actually quite fun. Hills and spiders and all!

We did need to add some more mileage (on the harsher gravel roads), but it was still a great run!