Yesterday I returned to Fountainhead Regional Park in Virginia for the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club’s Women’s Half Marathon. Last year it was my first real trail race, and it took me by surprise. I had run some easier trails before, but this one really opened my eyes!

Of course since then, I’ve run on some much harder terrain. And this time, I knew what to expect.

I made sure to take it easy in those early miles and walk the hills as needed. Last year I was nearly wiped out after only three miles! I was taking it slow yesterday, but I felt good.

It was warm and very humid, like much of this summer has been. I had my Hydrapak and I was good. Aid stations were well stocked with treats — water, Gatorade, soda, M&Ms, trail mix, jelly beans, Pringles, etc. I was settling into a groove and enjoying the trails when all of a sudden, splat! I was on the ground.

Worse than the dirt, it was a short concrete footbridge. It wasn’t one of those slow-motion falls where you take a few steps and can either catch yourself or prepare to fall. I went down fast, and my chin hit the ground.

I got up, touched my chin with the back of my hand, and saw I was bleeding. One woman threw me her towel (thank you!), and I applied some pressure as I walked for a minute. Another woman stopped to help me clean it a bit and bandage it. I’m usually not quite so prepared, but I had tissues and band-aids in my pack.  The woman helping me (thank you!) said it wasn’t bleeding much, but was a pretty big gash. Yikes. Well, I did what I had to do — stick on a band-aid and keep moving!

I had to keep pressing it back on since I was pretty sweaty, but otherwise I felt OK. I took it easy enough, and stopped for assistance at the next aid station. Only they didn’t have much that’d work any better on my sweaty face. We tried some gauze and tape but it wouldn’t stick, either. I ended up having them help me wash it a bit better with an alcohol wipe, add some ointment, and apply a fresh band-aid. With a wiped-off face, it actually stayed put better for the rest of the race.

Despite the setbacks, I was doing OK. I plodded along trying to enjoy my day, and I think I was. I got a comment about my smile from one of the photographers — I think I was probably laughing about what a mess I was! But, I was having fun out there regardless. The last couple of miles were mostly uphill (and mostly walking), but I felt good the whole race. (And I even did an easy two-mile warm-up on the road pre-race).

And then I was done. Only four minutes slower than last year, and I think I was in less pain. Well, except for the whole chin thing.

Post race I enjoyed some snacks and smoothies, and hung out with Ultrarunnergirl and Twitter friends. It was a great day!

Before heading home, though, I needed to get my chin looked at. I changed into some clean clothes and called the walk-in clinic by my house and was able to make an appointment in a little over an hour — about the time it would take me to get home.  I still had a bit of a wait (apparently they had a lot of lacerations to treat!), but they took good care of me.

Six stitches later, I’m good as new.  Well, there’s a little pain. And a permanent reminder of my time in the woods. But it won’t keep me away!

I’ll spare you a stitches shot. It’s pretty nasty.

But I’ll leave you with my “after” outfit. This is what happens to white shirts when you fall in the woods.

I’ll be back again next year!

Well, I don’t get summer vacations anymore (well, I *take* vacations, but it’s not the same as having the whole summer off!), and my summer racing season isn’t over yet … but I’m itching to catch up since my unintentional hiatus!

So … it looks like I dropped off after May’s Columbia Triathlon. Since then I’ve been a busy runner! Mini race reports were modified from DailyMile, so if you follow me there they might sound familiar 🙂

June

6/2: Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon

I volunteered as a pacer for 2:20.  I had a friend pacing with me who was a great cheerleader, trying to rally the women around us to stay with (or pass!) us. Our mile splits weren’t as even as I would have liked, but overall we did great. Official time was 2:19:39. Not bad for my first race pacing!

06/10:  Run For The Hills Bushwhacker Race (Trail 20K)

This was an “Adventure Race” instead of your usual trail race because of an optional orienteering component. All runners were given a map, and if you knew what you were doing with that and a compass (no GPS allowed — not even my Garmin!), you could try to cut mileage in order to finish quicker. Well, even if I was capable, I was out there to run! I stayed on the well-marked trail and enjoyed a nice out-and-back run.  I placed 5th in my age group (the prize = a pint glass!). At the time, I guessed there were only five in my age group. Turns out there were seven! OK, one DNF’d, but I still beat one person 🙂

06/16: Baltimore 10 Miler

Nearly a 5-minute PR (1:27:38)! I hung with the 1:30 pacers for the first 6 miles or so. They were dead on — I hit the 5-mile split at 45:02. I commented to my friend (who I lost shortly after I left the pacers) that I didn’t think I had an even split or negative split in me — clearly I was wrong! The second half hills are harder, too. Very happy with my results!

06/17: Hebron 10k Trail Challenge

Fun trail race! Much of the course was flat and runnable … but there was a lot of climbing, too — Garmin recorded an elevation gain of 863. One big climb between miles 2 and 3, and a lot of incline in the last three miles. It started and ended on roads, with a lot of hills at the very end. Tough course! (Especially on tired legs after PRing a 10 miler the day before!)

July

7/14: Annapolis Striders Women’s Distance Festival 5K

5K PR and 3rd in my age group! 18/168 overall. This is a double-loop course with rolling hills. It was pretty tough at this pace. Splits: 8:01, 7:51, 8:01. I was hurting and knew I was slowing down, but didn’t realize it wasn’t too bad of a drop. I wasn’t expecting a PR — especially not such a big one! Chip time: 24:35. Previous best: 25:22.

7/15: MD Heat Race Trail 25K

Tough race, but tons of fun! I knew this was going to be a challenging course and it did not disappoint. I logged 16.3 miles with nearly 2,700 feet elevation gain, and it took 4:21. Yikes!  Lots of long inclines, a (shallow) river crossing as well as quite a few streams, and a little bit of rock climbing. Loved it!

August

8/5:  Annapolis Striders Dog Days Cross-Country 8K

44:01 finish time. This is a cross-country race — through fields (well, 3 loops of the same field), roads, parking lots and trails. The trails aren’t too difficult (otherwise I couldn’t have run this pace!) except for one hill I always walk. Not bad, and actually I looked up my previous times on this course and beat my best by 2 minutes! I don’t do a lot of 8Ks, but with this time I also finally beat my best road 8K from 2005.

8/19: Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon Columbia, MD

Ah, I’m finally caught up since this was today! This was my fifth year running this race, and I loved it as I always do. It was the first year I didn’t see a time improvement, but I’m not really surprised. I didn’t train with my triathlon group this summer, so I was lacking in hill training and had very few brick workouts. It doesn’t help that I was sick all last week. I thankfully was mostly recovered by race day, but still not 100%.

I was happy to take 35 seconds off my swim time from last year. I felt really great in the water today. I think the swim is becoming my favorite leg of the triathlon — this race has a pretty hilly course for both bike and run, so it’s pretty tough. At least they can’t add hills to the swim!

The bike ride went well, though the course seemed a lot more congested than I remember from previous years. I felt like there were times I could have been more aggressive, when instead I’d hang behind a slower rider longer than I should have. People were constantly riding in bunches rather than staying to the right except when passing, so it was tough to find a comfortable place. Still, I enjoyed it and it seemed to go by quickly. I was about two minutes slower than last year. Not bad for being sick!

Despite my lack of brick workouts, I actually felt pretty good on the run course. I walked a few hills as I usually do, sometimes it’s just not worth it to keep running! It wasn’t my fastest time on this course, but not bad, 31:20 for a 3.4-mile run.

Overall, this year’s 2:15:38 (swim 1000M/Bike 17.5 miles / Run 3.4 miles) was only 1:35 slower than last year, so I’m still pretty happy with that.

Well, that’s all, for now. Am I race addict?

Have you been racing a lot this summer?

I’ve had the Frederick Running Festival races on my radar for a while now. It’s managed by the same people that put on the Baltimore Running Festival and Baltimore 10 Miler, so I knew it would be a good event!

It’s also pretty convenient that a good friend from college lives just a few miles from the race site, so I didn’t have to get up quite as early on race day — Frederick, MD is about 75 miles away from my house. It was perfect!

The main race was the half marathon on Sunday May 6, but I couldn’t just leave it at that. They also put on a Twilight 5K at 6pm the night before. Runners could choose to do both races by signing up for the “Nut Job Challenge.” That’s my kind of challenge!

I figured I’d run the 5K easy. I even turned off the pace screen on my Garmin so I couldn’t be influenced by it. Well, the course was pretty flat, and I felt good! I was expecting something in the 30-minute range, but my legs thought otherwise.

That was fun!  After the race I headed back to my friends’ house for dinner. We had a few hours to chat and catch up until I had to get myself to bed!

It was an easy ride to the race start, though I did get caught up in a bit of parking traffic. I actually went the wrong way (well, it still worked) when I forgot about a turn … but it worked in my favor. I was directed to a grass lot across the street from the start line — and my spot was just a few rows from the VIP parking.

I joined the crowd and walked past a few really long bathroom lines, thankful that I had extra time to use the facilities before I left by staying so close. But it’s always nice for one last visit … and then I stumbled upon a mysteriously short line for a (real!) restroom.  Good race karma. I hoped the rest of my day would go well!

When I lined up at the start, I intentionally avoided the pacers. I just raced the week before and planned enjoying my 13.1-mile tour of Frederick. No clock-watching or stressing about pace. No worrying about keeping up with pace groups. I was going to take it easy and have fun!

I really did ignore Garmin pace, only glancing at it as I watched the miles tick by. Even so,  I settled into a quick pace. A few miles in I caught up with the two-hour pacers — and I had started quite a bit behind them. It wasn’t long before I passed them, and never saw them again. I felt great, though, and was pretty sure I had another sub-2 coming.

The morning was in the mid 60s and gray, and we had some misty rain for the first few miles. It was humid, so the drizzle felt amazing, even if it did make the ground a little slick. It dried up after a little while,  but stayed cloudy. I guess we were lucky — earlier forecasts called for sun and a high of 80 degrees!

There were rolling hills, but nothing too difficult. It was easier than last week’s Iron Girl course.

Well, that little steep uphill right near the end got people grumbling, but I was feeling pretty good. I knew I was finishing another amazing race!

After the hill we rounded a corner and finished around the race track.

Another strong finish! And while my race time is nearly two minutes slower than last week’s race, I was happy that the course distance was right. And actually, my Garmin average pace for  distance covered was exactly the same for both races. I can’t believe I did on my own what the pacers helped me achieve last week!

It took 22 half marathons for me to break two hours, and then I did it again in race #23, seven days later. Woo-hoo!

The Frederick race partnered with Iron Girl to give a “Titanium Girl” medal to runners that ran both half marathons. So with the “Nut Job,” I got a lot of bling!

That was a nice event. The premium for the half marathon is a really cool jacket, plus I got a tech shirt for the 5K. I don’t know if I’ll go out there every year, but I’m sure I’ll be back!