The Winter Trail Run Series continued yesterday at St. Edwards State Park with the Absolution Run, a 4 or 8 mile romp through the park.  This was the first time I’ve even thought about running at St. Edwards since ripping my hamstring two years ago going up that evil hill on a cold morning and I was only going to do one loop of 4 miles.  That injury had me out for most of a season and I wasn’t about to let that happen again.   Like most Northwest Trail Runs events I got there early to help with finishing up setup and doing registration which got completely insane today.  We were a bit short on volunteers ( get out there and volunteer for events!!!! )  and we had a LOT of day-of registration even given the cold and rain.  I was so distracted that when Chris showed up I didn’t even recognize him at first. Somehow we wrapped up just as they were about to do the pre-run meeting and I had just enough time to go change to get ready to run.

I knew we weren’t going to be running this super fast so Chris and I started in the middle of the pack which meant as soon as we hit the single track we were stuck in a conga line for much of the top loop.   Occasionally we’d have room to pass but we definitely were going slow.  When we’d hit wider trails we’d get by a bunch of runners at least.  Mud and water everywhere, it was a blast and luckily not too slick on the downhills except a few small spots.

Running along the lake we made really good time and then hit “the evil hill”.   I was not about to run up this thing so it was power hike on anything steep then run the 10 yards of flat to the next steep part.  We passed a lot of people on this hill though.  It sure seems like more than a 500′ climb but that is all it is, there just are no switchbacks to speak of so it is tough.  Once past that we took off again and about 1/2 mile to the finish Chris powered ahead and I wasn’t about to keep up, I just kept my pace and finished a bit behind him.  Crossed over the line in 45:03 which seemed pretty decent.  This is the longest event I’ve tried since coming back to running and was definitely the muddiest so far.

Next up – the Interlaken Icicle Dash 5k on the 24th.  I’m skipping the mud-fest at Bridle Trails next week since we have some family activities planned and I’m not totally sure I’m ready for 5 miles yet.  Hope to get there by Feb. 7th for the Frost Eagle run at Soaring Eagle.  That will be the end of the Winter Trail Run Series and then the “regular” season starts up in March for me.