For much of the year I didn’t think I’d ever trail run again due to SIBO, my extreme weight loss and my numb feet from the neuropathy I came down with.  A few months ago my weight started slowly coming back and a few weeks ago I started treatment for the neuropathy which is working to an extent. I started doing more walking when my weight began increasing and, over the last month, began a bit of light trotting in between walking. Last month I did the Run with the Kokanee at Lake Sammamish State Park but for me it was more like a Walk with the Kokanee, I really didn’t run at all.

Since then I’ve been doing 2-3 mile ventures at Grand Ridge with mixed walking and light running. When Northwest Trail Run‘s Winter Trail Run Series opened I decided to try and use these short distance events to see if I could get back into it. The Carkeek Cooler was the first event today and Kristen and I made the drive over the bridge to do the run.   We checked in and headed over to the creek to grab a geocache – aptly named To Cache a Salmon – and to watch the salmon who were jumping a small waterfall to advance up the creek. Very cool way to start a run.

The event was 5k and 10k, we both opted for the short distance since a little over 3-4 miles is the longest I’ve gone so far this year and that is walking.  At the start I walked for the first few minutes to warm up then began to trot along the flat trail the paralleled the creek.  I caught up with Kristen and we were running along together when someone stopped to propose to his running partner on the side of the trail.  We all kind of stopped and clapped then took off again.  At the climb up to the road I walked the uphill but then was able to run the whole section back until the second climb started.  I walked most of the second hill and trotted the flats and downhills.   By the end I even kept running on the smaller bumps.   I ran over 2 miles of the course which is pretty good since the longest I’d really run before in a given morning was about 1.5 miles.

Got back to the creek and hit the straightaway.  There was no push at the end, just my slow steady pace got me there in 37:15.  A pretty bad 5k time but geez, I’m still sick and it was better than my totally flat 42:51 time at Sammamish.  It sure felt good to be running in the woods again though even if it was only for 5k.   Planning to do the Ravenna Refresher 4k on 11/22, the Redmond Reindeer Romp 5 mile on 12/06 and the Seward Solstice 4.2 mile on 12/20 to finish off the year.

My new Altra Lone Peaks were great, they have just enough cushion that my feet don’t hurt but are still light and zero drop so feel like my Lunas or Inov-8s as far as stride goes.   Hoping these have enough cushion to keep my numb feet safe from more nerve damage while still allowing me to run.  I could go to the Hoka or Altra Olympus but really don’t want to have that much pad.