Winter was the key word as I awoke to temps in the low 20’s the morning of the annual Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival.   The forecast for the start wasn’t much better, maybe highs in the mid-30s by 3:00.  I was just glad I opted for the 5 mile distance this year, I’ll get done before it gets dark and the temps start dropping like a rock again.  The 50k runners were going to be in for a long, cold night.

It was cold when I showed up to register.  Unlike last year, people were not standing around talking before the start but hanging out in their cars or in the few spots where the sun was shining through the trees.  I checked out the course and found the mud pretty much frozen and opted to run in my Inov-8 TrailRoc 245s, looking back I probably could have worn my Lunas and even saw one person running in them though my feet would have been much colder.

I started back about one third of the way but pretty much immediately began passing people, especially on the first hill.  Soon I was with a small pack of about half a dozen of runners keeping a 7:30-8:00 pace and the course was flying by.  At the far northeast corner of the park I began moving up past this group while also getting passed by fast 10-mile and 50k runners.   I caught the lead woman 5 miler on the east-west leg going up a hill and knew I didn’t have too much distance left so picked up my pace.   Coming up the last narrow trail I was catching up to another older guy 5 miler and once we hit the open trail we both picked up speed.  We crossed the line at the same time, he was maybe a head in front of me.

I was elated, finished the 5.2+ miles in 42:05  with an 8:05 pace which was a new personal best for a trail 5-mile event.  My previous best was Soaring Eagle in 46:03 so I was fully 4 minutes faster and even did almost another quarter mile.   Overall finished 16/106 racers and 2/7 in my age group.  Last year I had a personal best 10-mile time at this event at 1:28:29, this is a good course for fast times when it isn’t just solid mud.    Pretty good start to the year and my foot didn’t even hurt during or after the event.  Next up, another snowshoe event on February 9 followed by the Ebey’s Landing Half Marathon on February 17.