The Scott Cougar Mountain Trail Series for 2012 began today on a perfect day for running with sunny skies and mild temps. I did this run with Christian, his first trail run ever and we probably couldn’t have picked a better day for it and the 5-mile course isn’t too brutal. We both helped with registration before the event and then geared up just before the pre-race talk. My big dilemma was footwear, I brought along my Luna Leadville sandals and my Merrell Trail Gloves figuring I’d make the call at the last minute. I opted for the sandals since it was such a perfect day and the trails were reportedly in great condition plus they slow me down and I didn’t want to push too much on this run. Plus, these are the only thing I’d been wearing the last two weeks in Utah so figured that me feet were used to them.
The course was the same as last year with the first hill right where I remembered it. We kept running up the hill and passed quite a few walkers on the way. The second hill before the aid station I’d kind of forgotten about. After the aid station the run was pretty smooth going and we kept the sort of slow pace going. We crossed the line at 55:36 for Chris and 55:37 for me, about 1 min/mile slower than my last year’s pace which felt about right for this year. Chris did great the whole run and was ready to sign up for the next event in the series by the time we finished. Knee felt good which was the important thing, last thing I wanted was a re-injury to knock me out for the rest of the season.
The Luna sandals performed great on the run, I was pretty glad I chose to wear them instead of shoes. They helped keep my stride very short and my legs moving fast, especially on the downhill stretches. Next up in the Born to Run/Evergreen Trail Run event at Soaring Eagle in two weeks, I’m planning on only doing the 5-mile course there and will be running it too in the Lunas.
