The Winter Trail run series came to an end on a not so wintery day at Soaring Eagle.  The race was dubbed Frost Eagle but should have been called Soggy Eagle or Muddy Eagle given the torrential downpours the day before and the amount of mud and muck on the course.   I did the short distance which was 5 miles but this is the longest distance I’ve tried to run since slowly trying to get back into shape the last few months during this series.  I opted for my new Altra Olympus shoes just because I wasn’t sure how the distance would be, I figured the extra height could keep some surface water off my feet (Ha, the water was almost a foot deep in places!)  and my feet had been bothering me a bit after running where I was getting some neuropathic pain and sensitivity again on top of the constant numbness, hoping that the extra cushion would keep that from happening.

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Today was the sixth event in the Northwest Trail Runs Winter Trail Series, the Interlaken Icicle Dash held at the very small Interlaken Park in Seattle.   I’d only run through the road portion of this park in the Seattle Marathon before, I had no idea there were trails there.   As usual I got there early to do registration which got a little crazy for a time, there were about 300 runners total today which was more than I had expected.

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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.

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Today was the second event in the Northwest Trail Runs Winter Trail Run Series, the Ravenna Refresher.  The event had 4k, 8k and 12k options, with about 200 people signed up and quite a few day of runners registering.  In the two weeks since the Carkeek Cooler 5k I was able to get out running 3 days a week and built up to actually running a 5k with some elevation gain at Grand Ridge so I figured I could actually run a 4k event.  I arrived early to help setup and do registration and the weather was holding out, it was cool and overcast but not cold and not raining.  I was half expecting it to start raining right when we got going but that didn’t happen, I finished before a drop fell from the sky.

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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.

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Luna Trail Sandals
L-R – Original Leadville, Leadville w/ATS, Oso

Reading Born to Run years ago for the first time I was pretty shocked to hear that the Tarahumara people ran in sandals, and ran in them for dozens if not hundreds of miles.   I was intrigued but figured I’d never be a guy who ran in sandals.  When I got back into running after a stress fractured foot I decided though to take up minimalist running and transitioned from regular running shoes to Nike Frees to Merrell Trail Gloves.  I made this transition with the help of the Born to Run store in Bellevue where I would run with the owner, Dan Fairbanks, at least once a week.   One day Dan was running in a pair of sandals made by Barefoot Ted.  I thought he was kind of nuts at the time but he told me how Barefoot Ted had set up Luna Sandals in Seattle and that they would soon be carrying their sandals in the store.

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Father & daughter ready to run the Seward Solstice Run.

It had been way too long since I’d actually participated in a trail run event.  I’ve done a lot of setup/registration work and quite a bit of photography this season but have scarcely run since early March aside from one 5-miler in May that proved I couldn’t really run.   For the last month or so my hamstring has definitely begun really healing and I’m not in pain much any more instead of being in pain most of the time.   I started building up some miles indoors with no impact on an OpenStride machine and also began taking advantage of nice days and doing fairly long 4-6 mile trail walks at around a 15:00/mile pace.  In the last weeks I’ve begun very lightly trotting for about 1 minute per mile.  While I’m a bit sore the next day it goes away and doesn’t feel like a re-injury.

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Today is eight months since I tore my hamstring and have been unable to do one thing I totally love, run on trails.   After months of A.R.T. treatment I got rid of the continuous pain and was able to sit a bit longer and walk a bit better but still there was no way I could run.  Doing research I came to the realization that this was going to take much longer to heal than a few months.   I continued treatments through the summer and took on a strengthening regime to try and get the hamstring back.   I started doing some flat hiking and a lot of biking through the summer. I even retrofitted my recumbent with fatter tires so I could ride on trails and be in the woods instead of just on paved trails and the roads.

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