I don’t normally do a lot of trail running, but I did a trail race last fall and thought it was a lot of fun, so I was excited to have the opportunity to do the 12k at Chase the Coyote, which I had heard a lot of good things about. The race fell in the peak of my marathon training and I had a big workout planned for the next day, so I planned to take it fairly easy and just have a good time. In the weeks leading up to the race, a few people asked me if I had done much trail running in preparation and said the course was quite technical. They seemed a bit concerned by my response of “well…I have trail shoes”. Hmm, okay, so this was going to be an adventure!
It was a very crisp fall morning and, having planned to not run too fast, I made the rookie mistake of overdressing in long sleeves, and suffered for that later. I did refrain from wearing the cute mittens we got as swag, at least 😉 I started near the back of the pack but once we got up the immediate uphill at the start, I realized I could probably pick up the pace and start passing people a bit. It turned out to be perfect running weather and the trails were beautiful. There were, as promised, many hills, which is a whole different level of cardio than what I am used to. There were also lots of rocks and roots but I am pleased to say I only almost fell once. Once we got through around the halfway point, the pack had spread out a lot and it was just me and two guys running near each other, and I started to think that I might actually be a lot closer to the front that I was expecting. So once the terrain calmed down a bit, I ended up booking it for the last few kms, because I just couldn’t help myself, and got a surprise 3rd place in my AG.
In addition to the awesome swag mittens, there were sandwiches and other food at the end, and everyone was really friendly. The park where the race is lovely and it was a fun and very well-organized race that I think I would like to come back to and race hard sometime!
