Over the River and Through the Woods..... and Then On Your Head

Most people that know me know that I love running.  Those same people also know that I do not like running trails.  Actually, I think the more accurate word is that I'm afraid of running trails.  I give all kinds of excuses - I'm too clumsy, it's too unpredictable, there are too many bears.

So, as part of my effort to Do Something, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try trail running.  There's a weekly fall running series here in Duluth just for that, and tonight was the first run.  So I thought "I'm Brave!  I'm going to Do Something!  I'm going to go Trail Running!!!!"

Let me just preface this with the fact that I didn't really pay too much attention to the length of tonight's run.  Much to my chagrin when I got there I realized that the run was 10.5 km.  That's right, about 6.5 miles.  For someone that hasn't run a whole lot in the last 2 months, jumping from 3 mile runs to over 6 is a pretty big leap.  But I decided to do it anyway.  I was there already, why not?

The course was on cross country ski trails, and we had to run 3 times on this one loop.  The first time was alright.  The second time through I was a bit tired but still feeling strong.  UNTIL I got to the turning point.  A pesky root sprung up from the ground and grabbed me tight by the ankles.  I proceeded to go flying through the air and, having snowboarded in a previous life, I knew that I did not want to fall on my hands and risk breaking my wrists.  So I turned to my side and fell smack on my left shoulder, followed shortly by my head making quick and hard contact with the ground.  Glasses went flying and I screamed "SON OF A BITCH!" on the top of my lungs.  One of the people making sure the runners went on the correct course ran over to me and asked if I was alright, that I had landed straight on my head.  Two guys that were behind me were overly concerned with my well-being as well.  I was only concerned with whether my glasses were broken and if I had dislocated my shoulder (I did not).  I got up, started walking, and when I got to the turn to go back through the loop I said "Two" and starting running again.

I would like to say that pictures are worth a thousand words, but it's hard to get the scope of the destruction with my crappy little camera.  Here's my best shot:

I really don't have a double chin.  Ouch.

So, yeah, I don't know if I'll try trail running again.  It hurts to fall.  Damn trees.

Today's Run

Today I ran 6.5 miles in about 1:06:00 (I forgot to stop my watch when I got to the finish line - I was more concerned with finding a place to clean up the wounds so that I wouldn't get a flesh-eating bacteria).  This is a pace of about 10:09, which is respectable considering I spent a fair amount of time on the ground and then walked for a bit.  AND I wasn't the last person to finish.  Overall, a decent run.