First Race of the Year

I participated in the Coastal Trails Crystal Springs Trail Race on Saturday located at Huddart Park in Woodside.

Because I had dressed up at the Coastal Trails Halloween Race back in October, I got a free entry into a future race event. What a treat! I decided that the Crystal Springs Trail race would be a perfect race to start the New Year with. I signed up for the 11 miler that at the last minute was changed to a half marathon. What’s a couple of more miles anyway? Paulette and her husband were also running the half and I signed up UMM for the 22 miler.

As I mentioned before, I had over indulged just a tad during the holiday season, and this race was just the arse kicker I needed to get my fattie self back in shape. While I had ran at Huddart Park in the past, I absolutely love this park. So beautiful surrounded by redwood and oak trees. The weather was crisp and overcast, but luckily it did not rain. I originally was going to run with Paulette and Kevin, but in the beginning, there was a gate you ran through to get to the single track that got a bit clogged by all the runners entering.  It was there that I lost them. I figured they would catch up to me eventually and continued on for the first six challenging miles of hill climbs. 

It was on these climbs that I chatted with lot’s of fellow runners and just simply enjoyed the scenery. Paulette and Kevin caught up to me and together we ran, power walked, and chatted away the miles. A quarter mile or so past the turn around, we were all running down a hill where we heard someone shout. Paulette asked if I knew what the guy was shouting about and I said "no, just keep running!" And then all of a sudden passing us was UMM. He had started a half an hour before us running 22 miles and here he was passing us. So humbling, but so awesome! I was really happy we got to see him out there at the finish line. He ended up placing 2nd overall! 

This was my second half marathon on the trails. There was no PR to be had, finishing at 2:41:32, but I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face all just the same! Such a beautiful challenging course, and so much fun to be running with friends. It was also great to see so many familiar faces out there as well.