Lonely trails

Another wonderful Saturday morning trail run with the Nerds. The only exception is that I really didn't run with them. I did however, end up running with three for a little while, but then we split up. It wasn't anything personal today, I just felt like I needed a faster run as the Psycho race is approaching (Feb. 14). I should probably run the course, but I figured I'll make the best of what I've got.

Everyone talks about the hills at the trail, so since Clinton apparently does not compete with WyCo in terms of hills, I decided to then push myself at Clinton. Everyone seemed to be in their own groove, anyway.

The upcoming race is only 10M, so today I ran roughly 11.3 or so at a faster than usual pace. I wasn't truckin' along, but it wasn't the usual take-it-easy pace we usually do on Saturday. Here's the GPS of today's run:

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Was a great run and made the best of it. And I'll go ahead and publicly say it here on the blog: the reason for going harder today was because at Wednesday's "beer run," I told a few Trail Nerds I'll do the WyCo 10M course in 1:33:00. Mind you, I've never been there and have only heard "horror stories" about the hills. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but I've heard they're nothing like Clinton or River Front Park at all. So I don't know what to expect, except I can promise they won't be horrible hills, just more than I'm probably used to. All I'm saying is that I've been training for hills. :-)

Will I make 1:33:00? I hope so. I'm confident, but sometimes over-confidence is my weakness, if you will. But if not, I won't be mad at myself or feel as if I haven't reached a goal. I'm doing it for fun and it's a friendly bet (push-ups, I believe). Besides, these kinds of bets really fuel me when I'm feeling tired. So I cannot come out of that race saying I didn't have motivation, because the motivation is fully-on! Whatever the outcome, I'm expecting a great time. I'll have my first look at the course tomorrow as I'm volunteering for the Psycho 5K race, held at the same park. I might post something afterwards. Maybe a few thoughts about my observations.

Stay strong,
Mircea