Trail Fail!

I guess I can't call it a complete fail because we did do what we set out to do and that was to run this trail. Maybe I should start at the beginning.

I met my dad yesterday afternoon to head out to Brighton to do a 5 mile trail run. We have two trail races coming up; one on March 20th which is 5 miles and one on April 25th which is a half marathon. My dad is an experienced trail runner. I am not. I have to get some trail running in prior to these two races.

Anyway, we stopped off at the park ranger's office so my dad could get a new pass for the 2010 year and to ask about the trail conditions. The park ranger said they had quite a bit of traffic over the weekend. great! We assumed the snow on the trails would be packed down. We arrived to the trail entrance and headed in. The trail splits off, you can either continue on to Torn Shirt or Murray Lake. Murray Lake is more of a open, hiking trail. Torn Shirt is, well, look at the name! It's constant turning, going up hill, down hill, lots of trees, etc... Dad chose Torn Shirt. I was up for the challenge. We started off and then first two miles were great. I was slipping here and there, but overall it wasn't too bad. That is, until we passed the 2 mile marker. Here is where it went down hill. We basically ran in a foot of snow the last 3.5 miles of the run. It was the hardest, longest 5.5 mile run I have ever done in my entire life. I told my dad at one point that this run was harder then hitting the wall in a marathon. Of course dad was just cruising along! I like to think that is because he had on trail shoes and I did not. I am sure the fact he runs this trail at least once a week helps too.

This was definitely not what I had envisioned. I had not run with my dad since the marathon so I was looking forward to us pushing each other while being able to chit chat and talk future training and races. Didn't happen. Instead, I barely was able to talk to him since I had to stay so focused on my footing. I'd let out little remarks like "this sucks", "ouch", "I can't believe we've only gone X miles", etc... I don't think I have complained this much on a run since I started running in 2007!

I am praying for super warm weather over the next week. Dad will be taking me on at least 3-4 more trail runs between now and April 25th.

What did I get myself into?