RUN 47

Mentally and physically my toughest run of the year and my first trail run. 12k of mud, puddles, rain, humidity, ankle twisting gravel and winding hills. It was brutal, and I loved it! The first two miles I did everything wrong, was 2min per mile faster than pace and found myself breathless in third place at the first corner. The next 3 miles were spent falling back to my true pace and position, being overtaken is demoralizing and humbling, but it's what I needed, nothing else matters so long as I perform to the best of my abilities, it's an important lesson which I've learned before and was strongly reminded of today. The rest of the race I controlled pace and form as much as possible having not done much trail running and I finished the remaining 4 miles strong without dropping any more places. While I made some mistakes today and made a tough race tougher, I'm proud of my ability to recognize that and take control before it's too late.
[Chicago Trail Series; 12K; 0:54:51; 07:21; 31/120 runners]