Weekly Mileage ending 9/29/13

9/26- 5 miles
9/29- 14 miles

Out for a week + Mileage ending 9/22/13

I fell on that awesome Wunderlich trail run the other day when my foot caught a root and although I ran about 2 more miles after that, I ended up taking a week off because I mildly sprained my knee on the fall.  I was limping for 4-5 days the first week and even this last week took it VERY light on the mileage. It feels fine now- no pain on short or long runs- and I hope to be back to building mileage this week.

9/17- 3 miles
9/22- 10 miles

Pictures from my run out and back over the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday:

Weekly Mileage 9/8/13 / Wunderlich

9/3- 4 miles
9/4- 6 miles
9/6- 3 miles
9/8- 10 miles

Total: 23 miles

I ended my mileage this week with a beautiful 10 mile trail run in Wunderlich County Park in Woodside, California.  I definitely did some walking on the way up as it was a pretty even split of 5 miles uphill and 5 miles downhill with an elevation change of 1591 ft.  Good practice for those Big Sur hills!  I caught a root again on the downhill and banged up my knees pretty good- we'll see how they feel tomorrow.  The view was worth it:

Skirt 'n Dirt 10k Race Report

This Saturday I ran a really fun trail race called the Skirt 'n Dirt Trail Run in Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, CA.  I ran the 10k distance but there was also a 25k and 50k distance.  I was running with my good friend Liane, it was her first 10k and she did GREAT! It was an all-women's race with a companion race called Stud 'n Mud that ran with us but it was mostly women.  The race organizer, Inside Trail Racing was awesome and I would highly recommend any races organized by them for several reasons:

1) The trail markers were vandalized and volunteers got up super early to fix this so we could have a safe and fun race.  What nice people, right? 

2) They had lightly flavored or unflavored electrolyte drinks instead of Gatorade. They also had plenty of yummy snacks.

3) SWAG. I got a hat, a shirt, a wine glass (right?) and medal. For a 10k this is pretty awesome bang for your registration buck. 

The race is in the Oakland Hills which I have run before during my half-marathon last year during the Cinderella Trail Run.   They are absolutely beautiful trails and also have plenty of rocks that make barefooting not the most fun. So, I strapped on my Vibram Fivefinger Bikilas and intending to enjoy the scenery of towering Redwoods instead of picking my way around rocks on the trail. The Bikilas worked well enough except for a weird bruising in the joint of one of my toes. I'm looking around at other trail shoes without toe pockets.

I arrived a little later than when I had agreed to meet up with my friend so I warmed up running around between the check-in table and the bathrooms before I found her.  We started off at 8:30 am. after the 25k and 50k runners started at 8:00 a.m. This might have been a little late for a summer run but 90% of the run was in delightful heavy shade.  I had checked out the elevation profile and was a little intimidated- it was "only" 850 ft. elevation change for the 10k but 600 of that was in the first 2.5 miles and the 500 ft. climb from mile 1.5-2.5 was... challenging to say the least.  I need to run more hills.

Took a couple of blurry pictures with my phone while catching my breath on the climb. 

However, after that initial beast of a climb it was mostly downhill from there!  It was a pretty small race so I was running alone most of the time with just a couple glimpses of a person in front of and behind me.  There were a lot more roots on this trail than on my other trail runs and that proved to be my quite literal downfall in the last mile of the race.  My right foot caught a root and I went down on my hands and my right knee.  I hopped up and hobbled the rest of the way not sure how bad it was hurt.  The medical technician wrapped it with ice and although I've got a nasty bruise, a swollen knee and a slight limp today it is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think walking around after the race helped the potential stiffness.

My time was 1:14:06- not a personal best of course but my personal best for 10k was on a flat road and this was a hilly trail so they're really not comparable.  I did come in 3rd in my age group which was my first time placing in a race!  Great race overall and it is getting me pumped for my Fall Halfs!