Monday, November 21, 2011

2011 Salomon X-Trail 10k Race Report

Despite signing up for a ton of races this year, this is the first running race I've turned up for in ages and my legs are feeling 'achy' today.

Overall I like the Salomon X-Trail. When I'm mentally prepared to get muddy and gross then sloshing around in mud is actually pretty fun. More fun is running right through mud puddles and getting mud on the nancies who were tip-toeing around the puddles. It's a trail race and you're already half covered in mud, might as well enjoy it!

The morning started off well weather-wise. Clear skies and all that. I was sleepy. Very very sleepy. I think I probably was half asleep at the start line. By the time my legs started working, Rich was already off like a shot while I mucked around at the back trying to get into a rhythm.

As Rich describes it, the trail route basically looked like someone took a pen and just scribbled all over a map.



Although it's not completely obvious, the course isn't on a huge area, but somehow it never really felt boring. Well actually there was a lot of scrambling up and down hills as well as overtaking walkers on narrow trails, so there wasn't much time to get bored. And there was never really much of a bottle-neck situation...yes there were bits where I had to slow to a trot but frankly I was just pleased to have an excuse to rest my tired legs.

When we met up after the run, Rich and I agreed that the Salomon X-Trail is one of the more fun races. Hills, mud and lovely trails...what's not to love about it? And a special shout-out to the volunteers at this race who are one of the best race cheerleaders!

Time: 1:20:24 (86th out of 254 women! woohoo!)

2 comments:

Faye said...

way to go gerry! love your blog - loads of fun to read :)

Gerry said...

Thanks Faye!