8/10/2018 “5.96 miles”/9.59 kilometers First Ragnar Trail run, the hard loop! YTD: 875.73 miles 222 days in a row
I was runner 6 for our team (again), which meant I got to tackle the red (”hard”) loop first (again). I felt like when I ran it last year my performance could go for some improvement (which is ALSO why I volunteered to run it a second time this year when we had a teammate drop out at the last minute for Reasons* - you know, work on your weakness, that sort of thing).
So I attacked this loop with a vengeance. 23 kills (the number of people I passed while on the trail) - most of which commented** on my shoes (I had opted to run with some old pairs of Vibrams figuring my feet muscles would get a great workout trying to navigate the trails I knew were pretty technical).
The trail was a little muddy as there had been some recent rains, so there were a few spots where I struggled a bit with traction, but overall I kept running except for the longest/most treacherous of the uphills (I think there were only two spots (as far as I can tell my data supports this assertion) that I decided “Ok, I’m walking the rest of this hill”).
Overall I improved my time by about 12 minutes, which I was totally jazzed about when I finished.
* Family health issue. That teammate totally made the right decision to stay home.
** One of them even said “I don’t know how you haven’t broken a toe!” to which I replied “Me either!”. Cue suspenseful foreshadowing music.