I ran a 10k trail race called the Resolution Run on 1/2/10. Temps in the 30’s and windy, which made it rough. Rolling terrain, mostly single track. I ran about a mile to warm up and almost missed the start because my Garmin had lost its battery power (forgot to charge it). About a 100 runners. Started out pretty fast given the conditions, around 7 minutes. I felt pretty bad from the start, dont know if it was the weather or burnout from ramping up my mileage in December. I hit a major snag in mile 2 where I tripped over a root and nearly did a face plant. I managed to maintain my footing but it probably would have been better to have dropped and rolled. My shoelace came undone and I had to stop and try to tie it up with gloves, so I lost a ton of time and position in the race. I tried to catch up but felt like total crap going into a hilly area of the course. I think my pace probably went over 8 minutes at this point, just totally winded. After the hilly area I started to feel better – and eventually was able to pick up the pace a bit. I passed two of the guys that overtook me after the near fall/shoelace fiasco. Hit the 4 mile mark at about 32 minutes, which was tough for me to hear but indicative of how I felt most of the first 3 miles. The constant turning and convolution of the trail made a good pace impossible, but I had hoped for faster than that. I really started pushing it the next mile and hit 5 miles at just over 39 minutes. The trail opened up to a wide firebreak section and I started to see the pack I had been leading before I had to stop. I tried to catch up with them and almost caught their last straggler just as we reached the finish chute. Managed 49:16, which I was OK with given that I was ready to throw in the towel midway through the 3rd mile. The trail certainly made it impossible to compare to road times too. Finished in 35th place and 8th in my AG – yikes. I’m taking a few days off, probably 3, to try and regain some spring in these legs. Looking at a St Pattys Day 5k race in March to make my next sub 20 attempt.

http://sc.milesplit.us/meets/61827/results/110599