Chrystal Springs Trail Run

Today's Chrystal Springs Trail Run was great.   Such a great local trail run up and down a (small) mountain.  Well run.  Good weather.  At the finish I was greeted by a former work colleague.  She'd set the women's half marathon course record.  She is fast!

Overall, my AM run was perfect except for one thing.

I completely forgot how steep the uphill was on this course.  At the first aid station (after about 5.5 miles and 2000 ft of incline), I spent several minutes eating, drinking, and looking at my watch, recognizing that it was possible that I'd miss my afternoon flight if I slowed down any further.  So, I cut off the 2.4 miles from the top of the course (the 1.2 out and back) and started running back down.

Only a few minutes later, I realized that the downhill would be *much* faster than the uphill (duh).

So I probably wasn't actually in any danger, timewise, but at this point, I was more than happy to finish a 17K instead of a half and call it a day.

The downhill portions of this run are such a great reward -- so fun to just fly.

2:13 read the clock at the finish -- in terms of length of time running a long run while training for a flatter half marathon?  Just about perfect.  I explained that I'd cut the course short and they offered to bump me down to the 5 mile.

Here's to the slowest 5 mile time I've ever recorded!