Muddy Adventures

Posted February 16th, 2010 by KellBell

What do you get when you have a half marathon out in Annadel in the middle of winter? Let’s see…Northern California in an El Niño year combined with dirt trails and over flowing creeks will undoubtedly yield one very muddy half marathon. This past weekend was the Inaugural Annadel Half Marathon – 13.1 miles of running through the beautiful yet challenging terrain that is right in our backyard (quite literally, actually). A half marathon is a challenge all on its own, but when you turn it into a trail run…well…it becomes a whole different beast. Given the rains we had in the past 4 weeks – and even up to the day before the race – I think you can imagine the conditions we runners endured.

I will summarize my first half marathon of 2010 like this:

1. Shannon is quick! She started out at a 7 min mile pace. I am proud of myself for showing some sort of self control since I slowed myself back down to a pace that I knew was more realistic for me. But congrats to her because she finished 2nd in her division with a time of 2:00:18!
2. While the mud and huge puddles made things fun and interesting (especially the creek of mid shin deep water), I think it was harder on my body in someways. My ankles were very sore from trying to hold myself up and to keep me running straight although the slippery mud wanted me to do something else (like fall).
3. Changing your watch to track things in kilometers without realizing it is a bad thing. Since I thought it was in miles I figured my GPS was not working properly and had to resort to guesstimating how many more miles were left based on my knowledge of the trails and how much time had elapsed.
4. Proper training can indeed make a difference. Was I fully trained? No, but I was definitely closer to where I should be pre-race than I have been my past 2 half marathons. Then again, I don’t think any amount of training will ever make running up Canyon and Marsh easy.

In the end I finished my run in 2:31:59 (at least according to the official results) which was good for 16th in my division. I am not quick like Shannon, but it was a good 13.29 mile run for me! So…

- Thanks to Lauren for helping me train for this event. You are running it next year!
- Thanks to Shannon for not only training with me too but for picking me up and bringing me to the race
- Thanks to Dave and Jeremy for cheering me into the finish line. I love and appreciate the support I get from my family!

With this good start I am now looking forward to the Windsor half marathon in May and the first half of the SFM in July!