Trail running is fun, it's everything you love about running but with rocks... lots of rocks! Trail running forces your mind to stay active which can be invaluable when running long distances. When running long distances on a road, one of the things I've come to dread is not so-much the physical fatigue but the mental fatigue. Rarely, besides car-swallowing potholes or kamikaze squirrels, is there anything that requires your full attention to navigate. When trail running, there are ankle-breaking rocks nearly every step of the way and it's similar to driving a car during heavy traffic. When driving, if you take your eyes off the road for too long, you're going to crash! On the trail, if you zone out or think about something else for too long, you're going to headbutt a rock. Traversing the rocks is fun, it gives my mind something to do and with the proper shoes you will barely feel the rocks. On top of this, trail running may even boost your immune system, as discussed here:
You may finally have a legitimate reason to hug a tree. A hike in the woods can boost your immunity, say Japanese researchers. They found that men who walked through a forest for a total of 6 hours over 2 days eperienced a 46% spoke in their blood levels of natural killer cells, which are part of your body's SWAT team against invading viruses. Apparently, all trees release airborne chemicals called phytoncides that not only protect their foliage from microbes, but also help to stimulate our own immunity systems.In six days I'm running the Bandera 50k (~31.1 miles) ultra-marathon in the Hill Country State Park. This run will all be done on trails with steep elevation changes and enough rocks to fill the Grand Canyon. The furthest I've run so far is the marathon distance but that was on relatively flat ground and my legs still don't feel conditioned for the pounding they're going to be taking over the 31 mile course. I ran 28 miles two weeks ago but I had some knee pains at mile 26, so I decided to walk the remainder so that I would not exacerbate the pain and turn it into something that would take weeks to heal. Not making it through the entire 28 miles worries me and I'm also worried that the knee pain will return on race day.
We (me, my brother and a friend) drove out to Bandera this weekend and ran 14 miles of the course. The first six miles of the course are the hardest and the trail is incredibly steep in some parts to say the least! We, maybe, could have ran up the inclines but knowing that we still had a long journey, we walked them and that is what I plan to do during the race. We were all super-tired by the time we finished but I believe that had to do with the, "it's winter, why is it so freaking hot!?", heat and being slightly dehydrated. I ran out of water at mile 9.5 (they ran out 2-3 miles later) so we walked most of the way back to play it safe. After this test, I feel that, as far as cardiovascular-fitness goes, I'm ready for the race but I'm not sure if my legs can take the beating for 50 kilometers. I'll be happy with a finishing time under seven hours; best case scenario is probably five hours.
It's going to be a fun, painful, weekend and I can't wait. We're going down on Friday and will be camping in tents all through Sunday! We'll probably sit by the campfire listening to all the vets tell horror stories about how they've broken bones and crawled like a slug, covered in salt, to the finish line. Then the following morning I'll start off on the hardest race I've done to date! Hopefully I'll come back with some horror stories of my own! ;)
