The Trails 15 Miler 1:36:00 Warmed up a couple with James and noticed from the first mile and his description that this was going to be a very tough course if anyone was going to try and race it. Started off at a comfortable pace around 6:00 for the first two, but Logan and Clyde were not coming with me. So I yelled at them and held up a little and we regrouped. The best move of the day was dropping our watches (it was raining a bit - and stopped right after ditching our Garmins) to Katey so they wouldn't get wet. From here to the turn around, we just ran a nice chit-chatting pace, but still moving decent - like the beginning of a workout, which is what this turned out to be. After being joined by James and closely followed by Steven, we hit the turn around and started to move a little better. I led strong up a big climb over a mile long and into a nasty headwind, but on the down Clyde moved away from me. I encouraged Logan to come up with me, so he did and moved right by me on the next climb! Logan wasn't feeling great and I was feeling the workouts in my quads a bit, and the two of them were pulling away - Logan about 50 meters ahead as we topped the final major climb and headed into the steady uphill with 3 to go and Clyde about 50 more meters ahead of Logan. Here I decided I didn't want to look like a fool, so I pushed pretty hard and caught Logan in this mile and started working toward Clyde. With about 1.5 to go it looked as if Clyde slowed a little, so Logan came back up to me and we yelled at Clyde to hold up and we jogged in together. It was a bonding moment. Cooled down for two more and was happy to be done. Glad I didn't try to race that thing; it would have eaten me alive. (Ohana racers 336.75) Good week of training. Felt pretty solid and added to my confidence a little. But since finishing the race my right knee has been swelling. It is pretty stiff and sore. This used to happen to me a lot and wasn't a big deal, but it sure did feel uncomfortable and make training a little tougher; so hopefully the weekend will bring it down. Goals for next week: School starts, first xc race, and all of that... It should be interesting.
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