Road to my first half marathon – My furthest distance

After last week’s 17K run I had decided this week I would run 18K. I’ve set up another route on Garmin Courses, but this time decided to keep a little more control and set up the route myself. I selected trail running, picked some roads and let the app decide the rest. Usually when I select trail running there is about 30% of actual trails. Today ended up a little different. The first 3K were through town on asphalt roads. As I was leaving town the roads got smaller and smaller until they couldn’t be called roads anymore. I wanted to run off-road today because it forces me to slow down, makes me enjoy my surroundings more and makes the time go by faster. What I had forgotten was the massive amounts of rain we’ve been getting for the last weeks. I was already avoiding puddles on the road in the first kilometers of my run, but now I passed trails with puddles that looked more like lakes and had taken up the entire path. I stopped several times just because I needed to figure out the safest way to cross the water. I really didn’t want to misstep and maybe injure myself so close to my half marathon. Maybe this trail run wasn’t such a great idea.

My watch gives me notifications with every turn, but sometimes it was hard to determine which path it considered to be the road ahead. I saw a split in the road coming up and my watch told me to go left, so I did. As I turned I noticed a fellow runner going through these trails, I wanted to warn him about the messy road ahead, but didn’t. About 30 seconds later I came to a full stop, the path was gone. Well, maybe it was still there underneath the lake that had formed here, but it was no longer recognizable. How did that guy pass here? I went way into the field and then circled back towards where I could see the trail again. One minute later I had the same issue again. This was going well. When I finally made it out of the field and back into the slightly dryer woods I checked my watch to see if I needed to go left or right. Strange that it hadn’t bleeped yet. Oh, crap. That left turn wasn’t supposed to be this much of a left turn, I had to go back, back through the field with a lake in the middle. I stood there for a few seconds arguing with myself, but then determination kicked in and I ran back out. This time I’m taking the other side around the water and that’s where I finally got one of my feet completely soaked. I had misjudged a chunk of grass and my foot sank away. The podcast I was listening to had just discussed stepping into puddles and how your feet will only be cold for a short period. Great reminder, let’s test that theory.

The rest of the route is less wet and my foot does warm up pretty quickly, even though it remains slightly uncomfortable. I enjoy running trails, but I’m a bit relieved when I see an actual road coming up. It’s on this road a group of cyclists almost drives me off the road again. They would’ve hit me if I hadn’t swung my body to the side, luckily I kept my balance. I’ve ran about 12K when my watch beeps me to go left again, back into wet, bumpy trails. Nope, I’m done with those. I look around and I’m pretty sure I know how to get home from here via actual roads. My legs are tired, but still alive and 6,5K later I am back home.