Cross Timbers Trail Marathon

Trail Marathon, Saturday, February 16th!

Winter is a great time to find races! A couple of days after the Rocky Raccoon 50 miler, Kirstin and I heard about this trail marathon at Lake Texoma. We thought about it for about two seconds and decided we were in. Another trail race! YES! I knew I would still have tired legs from the 50 miler, plus we a road marathon soon. So the plan was to just go out there and have fun and take it easy. Well, the website calls this the "toughest little trail in Texas" and we soon found out that it's TRUE! There was a lot of climbing, tripping, falling, laughing, slipping, stopping for breaks, and just plain having a great time.

Getting ready for the race in the car. It was around 30* outside so we stayed in the heated car getting all of our gear together for as long as we could.

This was in the tent right before the race started. All the runners were ready and there was a lot of excitement in the air! And there were space heaters!

This trail was so beautiful.

We had heard that there were a couple of tough hills on this course. Um...times that by a hundred! It was ALL up and down. And I'm talking about crazy hard up and downs. This is me coming up a hill. Kirstin was about half way up when she stopped to take the picture.

Me (huffing and puffing): "Um, I think this is a good spot to take a picture" Teehee I really just wanted to take a break.


A few miles into the race, Kirstin was ahead of me a little bit on a curve so I couldn't see her.  We were on a steep downhill.  She said:

"Did you see that?"
Me:  "No, what?"
Kirstin:  "I just fell!"
Me:  "Aw man, I missed it!"

I didn't ask her if she was okay or anything.  I was just sad that I didn't see it happen.  Now that's a true friend.  :)

Kirstin making her way up one of the hills. This was NOT one of the difficult ones. By the way, Kristin is wonder woman on those hills. She flies up them.

Beauty!

At about mile 14 I got lost.  It is an out-and-back course and we had already turned around and were re-tracing our steps.  The course was pretty well marked with little white ribbons hanging from the trees so we knew which way to go.  Well, I thought I was following the markings pretty well but at this particular point I came upon an opening in the trees and there were 4 different directions I could go.  And no white ribbons ANYWHERE!  I stood still for a minute contemplating my next move...I could pick a trail, go through it a bit to see if I could find a white ribbon, or I could back track for a while to see if I could figure out my mistake.  

Well, after standing there completely still for about a full minute, I finally decide to take the trail ahead of me that seemed to go in the general direction of the finish line.  I was pretty nervous about it!  Luckily, right when I had made my decision and started moving forward again, another runner came out of the woods from the exact same place that I had.  He had made the same mistake!  So we ran together for a bit hoping that we could get back on track.  About half a mile later we heard other people in the woods and found the trail again.  Whew!  The first girl we came upon said that she had made that same mistake last year.  Crazy!

Having SO MUCH FUN!

Kirstin and I stuck together for about the first 10 miles.  And then I just really needed to slow down a little and I think she wanted to go a little faster.  So I told her to go ahead.  She did really well and ended up finishing almost an hour before me!  

I thought these hills were a lot more fun going down than up.

Happy happy happy!

At about mile 20 or so, I was taking a walk break.  A runner jogged past me and ask, "Are you okay?  It's just about 6 more miles!  You can do it!".  I thought that was kind of weird because ALL the people near and around me were taking frequent walk-breaks.  I wasn't limping or anything.  And I had a smile on my face because I was having so much fun!  But maybe my body language didn't show that, I don't know.  So I started running again to prove (I guess) that I was having fun.  :)

A runner making his way up an incline. Isn't it so pretty out there?!  I'm pretty sure that's my new friend, Zane, who also lives in McKinney and who's wife just started running too.  Yay!    




At about mile 22 or 23 I fell.  I had been tripping on roots and rocks all day long.  But this time I fell all the way to the ground with a big, loud, grunt.  I was all alone and I know nobody saw me but I grunted so loud that I wouldn't be surprised if others heard me.  The first thing I did when I stood up was check to make sure my shirt wasn't torn because I had worn my Rocky Raccoon 50 shirt.  :)  Not torn.  Then I did a little shake/dance to make sure I could move everything and nothing was hurt.  I was fine.  So I carried on.      

The post race meal was delish! Veggie burgers, hamburgers, hot dogs, potato soup (the best ever!), salad, chips, and drinks. They treated us well that day!

Mike knows his way to this girl's heart: a day on the trails, then come home to a steak and a home made chocolate milk shake. :) (that's my finisher plaque that I'm holding...)