Backyard Bonanza 12.5k

My friend April was running the 12.5k at the Backyard Bonanza trail race at Turkey Mountain. She really wanted me to run it with her, but I was a bit hesitant because it was the week after the Tulsa Run and I was worried about overdoing things with my injury issues going on. I recovered really well after the Tulsa Run and was leaning toward running with her. Then on Halloween I decided to run around jumping in my costume, landed wrong jumping over a curb, and irritated my hip. It hurt for 3 days and even woke me up multiple times in the middle of the night throbbing with pain. I found out I got free entry into the race with the race team I'm on, so I decided to go for it when I did strides on Friday and everything felt fine during and after. I told April I'd take off with her, but if things were feeling off, I'd back off so not to worry about me if that happened. I got up at 6:30 which was really like 7:30 with the time change, did yoga, and ate a little something. I didn't run this race last year, but I ran it the year before that (read about that race here). I finished in 1:05:13 when I ran it in 2021. I wanted to beat my time from that year. The day before the race they posted that when they went out to mark the course, there was trail construction going through part of the course so they had to change the course. It would add a bit of distance and AllTrails showed it would be 8 miles instead of 7.5 like when I ran it before. I figured with the added distance, I wouldn't be able to beat my time from before. 

Me and April after the race.

I did a half mile warm up and then walked to the start with April. I forgot she takes off really fast. Usually I can hang and then eventually pull away in the second half, but I couldn't keep up and she pulled away pretty quickly. In the first half mile of the race, she kept going straight instead of taking a slight turn and ended up off trail. She ran through a briar patch and cut up her legs. I followed her off trail but realized it pretty quickly and yelled at those behind us not to follow us. We got back on trail pretty easily and it didn't cause any problems other than the cuts on April's legs. I could see April for most of the first mile. As we got into sections of the course with more turns and weaving, I couldn't see her anymore. I figured I'd catch back up to her around the halfway point and we could run together. My first mile split was 8:56 and mile 2 was 8:49. We went through an aid station, but I didn't take anything. I wore my spandex shorts and stashed a water bottle in my pocket. I made sure to drink every mile. There was a guy running along behind me and I could hear him. He followed me even when I went around parts of the trail to avoid something. Mile 3 was 8:40 and mile 4 was 8:27. I had decided I would pick it up at the halfway point and go pretty hard. That's exactly what I did. Once I started dropping the pace, I couldn't hear the guy behind me anymore. It got a little bit lonely, but when we went through an aid station, one of the workers told me April wasn't too far ahead. I focused on picking up the pace so I could catch up to her and run with her.

I wasn't looking at my mile splits on my watch, but I knew I was rocking it. It was exciting after the race to see how I dropped the pace every mile of the race. I went through mile 5 in 8:13 and I could finally see April again. I could tell I was pretty quickly narrowing the gap and I figured by the time I caught her, I'd be running enough faster than her, that we likely wouldn't run together. By 5.5 miles I caught up to her and we chatted a bit. When I passed her, she didn't go with me. I figured she was hurting a bit and that's why she didn't go with me. Mile 6 was 8:05. Then I passed my friend Daniel who was running with his dog. He told me the guy winning the race wasn't far ahead and I might be able to catch him but I could see him on switchbacks and knew he had a sizeable lead. Mile 7 was 7:38 and I'm pretty sure it was the first time I've ever run a sub-8 mile on Turkey Mountain trails! The last portion of the race I averaged 7:29 pace. I finished the 7.83 mile race in 1:05:03, beating my previous time even though the race was 0.38 miles longer than before! My average pace was 8:19. I was thrilled with it! I was 2nd overall and 1st female. I stayed around for awards and then headed home. It was so much fun!