Twisted Oak Trail 7 Miler

The Twisted Oak Trail race was on my radar for a while before I signed up. I wasn't sure if we'd be in town because we needed to drop the kids with my parents that weekend and were thinking we would go up and spend the weekend with them. I started back to work a week before the kids' first day of school so they would spend the week with my parents. Elise got an invitation for a birthday party that weekend so we decided we'd stay home and then meet up with my parents to drop the kids off on Sunday. Once that decision was made, I signed up for the race. The party ended up getting rescheduled because the birthday girl got sick, but I was already signed up for the race so we stayed in town.

Race weekend was on the way and we had a forecast for a couple cooler days. Then the forecast started to include rain. The day before the race they posted that they may push the start back an hour or 2 if it looked like it would be beneficial with the storms. My alarm went off at 6 am and I got up and started getting ready. It was raining and there was quite a bit of lightning. I remembered there was a chance the race start would get pushed back so I checked the Facebook page and it said the race was still set to start at 7:30 as pushing the start back didn't look like it would be beneficial. I did yoga once I was ready and then dragged my feet leaving the house because I didn't want to get to the race only to find out the start had been postponed. I checked multiple times and there were no updates so I left the house around 6:40. It rained the entire way to the race. I had planned ahead the night before and had a bag packed with all dry clothes as well as dry socks and shoes. I used an umbrella to walk to the car so I also had that. I wasn't thinking when I arrived at the race and left my umbrella in the car. I walked all the way down to the race start area to get my bib and realized I forgot my water bottle in the car so I had to walk back up to get it. I still had plenty of time to wait around in the rain before the race started.

There were quite a few race day registrants and they weren't using a professional timing company, they used a system created by the robotics team the race benefits, so they weren't ready to start the race at 7:30. They were working on getting everyone entered into the system right up until the wire. We started at 7:40 and went straight up a long gravel hill before turning onto a single track trail. So many people took off sprinting up the hill and I wasn't interested in that. I ran up the hill at a normal clip. Then we hit the single track and people slowed to a jog and I was stuck behind them. When we turned on the trail and crossed a gravel parking lot, I sprinted around everyone I was stuck behind and was able to stretch out to my race pace which felt great. My first mile was 9:16 and I felt good about that. The trails weren't super technical, but they were moderately technical with lots of rocky sections. They were definitely more technical than Lubell, Mooser, and Bales which I do most of my trail runs on. Mile 2 was 9:10 and I was feeling awesome. When I went through mile 3 in 8:53, I decided to try to make the race a progression run with each mile faster than the next. I knew that may not be possible because with a trail race the pace varies due to terrain and elevation and I didn't know the course. Mile 4 was 8:50. I was drinking from my water bottle about every 1.5-2 miles. I could see someone behind me a bit as I did some of the switch backs, but other than that, I never really saw anyone else. There were a couple points when I saw lightning, but the storm had slowed to just rain by the time the race started, thankfully!

Mile 5 had a decent amount of decline and I went through it in 8:29. I knew that would likely be my fastest mile of the race and I was right. Mile 6 was 8:49. I really took off the last mile. That last mile was the most technical and there were sections that were super sloppy with mud and I slid around a little bit. I ran that mile the hardest of the race and it was my slowest mile in 9:19, but with the elevation gain in that mile and how technical it was, I was surprised I ran it so close to the same as the first mile! I finished out with a kick at 7:37 pace. I was first overall female and 4th overall in 1:03:11 which was 8:58 pace. After the race I changed into my dry clothes and used my umbrella to stay dry while waiting for the awards ceremony. I had so much fun and the trails were absolutely beautiful! I plan to go back next year. They do a duathlon which includes a trail run, a mountain bike ride, and a trail run. You can do the race as a team and I think it would be fun for Ty to do the mountain biking and I'd do the running on a co-ed team!