Race Review: Land Between the Lakes 23K Trail Run

Land Between the Lakes 23K Trail Run
3/8/14

Grand Rivers, KY

Time/distance:  3:45:32/14.291 miles

So even though I haven't been blogging much, this girl still has been running. Although, with this whole "Polar Vortex" business, the running hasn't been as often as I would have liked.  And if I really want to be truthful in regards to this event, I would really have to confess that my training was spotty at best.  I did get a 10 miler in and I did run (slip? slide?) some trails as well, but I would not say that my confidence was all that high when I was standing at the start of this race.

For some background, Land Between the Lake Trail Run actually has 4 events:  23K, Marathon, 60K and 50 Mile.  The 23K course was a little under 2 miles of road, then a little over 11 miles on a trail, and then finishing on road again.  Folks that did the Marathon, etc would do 2, 3 or 4 loops of the trail.  I must say this:  Those runners are HARDCORE.  Seriously, I barely made it one loop around that trail.  I would have just sat down and started my own colony in the woods if I had to run anymore than that!

Jaime had done this race last year and while we were doing our best to muddle through the trails around Cedar Lake, she would tell us how the LBL trail was not going to be covered with leaves or that we would not have to deal with a hill full of rocks to climb up.  She said it was hard, but a pretty clear path.  And I'm sure it is.  When there isn't 6 inches of sleet and snow on it!

Yep, the Sunday before the race, winter struck Kentucky.  A post on Facebook from the organizers assured us that the trail drains well and though it would be more challenging it, it would be doable.  I wasn't sure how to take that, but what can ya do? It is what is.  We'd just have to see how it looked on race day.

To shake my confidence even more, the sick monster decided to attack me on Wednesday.  By Friday, I felt better (NyQuil induced comas can help!), but I was still pretty congested.  My plan of attack:  pack lots of Kleenex.  Shrug.  I told myself to back out if I really needed to, but in all honesty I didn't want to do that.  I wanted to do this darn trail run, dammit!  So, Saturday morning, I blew my nose about a dozen times and hoped for the best.

Regrets of my decision hit me pretty early on.  The first few miles on the road never felt comfortable to me and I was already having issues finding a rhythm for my breathing.  I knew things were bad when a guy in front of me snot rocketed and instead of being grossed out, I was immensely jealous.  I have not mastered this disgusting, but necessary act while running.  I really wish I had.  Sigh.  Still so much to learn about running.

Anyway, we made it to the trail and sure enough, they were covered in snow.

It was actually easier to run on this than it may look.  Sure,  there were a few slick spots here or there.  I mostly had problems when it would dip down right before a small creek or something.  I am not good at committing to jumping over things, so sliding down a hill and then needing to jump?  Um, yeah not my strength.  Though it was easier than I had expected, I still couldn't manage to keep up with Jaime and Tim.  I am a very sloppy trail runner and somehow manage to slip and slide even when things aren't slick.  I was also a snotty mess and that started to impact my breathing more than I had anticipated.  At one point, we were going up a pretty long hill and I started wheezing.  It totally freaked me out and I felt like I couldn't breathe.  I stepped off the trail with Tim and he calmed me down, but I'm embarrassed to say that I just started crying.  Yep, that happened.

Though the breathing issue had me spazzing, I drudged on with Tim's encouragement. We caught back up with Jaime (she had to stop and wait for us several times!) and once again I started wheezing as we were going up an incline.  So, I stopped again. Caught my breath and moved on.  At this point, I didn't think I was ever going to finish this stupid thing.  I just tried to keep moving forward and not think about time or distance. Just one foot in front of the other.  This was easy to do because with trail running,  I feel like I"m always just looking at my feet.  Tim and Jaime encouraged me along and I just tried my best to believe them.

And then the trail started to look like this:

It was like running in wet sand.   It was exhausting.

The second half of the trail was harder.  More hills, more mud/slush.  In fact, I really feel like the last 2 miles on the trail was all mud.  Jaime got so annoyed with it, she took off and we didn't see her until we emerged from the trail.  She said she just wanted to be done.  I didn't blame her.  I was over the whole experience at that point. However, a volunteer had just informed me I only had 1.7 miles of road to go!  Yay. Not really.

I was pretty beaten at that point.  The trail came out at road heading uphill that was covered in ice.  I said I'd walk to the top.  We started running again with Jaime's encouragement.  "To the bridge," she said.  "To the orange cones!" She was the only reason I ran.  I would have just walked the rest of the course if it wasn't for her.

When we (finally!) finished, I felt like I was going to collapse.  Seriously, that was HARD.  I hurt more after those 14.291 miles than I did after running a marathon.  But, I did it.  It wasn't pretty, but I finished.

I often say that the best part of running is doing it with others.  I have ran many miles with my running friends and I learn so much about them and myself.  Jaime is a fantastic runner.  The girl could have rocked that course,  but she stuck with us.  Girl, if you are reading this, I think you got what it takes to do the marathon on that course. I really do.  You and Tim should totally do it next year!  I'll even cheer you guys on when you pass by me on your second loop when I'm still pushing through my first!  :)

This race was really well organized and a lot of fun.  The volunteers and other runners- even those crazy ones doing multiple loops of the course- were so encouraging!  I will definitely be attempting this one again in the future.  Hopefully the trail conditions will be a bit less challenging!  :)