PR Saucony Trail Run

Today we met up with a bunch of other runners at Algonkian Park, site of theNorth Face Endurance Challenge DC to do a group trail run sponsored by Potomac River Running and Saucony. Saucony had lots of awesome trail shoes to try including the Peregrine which I lust after but cannot wear at the moment because I need more stability in my shoe. Someday the Peregrine will be mine when I get through marathon training and rehab this PTT some more. The Saucony rep also had some of the awesome Vizipro vests that actually have rechargeable flashing lights built into them. I really want one of those. I did not try any gear today because I really wanted to focus on getting in a good trail run and learning a new trail. I was really excited to try out this section of trail because I'm running the North Face Half on June 2 so this was a good chance to run a decent section of the course. It was supposed to be sunny and 65, but it ended up about 55 and foggy with light drizzle for most of the run which was actually pretty comfortable once you got going.The Saucony rep gave his little pitch about the gear, and then we broke into pace groups. I went out with what was supposed to be the slower 90 minute group, but my intent was to get 10 miles in. The first part of the trail was pretty easy, just basic packed dirt and gravel with some minor roots and stream crossings thrown in. The rain had made parts of the trail really muddy and slick so thank goodness for trail shoes. There were a few challenging climbs right after the 30 minutes of running time point including some trick single track switchbacks. A lot of the 90 minute group bailed out right after that section, but I wanted to get a full 5 miles out. I figured that I would turn around when I saw the faster 90 minute group heading back and follow that group in. I ran until I got to the 5 mile point, but I never saw anyone heading back so I was a bit concerned as I had been pretty careful to follow the instructions to keep the Potomac to the left on the way out and stay on the green trail. By the way running alongside the Potomac was awesome! It was really moving today and parts of the trail were really close to the river so it was pretty thrilling. After about a mile back, two women in Saucony vests caught up to me so I was relieved to have someone to run with the rest of the way back and to know that I was headed in the right direction. None of us could figure out why we never saw any of the faster runners coming back so I guess they must have gone on a different trail or something. Anyway, they were both really nice although a bit faster than me. Luckily they were really chatty and liked to stop and take photos so I could either get ahead of them or catch back up while they were stopping for photo ops. We kept a pretty good pace most of the way back and reached the park and checked back in. I managed to stick to my clean food challenge and not scarf any donuts or hot chocolate. It was an awesome morning of running with some really fun people on a great trail. As Saucony says, "Find your strong."

My Asics 2170trail shoes with about 2 pounds of mud on them at the end.