NMTC Spirit Mtn Trail Run

Tonight was the Spirit Mountain trail run.  The weather was clear with temps in the mid to upper 60's.  Great for a nice fall run.  The trail was dry and very rocky. 

Trail In Google Earth

We started in the first parking lot for Spirit Mountain and then headed down the hill.  We run straight down a washed out rocky trail and then hook onto a road for a short time at the bottom.  Then the trail heads back onto the trails and going up.  On the way down, I spent the whole time picking my line so I did not trip on the rocks, and also did not roll my ankle with the TC 10 miler this weekend.  When we hit the road, I focused on keeping a nice steady pace.  As we hit the new trail I am glad that Leslie was ahead of our small group because there was a fork in the trail with pretty much no marking as to which way to go.  Leslie chose to the left while one of the guys was leaning right.  Leslie was correct and we all simply followed her lead.  One of the benefits of being middle of the pack is there is always someone else to follow; hopefully I continue to follow people like Leslie who know the correct path to take. 

Uphill...

As we started our way back to the finish, I wanted to make sure I did not push to hard on the first chunk of uphill.  As the elevation profile shows, we had a chunk of up, with a small down followed by the final uphill push for the last 3/4 of a mile.

Elevation Profile

When the trail came onto the final uphill stretch we were on a straight part of the trail and I could see the guy up in front of me about 200 yards.  I thought to myself he was really moving slow and I should try to catch him.  After about 1 minute of running he was still 200 yards ahead of me and I realized everyone was barely  moving because the trail was just so steep.  So I focused on keeping my pace smooth.  With about 1/3 of a mile, I started to feel a side stitch starting.  Knowing what we had left, straight uphill, I pushed through.  Overall I felt pretty good with my 29 minute time. 

TC 10 Mile

Now my focus is to put the finishing touches on my prep for Sunday's race.  I plan on running a nice easy 4 miles tomorrow.  Maybe another short easy run on Friday, but Saturday will be no running and only getting my race packet at the Excel Center.  The weather for Sunday looks dry with temps probably in the 50's to low 60's when we are running.