Our first trail run!

We signed up for the Scallywompus Salado Creek Trail Run a few weeks ago mainly because the word "Scallywompus" is just fun to say! There was also free pasta and beer at the finish line! What a score after a run, right?!

This was our first trail run so we had no idea what to expect. We run pavement and thought it was a good idea to change things up and do a group trail run in case we were attacked by a flock of wild geese or if we were trapped under a boulder. In a race, there would be someone to hear us screaming for help like little girls! Luckily, there were no rabid geese and the boulders stayed attached to the ground.

This trail was ROUGH! We were idiots to sign up for the longest distance because we were counting this as a long training run for the upcoming marathon. If you know San Antonio, you know the 1604 loop, so the long course was a 16.04 k (10 miles) running through creek beds full of rocks, trails climbing up steep creek banks, and one part where there was a rope to pull ourselves up a rock wall that was about 20 feet high! It was an adventure to say the least! It was also breathtakingly beautiful! The wildflowers had just started blooming and it was like a movie set when the trail would lead into a field (before taking us into the creek bed of death once again).

I was admiring the wildflowers about 8 miles into the run, then I saw a butterfly, and then SPLAT. I fell on my face. Classy and graceful, of course. Luckily I just fell in the dirt instead of on the boulders that seemed to be everywhere on that course! My husband fell around mile 5 and thank God he fell in a soft area too. We were a little scraped up but fine overall. This was when we were first entering the trail area. It looks easy, right? Just after this was when the boulders started!


We were almost at the finish line and finally back on pavement! It was a great run but I can definitely say I will NOT even CONSIDER a trail marathon! 10 miles on the trail was TOUGH! It's so different than running a pavement race! It was a beautiful run and I'm glad we did it but there is no way we will sign up for any trails more than a 5 k distance for a long, long time! Our pace was pretty slow but remember there were boulders! We finished the run in 2:04 for an average pace of 12:29.


If any trail runners read this post, I think you're amazing! Trail runners are seriously hardcore! I think we'll stick to pavement most of the time but we really enjoyed a different experience running on the trail.