It was fun. I felt good until the last two or three miles, when I started to fade. I made a conscious decision not to push it because it WAS only supposed to be a long training run, not a tempo run. I had pushed in the first 4 miles to shake an annoying guy who kept telling his wife their pace and how far they'd run. She wasn't any happier than I about hearing it but I didn't have to stay with him, so I pulled away.

Well, certainly the four miles I ran before it started weren't necessary. ;-) I know that I wouldn't have let about five people who passed me in the last two miles get by me normally! ;-) Still, the point was a fun long run.

I also learned only in the second half that it was better to run in the standing water instead of the mud-- usually the ground under the water was firmer than the other ground-- which was either soggy grass or very deep mud, which was a suspicious brown color and some thought it smelled like s.hit! (there WERE horses on the trail during the run!)

I ran another mile on the road to get to 15. It was tough.


Two things-- the aforementioned four miles on the road prior to the start, and the extremely muddy conditions made it tough to run very fast at all. At times there was so much mud built up on my feet that I was carrying around a few extra pounds.


Fun race. I'd do it again.