Not my day in the trails this morning.

Today's run in the trails was filled with trips, falls, and wipe outs and when I finished my run, my previously white shirt was covered in dirt. It's just the kind of experience that one should expect when running in the trails and I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. It's OK to fall down but it's not OK to STAY down. This is something that I talk to my clients about and it applied to my run this morning. I knew the pain would be temporary and after limping for a few hundred meters, I was able to return to my pace.

Though my knee was a little bloody and one of the bones in the palm of my left hand is bruised, I still count it as a great run. Both mishaps occurred when I was scooting down a long downhill and I hit a stump which sent me flying. I told my friends that knowing you are going to fall is worse than the fall itself. It's almost as if time stands still while you crash to the ground with a big thud. My friends have all experienced this before so they almost expect to happen to one of us and today was my turn. One of the falls I had occurred at the exact same place that my friend fell one week previously. How's that for precision?

It was nice to catch up with my friends who I hadn't seen since last week. It's great to have friends who you can not see for one week but then pick up right where you left off one week later as if it was just yesterday. We each ran or rested over the weekend.

The pace today was a little quicker than usual which I'm sure attributed to the falls that I had (at least that's what I'm chalking it up to). It's amazing that you can run in the same trails week after week with no troubles and then have a run like I did today. I think that element adds to the excitement of the trails for me. I never have to worry about falling on the roads when I'm running (the day that that happens will probably be my last time running)

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to running between 18-20K in the morning and then I'll start to bring my mileage down a little bit in anticipation of my next race on the 18th.
At least tomorrow I won't have to worry about falling......