So most people hire the sitter for New Year's Eve night, but Rick and I chose New Year's Eve afternoon for a perfect way to send out the old year and ring in the new. We left at around noon to head for the trails for the first time this season (they are 30 minutes away). We did a 15.5 mile run, headed to a sandwich shop to grab dinner, and were home by 5. Then we showered, ate, and toasted the new year with our kids. It was their first year to understand what a new year is (5 and 6 years old). They loved the sparkling white grape juice and enjoyed "clinking" the glasses together!
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| Trail run Monday, December 31, 2012 |
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| Picture of us on New Year's Eve post-trail run |
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| Muddy legs! |
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| Sparkling grape juice to toast in the new year (a few hours early) |
We repeated the exact same run that following Saturday (January 5), this time starting around 9:00 a.m. and also using a sitter (I have to wonder what the sitters think of us when we come home stinky, sweaty, and muddy--that we are crazy?).
On New Year's Eve, I found it hard to acclimate to the trails. It felt so jarring to bound on the rocks on the downhills. It took awhile to get used to that feeling again. Today, I felt much more used to it. I had Rick repeat the exact same course (he asked if I wanted to start in a different place or go back a different way at the end, and I said no). It helped me to know how much further there was left and to remember what came next. Like the great gentleman that he is, he let me set the pace on both runs. I am happy to note that we improved our pace by 20 minutes on this second run. I felt strong enough to pick up the pace in the last mile (which is on road and downhill---not the actual course finish). I included a profile map so you could see the elevation change in this beast of a race!
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| Trail run Saturday, January 5, 2013 |
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| Elevation Profile of Mountain Mist training run (back half of the course) |
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