Monday, June 8, 2009

Cahaba River Ramble

I've recently discovered trail running. It is much different than you normal road race and a lot of fun, at least so far. Saturday I did the Cahaba River Ramble 10 mile run with my friend John, Ed(a guy I work with), and Ed's son. The Cahaba Wildlife Refuge is in Bibb County near the town of West Blocton, kind of out in the boonies. There was a small crowd but a lot of people that I knew from other races. The 5k and 10 mile started at the same time, Ed did the 5k, his son was supposed to do the 5k but ended up going 10 miles, and John and I did the 10 mile.

The run started on a gravel road along the river, very pretty. At one point I saw a hover craft, I thought that was odd, it might be the first actually hover craft I've seen. We crossed the river at the 5k turnaround, I'd say it was bout 2-3 feet deep but very refreshing. From here the trail got more challenging and more hilly than I expected. This was also the last time I saw any other runners till I got to the end. Running in the woods by yourself is peaceful but also challenging. There is nothing to keep you going but yourself and there were some times I didn't want to keep going. I only walked twice... once on a pretty tough hill around the 3 mile mark and then on "The Equalizer" at the end. This is a ridiculous hill that you hit sometime after mile 8. Miserable on the way up, but going down the other side was fun and a good way to end the run. My goal was under 1:25:00 and I finished just over 1:23:00 in 6th place overall so I was happy. No more trail runs on the schedule anytime soon, next weekend I do my first triathlon. We'll see how that goes.

1 comment:

  1. Kyle! Great running :o). Glad you've joined the blogosphere.

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