Around the five mile mark (guessing) there was a stream Nike Air Max 90 Femme Rose crossing (photo at right by Jeff Hinte) and I intended to rock hop to the other side so I wouldn’t soak my shoes (I had decided to go with the New Balance Minimus Trail). I wound up slipping on a wet rock and mashed my opposite forefoot onto another rock in an attempt to prevent myself from Adidas Superstar Dames falling into the water. The pain was instant and piercing, and my immediate thought was that I had broken something – not sure if a shoe with a rock plate would have helped or not, but the Minimus Trails were marvelous aside from this one moment. I kept running, and eventually the pain subsided to a dull ache. A few miles later I kicked a root and collided with the ground. It’s funny how trail spills seem to occur in slow motion, and I could feel my legs giving way as my body slowly plunged to the earth. I managed to bruise my hand badly by using Nike Air Max Classic BW it to brace my fall, but thankfully my legs escaped unscathed. I managed to stay on my feet for the rest of the race.One of the things about trail running on single track that is different than road racing is that passing can be a challenge. On trails you often run single file (see photo Nike Air Max 97 Womens at left by Jeff Hinte), so it’s easy to get separated from people you are running with as you try to maintain a comfortable pace. Around mile 9-10 I got ahead of Chris a bit as we mingled with a bigger crowd of runners, and at one point I looked back and I could no longer see him. The crowd in front of me was sparse at that point so I decided to keep running at the pace that felt most natural at the time. We entered a section on crushed rock road for several miles, and I was feeling really good so I turned on the jets for a bit (ran a 7:00 mile Nike Free Run 2.0 Mujer here, which in retrospect probably was a mistake). I passed my friends Thomas and Jenny and said a quick hello, then continued on through the aid station, grabbing a snack as I passed through.From about mile 13 onward I pretty much ran solo. This worked out well for me since I tend to turn Nike Air Max 90 Mujer inward into my own head as I start to focus on a race once the initial excitement wears down. I passed a lot of people over the next 5 or so miles, and made it through the first big loop at mile 18 feeling phenomenal. As I started the second loop I felt like flying, and I started racing down the downhills a bit too fast. This set up my inevitable crash around mile 25, when my quads started to tell me that they had had enough. I stopped to stretch them out, only to find that the moment I flexed my knee my hamstrings rebelled and started to knot up Nike Air Max 90 Hombre Negro in cramps. There would be no quad stretching for me. From that point on it was a constant battle to prevent my quads, groin, and hamstrings from locking up completely, but I fought through with a bit of help from a cold leg soak in a stream.Every hill seemed twice as steep on the second Nike Air Max 270 Dames loop, and the roads that I cruised down on loop one didn’t provide nearly the same degree of respite on loop two. Around mile 29.5 I saw my friend Andy up ahead – he was hard to miss with his bright orange du-rag covering his bald head. I set my crosshairs on the du-rag and managed to catch up with him. It was clear that he was hurting, and I wasn’t doing so well myself, so we marched the final mile in with only very short spurts of running. As we approached the finish line we saw Steve and Ally shooting pictures (Steve is an amazing runner and had Adidas Ultra Boost Donne finished in third place!), which gave us a much needed lift, and we ran the final stretch across a field to the finish line together, crossing in 5:52:48.I was mentally lucid for the entire race, but once I stopped running I started to fall apart a bit. I needed food, and I needed it www.domoreso.fr badly. I remember several people trying to talk with me as I trudged into the aid station, but I have a hard time recalling much from those few minutes. After a hot dog and several cups of Coke I began to bounce back, and the celebration ensued. I hung out and had a beer with the dailymile crew, shared some war stories from the race, and had an all around great time – just an amazingly fun and genuinely caring group of people. I caught up with Chris when he crossed the line – he’d also had cramping issues in his thigh adductors (seemed to be a theme for Adidas ZX Flux Dames the day from many people), but he finished happy too. The common sentiment was that the race was tough, but well worth the effort. There are truly few better ways to spend a sunny spring day than running trails with friends.