Tried and tested race name

So Ian and I are moving ahead quickly to get the new trail race ready for a n October 28th debut. I met Ian Saturday morning to tour the potential race course and discuss details. I was also product testing a pair of trail shoes for L.L.Bean and was told to take them through difficult terrain and get 'em wet as we are testing a new water resistant coating for the vendor. So when rain awoke me at 5 AM Saturday I smiled to myself. Perfect.

Well, the trails at Bradbury were spectacular. 10x cooler than I expected. Why don't more people run on these things! Where are you all? Break free of your road mentality and join us!!! The trail was twisty, featuring lots of nice ups and downs, and punctuated by gnarly roots and too cool raised platforms over boggy areas. Fantastic. This race is going to be awesome. We ended up running somewhere just shy of 10.5 miles in roughly an hour and forty minutes which left us at a 9:30 pace, but with all the turns and undulations I swear I thought we were pushing closing to a sub 8:00 pace. It will be very interesting to see what the winning time will be on October 28th. Ian and I decided that a 20K was the best distance. It will actually be closer to 20K++, a measurement so often used by David Horton that his races aren't measured in miles but in Horton Miles. You know, when running trails, who's measuring?

As for the shoes, they were not so spectacular. The first puddle left my feet wet (that's why people use Gore Tex!!!) and I fell twice, something I have never done before while running. This is where the race name comes from. Ian had suggested "Bradbury Bruiser" which I wasn't sure of until my second fall. The shoes I am testing are the stiffest shoes I have ever worn (at least since being conscious of the shoes I wear) with extremely hard soles (unlike the tacky soles employed by "serious" trail shoes like Inov8 or LaSportiva). So my second fall happened as I stepped on an exposed, wet root and lost my footing. My shin slammed into the root leaving a beautiful bruise. Perfect. The Bradbury Bruiser 12-mile Trail Race was christened. And now we will have an award for best bruise on race day!

I have been off the blog (sorry to my few readers) for a couple days because the stomach virus that Quinn brought home last Thursday swept through my entire house and I was it's last victim. I spent over 30 hours in bed from Sunday to Monday and most of this afternoon on the couch. I had so little energy that even walking down the stairs this morning was a chore. Unbelievable that this was the same body that carried my 100 miles just a month ago. Oh well, I am all better now and hope to make it to Peak Performance to see Ian and Jamie's talk on trail running tomorrow night at 6 PM.

'Til next time.