Gutbuster: Mt Tzouhalem

Finishing the13 k.m trail run

 Not having slept well last night and keeping an eye out to see if it was raining , it took a while for morning to appear, It was a bit of a fluke last night as I was checking out the trail-on the map that I discovered that the run was on  Saturday not  Sunday, It was a good thing that my run on Friday had been a slow,  relaxing run and not some run to the top of Hearth Lake run. I felt good for the run and started in the middle of the pack, Starting behind the old church at Providence farm and leading us on a muddy road behind the flower beds  and coming out by the horse barn and-into an open field this was the easy part, as I usually start out to fast I found a runner that was in my age group and paced him for awhile, till the pace became to comfortable, and I had to decided when to pass him-finding a runner that had just past us I kept pace with him till he all so seemed to turn his pace down a notch , By this time we were facing a steep climb up Providence farm trail and here we ended up doing more walking then running , by this time I seemed to find myself  trying to catch up to a faster running group  then the runners I had been running with. It became a bit of a cat and mouse game every time a flat  or open area appeared every one would crank it up a notch and put more distance between the people behind or that they wouldn't see you before you got to the next twist in the trail the trails seemed to be in good shape and if it had been a bit dryer the trails good have been slippery also, some of the bare rock was easier to get footing on then the moss covered rock so you had to keep an eye open for foot placement climbing over the steeper trails that we encountered by Kona X trail and rocky ridge trail, once past the view points and reaching the highest point we turned away from the ridge and Cow Bay view to turn unto  T-road which gave us a chance to stretch our legs and pick up our speed as we headed down hill skirting the puddles as we passed them coming to the field of dreams an other Mt bike trail the running became a bit easier although we encountered a few up and downs and bike ramps that we ran around.On these single track trails you had to keep your eyes peeled for rocks, sticks, puddles and the twists  and sic- sacking of the trails whether your running up an hill or speeding down the trail I made sure that I was focused on the  trail ahead of me especially going all out running down a hill, one wrong step and I would be picking myself off the ground, so it was important to know were you're feet would be landing, going fast I wouldn't have a second chance  to place my feet,as I went back and fort down the mt  Staying focused not daring to take my eyes of the trail as i passed people, Finally coming to the end we had one more hill to climb and after a sharp and muddy corner were you had to walk or else you would find yourself in the mud . the end was insight and running on the road at the end proved to be harder then running on the trail.  Then finally I completed my first race of the year.