First Trail Run

Tracy and I headed down to Tulsa this morning about 5:45am to join the regional TATUR-TOT group (Tulsa Area Trail Ultra Runners- Training on Trails) at Turkey mountain for a trail run welcoming beginners to trail running. Tracy had done quite a bit of trail running in the past when she lived in Colorado and always enjoyed it. Course I am always up for a new challenge, so when she asked if I was interested, I said YES! We joined a small group (total 4 men, and 3 women including the two of us) led by a veteran trail runner and endurance athlete named Greg. It was really fun! Totally a different workout from running on the road or paved trail. Your mind is constantly working on footing and obstacles on the trail, plus keeping focused on all the dips and climbs. The pace is a lot slower, but running in the woods and the view from the high points on Turkey Mountain- absolutely beautiful. We ran 5.6 miles in ~1 hour and 23 minutes- including breaks to make sure all in the group were keeping together and taking the appropriate trail forks. I worked muscles I never knew that I had! I am so glad that I bought some trail runners/hikers before our New Mexico trip as regular running shoes would never have cut it on this terrain. Tracy brought her camera and got a few shots of us together. I plan to steal them from her blog as soon as she posts them!!! Upshot- lots of fun with plans to do this more often in the future. (Thanks Tracy for inviting me to go with you and for putting up with all of my coughing and sneezing from allergies -the pollen and all the particles in the air from local farmers burning their fields to prep sowing crops is killing me!).
As for the rest of the day, we were home by 9:30am. Derek headed out for a couple hours as he is teaching one of our friends to drive a manual transmission car. I played with the boys- then took a much needed nap once Derek returned home. We all went out for an early Mexican dinner and then played outside for a while. I think it will be an early night for me, especially if I want to get up early again tomorrow for more running. (Someone said something about running a half marathon in May...not much time left to get my mileage up...)