I have committed to blogging about every trail race experience for the 2023 season. Last Wednesday was the Wasatch Trail Run Series (WTRS) race number two, Dimple Dell one (this course will be repeated in 5 weeks).
Dimple Dell is a natural hiking and equestrian park in the foothills of Sandy, Utah. The rolling trails are well maintained by Sandy City and still provide a fair amount of ascent and decent to train your legs for more rugged terrain.
I'm so glad that WTRS is designed to gradually ramp up to the much steeper trails we'll be taking on later this summer. Also, I'm not complaining at all that the first two months of runs take place in the foothills since the trails we're racing on late June through August are still under several feet of snow. (As of May 6, 2023, Alta ski resort still has a snowpack of 14 feet!)
Wednesday, May 3 offered perfect running weather. Temps were in the 60s, the sky was slightly overcast and the trail was dry. Parking was tight was so I was sure to get there early and enjoyed warm conversation with several new acquaintances while waiting for the race to start. I'm very grateful for the camaraderie and encouragement from Kirin CrossFit Coach Jared who joined me for the first 1/3 of the race. His goal was to complete the short course for the night so I bid him adieu as he blast off while I continued to conserve energy for the long course ahead.
I finished the second race one minute slower than the first at 1h 46m, but, this course was 0.33 miles longer, and I did have an improvement of a 12:51 pace to 12:20 pace. My physical feelings during the race ranged from pleasure to dread and back again LOL. Overall, I was reminded on this day why I am doing this, because, I LOVE it. 😍
Looking back on my calendar, it looks like I started running exactly once per week on March 9 and mostly on the road or paved trail for an average of 6 miles. I spent most of the long winter training indoors, lifting free weights at the big box gym and I averaged less than one CrossFit workout per week. This would all explain why my agility and cardio vascular fitness is lagging. I look forward to closely tracking and pushing my progress over the next 12 races and additional runs and power hikes outside of that. ~Clark 🙌🏻