Someday, I'm going to tell my grandchildren about the trail runs I used to run. But, I can guarantee I'm not going to tell them that I liked them.
I ran the Cactus Classic 10K Trail Run today in Sand Ridge State Forest, outside of Manito in Mason County. This was the third trail run I've done. For an experienced trail runner, it probably would have qualified as moderately difficult at best, but for me it was hard. It turns out there is sand in central Illinois and apparently it is all located at Sand Ridge Forest.
I'm trying to run a race in every county in Illinois and with today's race I'm up to 43 counties, out of 102 total. I always thought the race I would run in Mason County would be either the Polka Pace 5K, a race that is part of my home running club's point series, or the Manito Popcorn Festival 5K. But, when a 10K race popped up in Mason County, I jumped at the chance to do that, even though it was a trail run. I prefer to run the longer races in a county, if I can.
Well, running in sand is difficult. It is probably better on the knees than asphalt, but it takes it out of the rest of the leg. My calves still ache, 10 hours after the race.
Still, I shouldn't complain. It rained last night and this morning and afternoon, but didn't rain during the race. And, because sand is so porous, there were very few puddles on the trail. I also had a deer cross my path as I was jogging. That was kind of cool.
I'd never been to Sand Ridge before and I like seeing new places in Illinois. It is a large state park near the Illinois River. It has small cactuses in it and I saw some of them as I ran.
I never knew there were cactuses in Illinois. In fact, when this race was posted on the Prairie State Runner website, I don't think I read the post for a month, just assuming that the Cactus Classic was located in Arizona or someplace like that.
Anyway, it was a tough run for me. My time was 1:05:30. Trail runs go slower than normal races but I would have liked to have beaten an hour on this. Oh well.
About 70 runners came out on a kind of a dreary day for what I think was the first ever Cactus Classic. The race sponsors gave out nice jackets for the race. They only had water and bagels afterwards, but trail runs are traditionally spartan, so that was fine.
In any event, this was the first race I've run this year, although I have been jogging regularly on my own. I hope to do two more races this month.