Loop the Lakes

I raced the Loop the Lakes trail half marathon two weeks ago and, although I missed 10 days of running leading up to it, I was pleased with how the race went. I have run one "trail" half marathon before, but I've quickly learned that this means something very different in BC than it does in Ontario! My previous time was 1:34; in this race, I was aiming to go sub-2 hrs and finished in 1:55. This was good enough to place 13th overall - I was the 7th woman, and 1st in the 30-39 age group. The course was a nice mix of rolling single track along the 4 Lakes Trail in Squamish combined with fun undulating trails, one very technical descent, and a short but steep climb that had us scrambling up the face of a granite boulder (this trail is aptly called "Around the Rock", and is meant to be biked - downhill). I managed to wipe out directly after finishing this climb and spent the rest of the race with my left side covered in mud.

Pre-wipeout - still looking clean.

I had a great time running this race, partly because I was just extremely thankful to be out there, able-bodied and running strong. I'm going in for surgery tomorrow, which will mean at least 10 days off of running. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to recover well and continue to train for the 50k throughout my treatment, but I'm taking things one step at a time. I went for a last long run today on the trails, and somewhere along the way a mountain biker asked me where I was headed. I told him which trail I was running toward, and he said, "Training for Stormy?" (the former name of the Squamish 50). I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure I'm standing on that start line in August.