About 6-ish weeks back, a fellow Tailwind Nutrition #Trailblazer told me about a race series called, Yeti Trail Series.  The series is in Dixon, Illinois, just a hop, skip and a jump from where I live.  I thought it sounded like fun AND I needed to learn to run in snow.  What better way to learn than to do a winter trail series?

After checking with my coach, I registered.

This past Saturday was race #1 of this series and it was fun!!!  My Tailwind Nutrition #Trailblazer friend and I carpooled together.  Seeing as we live in the same town and had yet to meet IRL, it seemed like a great idea!  It was!!!  I’m afraid I talked her ear off.  Poor lady!

It was a chilly morning so after picking up our bibs, it was back to the car to stay warm.  About 10 minutes to gun time, I started milling around and chatting with the other runners.  It was odd not knowing anybody at the race.  I’m so used to Mississippi and meeting with my friends.  I felt a little bit like a fish out of water.

Right at noon o’clock the gun went off and so did we!

The majority of the course was single track trails which I dearly love to run!  They’re such a blast!  At the beginning of a race, they can get congested and that’s what happened Saturday morning.  Fortunately the race is limited to 100 runners so things thinned out quickly.

Leaves littered the trail.  They were thick and so very pretty!  Those leaves also hid all the roots and rocks that liked to trip you.  I had to step carefully but was successful in staying vertical the entire race…a miracle!

That first mile was a little slower than I would have liked but that was primarily due to the congestion at the beginning.  Mile #2 was flat and I flew!

Mile #2 was along a pretty lake.  I loved it!  ZOOM!!!

After zooming and feeling speedy, along came Mile #3.

Bear in mind I knew there was a bit of a hill at the end of this race but HOLY HILL!!!

A run/walk combo was the name of the game for that beast at Mile #3.  After cresting the top, it was time to get back to ZOOM-ing and that’s what we did until crossing the finish.

It was odd, glancing at my COROSglobal and seeing 2.50 miles and realizing the race was almost over!  I’m so used to run 10+ hours that this race zipped by.

I totally loved this race and can hardly wait to run the rest of the series.  Here’s the remaining race schedule:

10K: January 4, 2020
15K: February 1, 2020
20K: March 7, 2020

Each month they add 5k distance to the race the month before.  The March race will be perfect as a taper run for my 100M on March 16.

#IRun4Aiden