It was a beautiful day on the trail and I had high hopes that race day would dawn just as warm and sunny. The weather report called for rain, ice, snow the Sunday/Monday before the race. I don't think anyone anticipated the mess staying around as long as it did, but cold temps dominated once again and the trail went from the pic above to this a week later...
"A brown snowcone" is what I heard one runner call it, and rightly so. I put my yaktrax on for the second half of the race, and though they helped with footing I do think they held snow on top of my left shoe, and I couldn't feel my toes for about an hour. I shucked the yaktrax when I came off the trail to finish the trip into town on the road. I never went back for them.
My only real goal was to finish with a better time than last year. I beat last year's time by 32 minutes! In the muck! Hard work and training pays off! Now if the trail/weather cooperates next year, I'll see just how much my time really has improved!
Due to the harsh weather, the trail condition took a big hit. West KY Runners club, along with LBL staff and other volunteers, met this past weekend to do trail repairs. (I'm in the grey jacket)
I learned a lot by working on the trail with these people and was honored to do so. Doing this work gave me a new insight into this beautiful trail and makes me love it even more.
LBL is a very unique place and we are blessed in western Kentucky to have such a place. One of my goals for 2014 is to run at least 500 miles. I plan on many of those miles occurring in the Land Between the Lakes area! And with views like this, who can blame me.
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