Life Lessons from a Trail Run

In Late February, I ran a half-marathon in Colorado State Bend Park. Like all race days, the day began before sunrise. I ate breakfast and started the hour-and-a-half drive to the race. The sun rose slowly as I made my way to the race. The morning fog lingered just above the farm fields as I made my way deeper into Hill Country. It was shaping up to be a great morning for a run.

Lesson 1: Give yourself more time.

I arrived at the park when Google said I would get there but I underestimated how far into the park the race start was. It was at the opposite end of the park as the entrance 😟. It took an extra ten minutes to get to the general start area, not bad so far but then I took a wrong turn parking and my buffer dwindled to a few minutes before the race start time. Now I was rushing to get ready and ran toward the sign-in tent. But wait! Ahh crap! I forgot my hat. I ran back to the car to grab it. The race briefing started and I had about less than 5 minutes. As I was gearing up the start horn blew. No more hurrying could have helped. I accepted my fate - I was starting from the back.

Lesson 2: Don't rush even if you're late

As I was hurrying to get my gear on, I must have dropped my sunglasses. I realized I didn't have them a couple of miles into the race. I figured I didn't need them. Wrong - I needed them. See Lesson 1, more time => less rushing.

Lesson 3: Just because the music stops doesn't mean you stop.

Three miles into my race, my playlist cut out. Despite having my music downloaded, the music wouldn't start again. Annoying as it was I didn't stop to fix it I just kept running. I tried a few times to get it going from my headphones but gave up and accepted it. This was a blessing. I enjoyed listening to and appreciating the nature around me. The birds chirping, the sounds of the wind blowing through the trees, and the sound of my footsteps were my new soundtrack. This also allowed me to chat with a few fellow runners as we passed each other. One of the runners told me he only runs five minutes at a time and then walks two minutes. He does it to prevent injury and I could see how this strategy could help. This guy also finished ahead of me so maybe there is something to it.

Lesson 4: Stay Present

This race was brutal. There were a lot of elevation changes and the trail was very rocky. It was easy to misstep and you'd pay for it if you did. One of the runners tripped and went down hard. Ultimately he was alright and kept going but it was clear from the get-go, that this was not going to be a forgiving trail.

The trail served me some pain not long after. I rolled my left ankle twice before the halfway point and I was lucky I got away with it. Just a couple of missteps but luckily no pain. As my body fatigued I knew I had to pay more attention to my foot placement and keep my mind focused. In total, I rolled my left ankle five times. I thought the fourth ended my race. I was pissed off and had to stop for a minute to stretch a bit and walk it off. It hurt like hell but I wasn't done, it wasn't broken so I tried jogging and didn't feel too bad. Each time I rolled an ankle my mind had drifted to a thought not on the race. Either I spaced out about what I was going to do later that day, but the really bad ankle roll - I was thinking of an email I had to follow up on at work. WHY?.

Lesson 5: Don't ever give up - Keep Going

Each time something went wrong that day, I was given a choice to quit or keep going. Starting late, music going out those are small inconveniences. I wasn't going to let those get in my way. I started last I couldn't get any worse than that. The last ankle roll was the only time I thought my race was done, but it wasn't. I kept on it got over the initial pain and finished.

Just like the race, life isn't going to go your way all the time. It has its highs and lows the important thing is to keep going and keep learning and keep trying.