One of my favorite January races is the Frost or Fog trail run located in Upper Bidwell Park in Chico, California. It is a fantastic race to help show me my level of fitness at the start of a new calendar year. This year I had the great privilege to run “virtually” with runner Jenna Powers of 40bibs.com as she ran the Dubai Marathon. She is running 40 races this year to celebrate her 40th birthday. She is also gifting 40 bibs to fellow runners in the running community. I, fortunately, am one of those runners.
As a runner, every year you hope to get faster. I am slowly realizing, however, that if you don’t put in the work, then you can’t expect to get faster. (One of my goals for 2017 is to finally add in speed work.) With that being said, this year’s Frost or Fog 10 mile trail run was three minutes slower than last year’s run. I will, however, accept my slower speed and walk confidently knowing that I gave it my all, got out there, and moved my body!
Some of the things that made this race so enjoyable was having my running pal Biz join me, finding another runner who was also wearing some Pro Compression “wing” socks, and the rain holding off which kept us dry.
As for the course, it was once again a challenging course for someone who doesn’t run trails very often nor does hill repeats very often. I looked up our elevation gain and it was only 585 feet. It definitely did not feel like only 585 feet! My heart rate topped out at 196 beats per minute! I was expecting a lot of mud and water on the trails, but was welcomed by a manageable semi wet/muddy trail. I look my GoPro along with me and created a short video recap of the race in all of its muddy, cloudy glory!
As shown in the picture below, the sun came at towards in the end of the race which made the finish line that much sweeter! (If you look closely, you can see that my Asics did in fact get a little muddy.)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi8jcrjLvC/?taken-by=runstrongrun&hl=en
Race #2 for 2017 was fantastic! Even though I didn’t earn a PR, I am still pleased with my performance. I enjoyed my time outside on the trails, had loads of fun with my amiga, and felt connected to Jenna as we ran together virtually!
Do you run on the trails? If so, what’s your secret for navigating around the muddy, wet conditions after it has rained?
Run Strong Run 
[…] contrast, the picture on the right was taken right before completing the Frost or Fog 10 mile race last month. Although I am running fewer miles than what I was running a year ago, I know that […]
[…] weekend, completed the Frost or Fog 10 mile trail run in Chico, California. Make sure to check out Stephanie’s full race recap at her blog, Run Strong […]