Run 2015: January

Alright, peeps. Welcome to Run 2015 January edition. I'll be keeping my running posts sweet and simple this year. One per month with additional race posts as desired. I don't actually have any races planned at this point but I'm hoping to maintain my half marathon base throughout the year as much as possible. Who knows? That might come back to bite me in the ass but for now I'm loving the freedom of not running much/at all! Because seriously, I'm not up for going out and running in 16 inches of snow right now!

January was a light month with only three runs and a little bit of weight training. I predict that February will be light as well but I plan to be back at it in March. Here's what my running looked like in January though.


January 17
     3.11 in 31:41, average 10:11
     Why yes, we really did take four weeks off after the Huff. It wasn't really intentional. We meant to take off one week and somehow it slipped into four. But really. It was pretty awesome. And this was a short easy run to get us loosened back up.

January 24
     5.24 in 56:57, average 10:52
     This run has a really funny looking map. We went to our favourite bike trail for a six mile run and the trails were so icy that we didn't quite make it a mile before we gave up. So we loaded up and drove to a different park and ran paved, and plowed, trails instead. This was a nice comfortable run. Our times weren't really that slow. The first icy mile worked out to be a 13 minute mile and that kind of threw off our average!

January 31 - Winter Night Trail Half Marathon!
     13.1 in 2:51:09.9, average 13.04
     Third run of the year as a half marathon? Yes please! You all, this was an awesome race. Like seriously, seriously awesome. As the name of the race suggests we ran a half marathon, on snowy/muddy trails, in the dark, in the middle of winter. And I would do it again in a heart beat. The race took place down in Indy in Eagle Creek Park and started at 6pm as the light; just as the light was almost gone.

We had never run any of the trails so they were completely new to us (although I had been to the park a few times as a child and was entertaining Justin with stories of field trips) but the route was fairly level, only a few minor hills and small stream crossings. It was well marked in most places and we ran two 6.75 mile loops. Endomondo clocked me in at 13.6 miles so it was a little longer than advertised but not enough to make a difference.

Who doesn't want to finish under a disco ball?

And yeah, that was about it. We put on our headlights, hit the trail around 6pm and finished up a few hours later. It started snowing about an hour into our run and snowed the rest of the time. It was actually the beginning of the storm that ended up dumping a foot of snow at our house. The snow was gorgeous blowing across our headlight beams and piling up on the trail. 

The best way to describe it is just fun. It was easy and comfortable and we had beautiful weather and beautiful scenery. I actually wish that we had signed up for the full marathon because I would have loved to have gone around a few more times. Of course, that would have meant that I would have needed to keep up with my running after the Huff but it would have been worth it!

After the race!

There's a sister race coming up in June. The Summer Night Trail Marathon (and half and quarter) that sounds like it'll be just as fantastic as the winter one was. I think we may do it. What could possibly be better than a run on a dark night in a gorgeous park with a couple hundred of my closest friends?