Ok so we have thought about how to actually  start this post so everyone could see the fear we had about this, and we couldn’t think of anything so we think it would work the best to just let you see our text messages to each other which show how clueless and scared we actually were! We were basically trying to decide where we were going to do our long run last weekend and really hadn’t thought much about it except we knew we wanted to run in the morning- duh, its’ 9 million degrees here!  We have both recently joined the North Texas Runners and really wanted to see what they were doing. Beth had been active on twitter during the day and saw that they were going to do a trail run at Erwin Park… here are our initial thoughts –
 
Teal: It says trail? Does that mean grass and stuff?
Beth: Hahaha uh maybe?
Teal:  haha its says, plenty of climbing and alternatives to easy routes, 8.1 mile loop, There is a you tube video.
 LOL it looks CRAZY might be fun might die.
Beth: If you’re up for it. I’m up for it. Ill do whatever.
Teal: ok- I’ll meet you at your house.
It’s a true trail I’m scared
Beth: We don’t have to, Ill do whatever
Teal: Its fine I just haven’t done that since High school
Beth: I have no idea what to expect! Will we die?
Can we stay together I’m scared?
Teal: YES!!
Beth: Oh god
Teal: I know oh god for sure
 
So really this was a little taste of our anxiety- I would highly recommend NOT watching the youtube video. It’s crazy- well maybe not for veterans but for us newbies I was like, great. We are going to die! 
 
We actually never saw the North Texas Runners which was totally our fault, we were running late and we didn’t really know where we were going.  We decided to start where we parked, just the two of us- but don’t worry we seriously questioned staying on the street. We decided to buck it up and actually do it. We started out well. We ran the first 2.5ish miles fairly quickly with a lot of checking on each other and laughing.  Tree branches everywhere, roots- you know… grass and stuff! I am not sure that either one of us anticipated all the weaving and ducking and after about 30 minutes we were exhausted. We decided to walk and take some pics and run again. We started switching off run 10, walk 5.  This is hard for us to admit- we don’t like walking when we run, and I think get a little frustrated about it but this was nuts! We powered through and finished the 4.5ish mile loop in a little over an hour. We were tired, dirty and proud. This was something we had never done, never knew what to expect, and really could have chickened out at any time.
 
Trail running is seriously awesome and challenging. I think we both felt really good after the run and really felt like it was a great work out despite the walking we had to do. This is something we look forward to again as it is great training and just an all over humbling experience.
 
Here are some scenes from our run!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got a little dirty out there which I think is something we didn’t really think about, but it’s a good kind of dirty right?  And Beth went out on her first run using a camelpak which she was VERY glad to have!  In this Texas heat all the water you can comfortably carry is awesome in our opinion!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, we know 4.5 miles isn’t THAT far, but considering it was our very first trail run and it’s a different run than we were use to we were still proud.  We’d anticipated that run being our long run for last week and opted to wake up early Wednesday and put in some good miles together.  So yesterday we met at Beth’s house at 5:30 a.m. and got in just under 7.5 miles!  This coming weekend we are hoping to get in a run and finally meet some other members in North Texas Runners!