2023 Forget the PR 25K - Mud mud mud!

 Another year has gone by. Another year of running Forget the PR at Mohican State Park. 

I signed up for this race because it's a must LOL. This is a great race where I get to see my trail-running peeps. Because I switched to Ironman training, I don't get to run on trails or join a group run as much. Most training workouts are by myself because I have to follow a specific training plan given by my coach. 

This race is another opportunity for me to play in the woods and get away from my desk and emails. I also volunteered my hubby (P.) to help prepare the post-race lunch. There are so many good things about this race. It's non-profit and the proceeds will be used to support Special Olympics. 

Friday, I went to an award breakfast at the university and came back to work and pack for the trip. We left home around 4-ish and was planning on meeting our friends for dinner in downtown Loudonville. About 10 minutes before we got there, we learned that the power went out due to a storm that just came through. So, we had to change our dinner place to another restaurant near the state park instead. 

Originally, we were planning on camping in the car because our car has a "camp mode" but then a friend said that they had another bed for us in their cabin and we could share with them. So, we stayed in their cabin on Friday night. 

Saturday morning I woke up to heavy cold rain. It's the WORST weather to run in - 40F and rain. The power was also out at the headquarter where we picked up our race packet. So the 50K runners who started at 7:30am had to start in the dark :( Luckily, the power came back around 8am-ish before I started my race. 

Around 8:40am the RDs started to talk about trail markers, rules, etc. 

The race started at 9am in a classic trail running way - very quiet, no bullhorns, no loud music, and a very small group of spectators. This is what I love about trail running. 

The Big Ass Hill climb <3

I told myself this is a great opportunity for me to play in the woods for a day. Since I switched to Ironman training, I rarely run on trails. Let alone coming to run at Mohican. I used to come here quite often for a long run with friends. Some of them were training for Mohican 100, some of them just ran for fun. I believe the last time I came to Mohican was during Forget the PR race last year. 

Mohican still has its magic. It stopped raining after about a mile into the race and it turned out to be a PERFECT day for a run. Cold and sunny. The trails also drained pretty quickly but there was still a lot of mud! Mud mud mud...(but to be honest, it was less mud than I expected and none of them were shoe-sucking mud). 

Because my longest training run so far was about 90-100 minutes (8-9 miles), I was doing well until around Mile 13-14. That's when I started to feel tired and sore. I have to give credit to the hours that I put into cycling this winter because it helped so much with the climbs. I felt strong going uphill. 

I saw, hugged, fist-pumped, and hi-fived so many friends on the trails. That was very good for the soul. I did not care much about my time as I knew I was not "ready" for this race. However, it turned out that my time was not too bad.  

Because we will be traveling a lot and be gone for 2 months in the summer, I have not signed up for any local race. My next race right now is the Triathlon Age Group Nationals in Milwaukee in August but who knows? I may spontaneously sign up for anything as usual LOL

Sydney