February race!

Saturday's trail run was awesome!  The weather was perfect, maybe a little chilly for the girls and Dave, but perfect for running.  Running on a trail was a lot more fun than I had expected.  You had to focus on each step you were taking and it made the time go by fast.  My time was 49 min 40 sec and I placed 5th in my age group (26-30) out of 14 females.  I came in 73rd place overall-out of 132 people.  I hope to be able to do the run again next year!  Here are two stories from the run that I want to remember:
About half way through the run, two men had slowly began to overtake me in speed.  I had also been working on staying at the same pace as another female runner who looked to be about my age.  She was quicker than I was but I wanted to keep her in my sights.  At about 3 3/4 miles we came to a very steep hill.  As soon as I reached the hill, I sprinted as fast as I could.  For some reason, the hill recharged me instead of tiring me out.  I picked up my pace and completely lost the two men and the female.  I didn't see them for the rest of the race and I even managed to pass a few more people before I crossed the finish line, one girl in my age group!
Second, as the female runners crossed the finish line they are handed a carnation, to celebrate Valentine's day.  I was handed my carnation and proceeded to try and walk until I could catch my breath.  As soon as my breathing returned to normal, I turned around to look for Dave and the girls.  I saw them and Emily and Ally started running towards me.  I was so excited to see them and I thought they were coming to give me a big hug!  I kneeled down to give them a hug and both of them went straight for my carnation!  Neither of them wanted to hug me and they quickly began arguing over who got to hold the flower first.  What a proud moment!
Overall it was a fantastic day!  We were served breakfast tacos, coffee, fruit, chocolate milk (which Emily and Ally were very excited about), and girl scout cookies!  This was by far my favorite race and I liked the 5 mile distance.  Maybe next month I will try for a 10k!