Allerton Park 5.5 mile Trail Run

On Sunday, I ran the Allerton Park 5.5 mile Trail run. It had rained quite heavily a few days prior to the race so I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting into. I met my dad and one of his friends @ 0715 and we headed over to Monticello. We arrived at about 0815 with plenty of time to get our numbers, shirts, stretch, and a quick warm-up. The weather was a little chilly at start time (0900) but I knew I would be fine after a half mile. With my marathon training going so well, I was a little scared about the ground conditions. I didn't want to compromise my training by rolling an ankle or something like that.

The race starts by the visitor center (high ground). About .25 miles into the race, you head down a hill toward the river flats. The course was extremely muddy on the flats. I knew I was in for a long, wet, and muddy run when at about mile .5, there was a little creek that you had to go through with both feet. The rain the previous days had caused some minor flooding. It stayed pretty flat with some slight hills until the big one. I guess it was a .5 mile pretty steep up hill to the Sun god statue. After a brief round-about, we headed back down the hill with a quick left at the bottom. This next section is where we encountered most of the hills that was taking us back to the upper ground to the finish line and this is where I encountered my worst fear. Somewhere between mile 4 and 5 I rolled my ankle... BAD. I had rolled it earlier in the race but nothing too crazy. Initially, it hurt but that quickly went away and all felt ok until I got home. After 3 sets of stairs (about 8 each) and a little run through the Chinese Garden, we had about .5 miles left. You hit the meadow and in front of you are 2 steep uphills. I got passed by 3 people on this section of the course.

I crossed the finish line in 41.58.6 (7:38 pace). I finished 30th overall, 5th in my age group. No quite what I had expected time wise but I'll chalk this race up to experience. I will definately do this and other trail runs, just not while I'm in marathon training.

So I got home, unpacked my bags, cleaned my shoes and talked to Kristi about what the plan for the afternoon was. After much discussion, we decided to run some errands and head to the grocery store. While she was getting ready, I stretched for a bit. This is when I noticed my ankle beginning to throb. I thought, "Scott is going to kill me if I injured myself and would need to miss some running". I thought that maybe it was a little pain that would go away but it never did. I was having a harder and harder time walking on it. I took a shower, got ready, and out the door we went. After a while of not being able to walk on it at all, I had Kristi take me home. I immediately hopped into bed, grabbed the frozen veggie bag out of the freezer and started icing it. I was really bummed. I didn't want to miss any of my upcoming training runs.

So after ice, a wrap, and sleeping with it elevated, I woke feeling great. It was a little tender but I think I can manage my run for Tuesday. I wrapped it before I came to work for extra stability and when I get home, I may just hop in my chair and ice it again.