This past Sunday I managed to make my way up to the rainy mountains for the Dirty Feet Sun Peaks Trail Run!

It was my second time running this race and I almost, ALMOST, signed up for the 10K distance but chickened out changed my mind at the last minute. I’m glad I did because judging by the way my legs still feel three days later … another 5K on top of what I did probably would have made me wheelchair-bound.

Anyway, I drove myself up to the mountain in time to pick up my race package and had about an hour and a half to kill before I had to line up at the start line, so I treated myself to a light breakfast at Cahilty Creek Kitchen restaurant. It was lovely eating in relative peace and not having to tell a tiny human to sit nice and eat their dang food! I had poached eggs with a slice of bacon, a sausage link, toast, and fruit, and it was just enough to fuel me up without weighing me down! I highly recommend stopping there for breakfast if you’re ever up at Sun Peaks. (Their regular menu looks pretty awesome too, IMO.)

After breakfast I wandered back to my car to stay warm and dry before the race. It was pretty wet in general all weekend, but thankfully the rain subsided just enough to make it not completely horrible by the time the 5K runners had to start. (I can’t say the same for the 1/2 or Full Marathon runners though!) I eventually crawled out of my warm car and met up with some fellow running folks I knew from town before getting ready at the start line!

Overall, I felt pretty good during the race. The mud wasn’t too terrible, although there were a few spots where it was pretty slick and I had to slow down a bit so I wouldn’t slip and fall. As it turns out, adjusting my gait/stride for the mud wrecked havoc on my knees and they’re pretty dang sore. The more you run the more you learn …

I don’t know if it’s the course itself or if the mountains just play with the GPS function, but it always clocks this race at just under 5 km. Whichever it is, you can totally tell by my splits where the uphill battles were, and where I had the privilege of coasting downhill.

All things considered, I’m pretty happy with my final time of 31:36. I was aiming to beat my time from last year’s race, and I think it definitely could have been possible had the trails not been so muddy! I’m looking forward to next year’s event already!

Aside from the Foam Fest, the Dirty Feet Mountain Run up at Sun Peaks was my first “competitive” trail run. The weather on Sunday was calling for rain, but thankfully the sun mostly dominated the sky (aside from a cool breeze) and made for a great morning!

Two groups of us kind of met up and ran (somewhat) together, so it was nice to have some company and motivation on the course. It was actually was tamer than I had anticipated, but we still had an elevation gain of 428 feet! There was a pretty decent climb right at the start but after that it was fairly smooth sailing – Not super aggressive, but just enough to feel that burn! The back half was mostly downhill which was hard on my ankles and lower back, but made me feel good going into the finish!

My “Hills are Dumb” face, somewhere during the first mile of the race, haha! (Note the obvious heavy mouth breathing!)

My time according to my Fitbit tracker was 31:03 and my official time was 31:05. I definitely wasn’t expecting to do this in a sub-35 time, especially since I hadn’t done a lot of hill training leading up to the race.

All that technical jazz. Because if I didn’t track it, did it even happen?

I apparently lost my GPS signal during the last few minutes of the race so the course “ended” where it lost signal, even though my stopwatch was still going. I promise the course was 3.1 miles/5 kilometers ;)

There was some time to kill before awards and door prizes were drawn, so we headed to Bottoms Bar & Grill for some grub and celebratory Caesars! (If you’re there and like falafel, the ones on the menu are delicious!)

I managed to have my number drawn and snagged a nice North Face shirt, and then it was time to roll on home to be a lump for the rest of the day! A big shout out to the Dirty Feet folks for making this race happen – it was an awesome run and I hope to do it again next year!