The Lawrence Trailhawks put on their second annual 50 mile/Marathon trail run on the North Shore trails of Clinton Lake. Last year I really wanted to run the 50 but I had already registered for Fargo Marathon that day. I had been looking forward to running this event all year. This is honestly one of my favorite places to run in all of Kansas! These trails are in incredible shape and there is really no mud to speak of. This year the event was held on honestly one of the most incredible running days of the year – the perfect conditions of cloudy, strong north breeze, and unseasonably cool for May. I loved every second of it! My marathon finish time was 5:17 but I have to admit (though I have never done anything like this before) that included nearly 18 minutes of 'talking' at one of the aid stations...
Due to the fact that I had run a marathon, 50 miler, or 100K just about every weekend for the last 8 weeks, I decided to just run the marathon so that I could spend some quality Saturday time with Sarah before returning home. I hadn't really decided that I was going to do that for sure until ¾ the way through the first loop so I had to technically 'drop down' to the marathon, though thankfully I was still given an official marathon finish. Leaving the course after only completing the marathon was psychologically difficult for me – kind of like being the first to leave a really fun party!
