Rock Creek Night Trail Marathon

8:00 pm, Saturday night, July 31st, standing at the starting line of my first ever Trail Marathon. I'd run 20 road marathons prior but this was my first trail marathon. Oh yeah, and within 30 minutes it got dark. Real dark! Pitch dark in the woods dark. Navigating through the rocks and roots and mud and muck and ups and downs. So much fun! Below is the t-shirt image and starting line photo.

I finished in 5 hours and 10 minutes. I didn't have too much of a goal. Just finish, maybe somewhere around 5 hours. I was very happy with the finish time and with my effort on the trail - didn't walk much at all and pushed it the whole way. That's a 11.8 min/mile average which on a trail and in the pitch darkness - with a headlamp and handheld flashlight in mid to upper 80s temps and deep woods humidity - I was totally content with. I drank and ate enough to stay well and was really glad when it was over! Pretty much after the first couple miles of running in a pack, I stayed behind or in front of Tony Clark and Stuart Johnson all the way to pretty much the end. They kept up a great pace and they were a blast to run with and listen to their stories. I loved the 5 mile "Great White Shark" inner loop (something like miles 11-16) that was by far the easiest part of the course where I really flew! Below are the 'finish line' photos. Results: http://www.runtough.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106&Itemid=20