Verdugo Mtns 10K Trail Run and Hike Race Report

This morning was the Verdugo Mountains Trail Run. I was excited for this race since I often hike the Verdugo access roads.
Now, this particular trail is not my favorite as I talked about here, but I needn’t have worried. The city of Glendale cleaned the trail up for the race – no rubble, no graffiti, just a clear open road.

Start time was 8am, but I got there just after 6am to pick up my race packet. The weather was perfect – cool, cloudy, and breezy. Huge change from just a few days ago when it was 95 degrees and part of the Verdugos was on fire!

I’d planned on just hiking, but the excitement got to me and I tried to run at the beginning. It’s a pretty steep incline so I wore out quickly, but I still kept a relatively good pace (my normal uphill hiking time is ~22 min/mile).
But what I’m most excited about is that I ran the entire way downhill! Now, that may not seem like a great feat since it is, after all, downhill, but this is significant for a few reasons:
1) I’m not particularly graceful and I’m always afraid that the momentum will send me tumbling down the trail;
2) I was pooped from trying to run uphill;
3) I RAN THE ENTIRE WAY

You can see how I started off running downhill a bit cautiously:

But then I just ran as fast as I could. I placed pretty low overall, but for me, this is a huge accomplishment, and very encouraging to keep improving.

There was a small expo following the race, the highlight of which was breakfast!

Pumpkin pancakes with sugar free syrup and veggie sausage. This was probably the most delicious breakfast I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.

Next up – the Pasadena 10K in June!