Race report- Bound The Mound Trail Half

     I've been running far more than writing of late and time to get caught up here. First up,  Bound The Mound Trail Race on March 3rd, in Evansville, Indiana. I found this race while snooping through the race listings on Trail Runner Mag's site, which is a real good race resource to have.

     All races start with preparation and no exception here. Let's see, working backward from an 8 a.m. race start- get there an hour early, 2.5 hour drive, most of an hour to coffee up and wake up, that's looking pretty dang early.  I posted the idea on Facebook and that drew in a friend who was also interested and before I could say "Holy crap I have to get up at 3 a.m!" we were both registered. Game on.
     The drive went quickly and enjoyably with the company as we yakked our way through the darkness, heading South on county highways through the rural Indiana countryside. We made good time and got there sooner than we thought, in more ways than one. Did you know Evansville is in a different time zone? Neither did we and we realized we had an extra hour to wait, one that could have been spent sleeping. These are the days of our lives.

And they're off!

     Bound The Mound is a lap course, and the half marathon meant 4 laps with an add-on around a field at the end. I've done a few lap races before and generally like the format- first lap is getting familiar with the course and subsequent laps are benchmarks to the balance between what's left to run and what's left in the tank. I hadn't done a 4 lapper before, and had never been to Evansville either, so this would have to be interesting, right?     


     It had rained a couple of days before and there were muddy stretches on the flat sections of the course, and further back in the boggy parts it was downright swampy. With a lap course this means hundreds of feet churn it up even more each time through.

For me, part of the charm of trails.

   
      With a little luck we all learn as we go, and I try, I try. It's hard for me to judge how much to wear when the temps are changing with the seasons. I'm not a fan of cold, and as a result tend to overdress for runs with rising morning temperature change. Folks were wearing everything from coats and pants to singlets and shorts, and I went with tights, light jacket and hat. Too much, again. Whatev.

  
     I ran a 2:07 half, a fair time for me at this point in the year. Even better, I had a blast doing it. There was a good size field and the race was well organized. The Bound The Mound RD is ON IT as far as getting info out to registrants. I swear I got more emailed pre-race info than I did for the Chicago Marathon. Afterward there was actual food for runners, including your choice of burgers, dogs, and sides. And donuts. And this guy.

       All in all, a fun day and a good race. Really, any day we can romp through the woods is a good day to me. And many thanks to Erin, who made it all way more fun than it would have been alone.