Our first trail run

We stayed in Banff this weekend as Kev's dad is visiting from the UK. Summer is also visiting it seems!  I have not been eating well - look for a DietBet update when we weigh in next Sunday....

We took the opportunity of heading out for a trail run on Saturday morning as we missed out on hiking as much as I would have liked last year.  This year I want to combine running with mountains.  My ultra running friends will consider this a no brainer.

We parked in the Spray River trailhead lot behind Banff Springs Hotel (not staying there unfortunately!) It was very quiet even at 10am.  The trail headed off into the woods alongside the Spray River to a small wooden bridge at 5.7k.  The water was crystal clear.

We took the opposite bank back down then crossed another small bridge to the trailhead.  A total of 12k with 170m elevation gain.  And muddy.  We had deep mud, mud from landslides at the side of the trail, frozen mud and sticky mud.  Finally, a legitimate way to play in mud!

The run took us just over 2 hours, I walked some hills and had to adjust the knee band a couple of times.  Oh, and I took a ton of pictures.  Plus I was frequently out of breath, but that will improve with more of the same.  I had that problem when we started hiking and it didn't ever stop me.

The good news about the Pro-Tec IT Band is it's still working and I can still run pain free.  This run tested it really well.

This was very different from pavement, the terrain took a lot more thought.  We crossed a couple of rockslides and had to jump up on verges to get around the slippery mud in places.  It felt more organic, kind of how running should be.  No IPod required, we had the wind in the trees and the water rushing below.