Limberlost

On July 9th, I ran the 28K race at The Limberlost Challenge. It was definitely a challenging course this year. There were severe thunderstorms all night and the rain continued during the race, quite heavily at times.

The race course is a 14K loop "alongside five lakes, several ponds and wetlands, across creeks and boardwalks and under some amazing rock formations" in Muskoka. The first lap was muddy from the rain, but wasn't horrible. There were already some knee deep spots, but just a few... and the muddy sections were relatively short. That definitely changed in the second loop. It was a mud fest. There were now very long super slippery sections, sections of thick sticky mud, and more knee deep mud. Most of these bad sectionswere in the second half of the loop, so there was a brief amount of time (with around 6K left) where I actually thought I might finish with a sub 3 time. Those thoughts went away rather quickly when I came across the long mud sections!

I completed the first lap in 1:29 and the second lap 1:45. So, if I thought I might finish sub 3, you can get an idea of just how slow that last 5-6 km was!

Last year's lap splits: 1:33, 1:42.

I finished the race quicker than last year and moved up a few positions (3rd female this year), in tougher conditions... so I am definitely pleased with how it went. 2016 finish time: 3:14:43.

Next up... The ENDURrun!