If you follow my blog you know that I signed up for my first trail race this July. The race was the Limberlost Challenge near Huntsville, Ontario and consisted of a 14 km loop. Since I have never run on a trail before I decided to head up to Algonquin Park, 3 days before the race, and see how much distance I can cover with a day pass.
As you can see by my photo I had everything packed a diabetic vegan needs to spend a full day of hiking. The smartest thing I brought on my first hike was a change of shoes and socks. The dumbest thing I forgot was bug spray. Overall, the trails in Algonquin were quite nice, but I was a little disappointed in the lack of breathtaking views that I was kind of expecting. In total, I ended up spending 8 hours in Algonquin and hiking/running a total of 28.8KM.
The highlight of the hike had to be getting attacked by a grouse. I was running on the trail and saw this baby bird (looked like a mix between a chick and a duckling). I tried to grab my camera out of my bag to take a picture when all of a sudden this bird comes flying straight at me. Knocked off my sunglass, I ended up sprinting for about 50 feet and the bird followed me the whole way. It was definitely one of those situations you wish there was a hidden camera. The lesson being, do not approach baby birds.
So that was my “training” for the Limber Lost Challenge. I must admit I was pretty nervous heading into my first trial race. I was pretty tired after hiking all day in Algonquin and the thought of running 2 hours on this kind of terrain was rather intimidating. I was pleasantly surprised to find the trails in the Limber Lost Forest were a lot smoother than those in Algonquin. I ended up completing my first trail run of 14km in 1 hour and 45 minutes.
If you are a runner and have never tried trail running I strongly encourage you give it a try. The Limber Lost Forest was by far the most beautiful run I’ve ever been on. I’ll definitely be back in the near future to do that trail again and take in the scenery a little more.
The stats from hiking Algonquin:
- 28.8Km
- 8 Hours (including driving from trail to trail)
- 1 Fall
- at least 50 stubbed toes and F bombs
- 4 rice n bean burritos
- 6 bananas
- 4 Apples
- 8 Liters of water
- 1 Moose
- 1 Bird Attack
- Multiple pints of blood loss from mosquito bites
