Big Woods TRAIL Run!

Saturday I ran the Big Woods 1/2 Marathon Trail run in Fairbault, MN. After completing the Grandma's Marathon in June, I wanted to have another race to prepare for to keep me running through the summer. Well...I found this race. I thought it would be a lot of fun, I would be running through paved running paths in the middle of a state park, I thought "this will be beautiful, after all it will be at the height of the fall colors and the air will be clean and crisp...perfect!" Well... I needed to read the fine print, this was a TRAIL run.
When Rory and I drove up to the site we saw cones heading off into the woods. Rory said, "will you be running on a trail?" I said, "I don't think so, who would run 13 miles on rocks and gravel". I thought maybe for a little way we would be on a trail but they wouldn't make us run the whole race on trails. I was wrong! 13 miles of rocks, dirt, tree roots, and leaves covering the trail. It was insane!!! The first few miles were beautiful, tall trees everywhere, when the wind would hit, the leaves would fall down like rain, I know a little corny but true, it really was beautiful, until I hit the first hill. I didn't think they had mountains in Minnesota, well at this state park they did, and they managed to put us on each one. On the last hill I just looked at it and said, "you've got to be kidding me!" The lady behind me said, "well it is a trail run". Secretly I hoped she would trip on tree root or something, but instead she blazed by me. Anyway, I have never ran in a race where I thought I would come in dead last, but this one I was close. In fact, when I finally made it out of the woods a sheriff ,who was directing the traffic, asked if I was the last one. I told him no! there were 100 people behind me. Really there were 35 people behind me. I finished 304 out of 340 people who ran the 1/2 marathon. They had other races going on that day too, you could do a 5K, 10K, or a half marathon, so they had about 1000 people running the Big Wood Trail Run.
I am glad I did it. However, I hurt more after this race than any marathon I have run, but I do love that runners high I get after a race, so I will keep running. I just have to find more races.