On Sunday I ran the Mountain Lakes Trail Run in beautiful Princeton, NJ.  It’s a very good thing I decided to do this race before my upcoming half marathon.  I did just about everything wrong for this race but luckily it was only 3.5 miles.  So, because I love lists, let’s just list out all of my mistakes so maybe I can learn from them.

Mistakes:

1. I went out WAY too fast.  I was running with two of my very tall and speedy friends so I was trying to keep them in view, which made me suck wind and have a killer side stitch during my 2nd mile.  See splits below:
2. I didn’t properly fuel before the run.   I breastfed the baby right before the start and I should have eaten something before starting the race.  Lesson learned.
3. I wore something that I haven’t worn in a couple of months and normally I would be ecstatic about having my fat cloths starting to fit me looser but constantly pulling up my pants up during the race is NOT CUTE.
4. My belly was FULL of water. I could literally hear it swishing around.  I didn’t go to the bathroom before the start – oops!

Even with everything that went wrong, I was so grateful to be on a trail running and doing what I love.  It was  a beautiful park and a great trail.  Still smiling….