mugging

Sunday was the last race of the "Town Series" which I entered for the first time this year - three trail races, one on each of the major in-town trail systems. They are all individual races but if you enter them all as a series it's quite cheap (as a member of the local running club, only $36 for all three) and you get a t-shirt in addition to the various minor goodies for each race. The final race, though, the Animas Mountain Mug Run, has the best goodies of all: an after-race party with free Mexican food (and beer!) and this lovely ceramic coffee mug:



(The handle's in the back where you can't see it.) You have to earn it on the course, though, which is the same route where I took these pictures when I ran it for practice last month: basically, 1500 feet up in 3 miles, a little rolling trail at the top, and then the same back down. The official distance is 6.6 but I suspect it might be a little shorter than that. Anyway, it was a tough run, I came in at the bottom of the top third of women, 1:11:45, just behind the woman who has been just beating me at trail races all summer. Incidentally, she won the series on points, so I think that means I came in second!