My first trail race

4 miles in 37:49. That's 9:28 per mile. It's not too bad, but it's not great. What is great is that I met my goal: I set out to place in my age group, and I came in second out of six runners in that group.
This was the first trail race I've run, as well as the first 4 miler. My previous 3 races were 5Ks. I knew that this one would be tough, not only because it would be a little longer, but because of the terrain. It was, as I was afraid, a pretty tough trail, with a lot of sand. Most of the path was covered in pine needles, which was firm and easy to run on, but every patch (and often stretch) of sand was a workout. It was raining, which isn't exactly comfortable at the end of November, but I think that may have helped to firm up the sand a bit. In any case, it was quite a challenge for me. I got lucky that the other runners in my age group weren't a lot faster, but reaching my goal has motivated me to continue with my running and maybe work on speed for another 5K. I just checked a listing for local races and there's a 5K nearby in less than 2 weeks. If I'm not scheduled to work that Saturday, I'd like to run in it...