My partner and I love trail running, but the most we had done for an official race was a 10k. I've done a couple of Trail Ragnars in Utah and Colorado and felt pretty confident about running my first half at Devil's Lake. I originally was going to run this on my own as my partner said he'd cheer me on from the sidelines. A week before the race, I was feeling super undertrained and worried about finishing, so I asked him if he'd run it too to help get me to the finish line! I'm so glad he ended up running with me because I think I probably would have given up on myself at mile 9 or 10 of this one.

I honestly didn't really do much research before showing up to race day, which meant I didn't totally understand the elevation breakdown. I thought it was going to be gradual climbs throughout the 13.1 miles, but boy oh boy, it was running normal grassy trails and then coming upon a massive rocky hill to speed walk up for 10 minutes until pure exhaustion. We'd get a few miles of a break with less elevation, and then we'd come upon another insane hill to climb that would take it out of me. It was HARD.

The rest stops were great though. Neither of us like to run with handheld bottles or vests, so it was nice to know that there was going to be enough water on course to keep us hydrated on a pretty warm and sunny day. When we were under tree cover, it was a super pleasant run, but when we got out into the open grassy spaces, the sun and heat were challenging for sure.

Trail races in general are a lot more chill and less chaotic than road races, which I appreciate. The vibe was fun and easygoing and even though it was a super challenging event, we'll be back next year for sure - just need to train better for all of the hill-sanity!