LaSportiva Table Rock - Half Marathon

I have been trail running a lot recently and feeling great on the longer distance runs and the uphill climbs. Given my very busy work and weekend schedule, my goal is to run a half marathon at least once, preferably twice a month to keep in running shape. Interestingly, I would never have thought I could do this a couple years ago. Now, I can get up and run a half marathon any time of the day.

Except when I have a whole in my shoe, no traction left and it's raining on a steep trail :) Unfortunately, confidence can sometimes lead to overconfidence, which is a bad idea on long steep trail runs. 

Table Rock race, organized by La Sportiva was set in the Mt. Tam region in Marin (north of the Bay Area). The first 3 miles of the Table Rock run wound up ~2000 feet and subsequently descended 2000 feet in 3 miles to near the start line. At this point, the half marathon continued up 1500 elevation game for 3 miles and the final 3-4 miles was the descend down to the finish line. 

On the first part of the race up 2000 feet, my pace was strong and I was passing several people along the way. On the way down, I passed several runners as well, until two ladies refused to give way to people, undeterred by their own slow pace. I tried to run fast on the downhill and ended up twisting and subsequently spraining my ankle around mile 5. Luckily, the start (and finish) were near the end of mile 6,
\xde5so I was able to exit the race to rest my ankle. 

Here's our course map. We started with the Pink course and then went out to the orange course

Take a look here at our brutal elevation map:

Even though I wasn't able to finish my race, I had a great time and an awesome exercise! The best part? Justin finished 5th in his age group at the 10K! That's the pink look above :).

Here's Justin looking awesome with his