Slip Slidin’ Away – Grasslands ‘02 By Duncan Stewart

On a whim, I signed up for the 25-mile version of the Grasslands Run. The course was supposed to be relatively mild, and a bunch of friends were heading out there, too. I thought, “Well, I do need to do a long run that weekend, so why not?” I was to find out “Why not” in spades later on. As soon as I got registered, the weather report started predicting rain, and it was right on the money. It poured the night and early morning before, but had stopped by the time the race got under way. My first trail race ever – I had no idea of what I was getting into. 8 am and off we went! Everyone was running along the sides of the trail, trying to stay on “good” footing. There wasn’t a quarter mile gone before Terry went bounding ahead like a rabbit. He would soon disappear from sight, and comfortable rack up win #100. Bad as the trail was, it was about to get worse, much worse, as the rain started up again and continued for the next three hours. The most challenging parts were the creek crossings, where you had to ski down, then churn up the other side. After the first loop, I thought about bailing out, but instead dumped my water bottle and continued on. The guy who was right with me on the first loop must have quit, because I never saw him on the second loop. The trail got messier – there were actually little streamlets on parts of the trail, and my shoes almost got sucked off several times. My main achievement that day was to finish without falling down. I have a whole new appreciation for trail runners now - I cannot imagine having to go 50 miles that day, or 100 as many of them have done. Also, a big THANK YOU to the volunteers. We never could have done it without you.