We arrived at Bur-Mil Park early for the Owl’s Roost Rumble and dropped our kids with a friend whose husband was running the half-marathon. Harvey and I had picked up our packets the day before, so we only needed to collect our chips.

It was a small field for the 3.5-mile run; most people were running the half. Harvey and I left the road start together, chatting with some nice folks along the way. By the time we reached the trail, I’d pulled away a bit, so we said our see-you-laters and I headed off. We noticed early on that even though we had started toward the back of the pack, we were getting passed like crazy in the first few minutes. We fought the urge to keep up with them and by the time we hit the trail, most of them were dropping back behind us again.

It had rained the night before, so the trail was very slick, but Harvey and I both managed to stay on our feet the whole time. It was also very humid; we were lucky that it was cool enough to not be much of an issue.  We’d thought it would probably rain while we were out there, but it held off for us. By the time I hit the midsection of the trail, I couldn’t see anyone else—in front or behind. The last mile was pretty much all uphill, so I was glad that our daily  runs are on rolling trails. At the end, we came up out of the trees onto the grass, over one last steep climb.

We were both pleased with our results: my time was 38:59 (pace 11:08); Harvey’s was 43:54 (pace 12:33). The only part about the experience I didn’t like was that we were the only ones applauding for 3.5-mile runners we didn’t know personally. Most people only started cheering once the half-mary runners started to trickle in. Not so friendly, I thought. But all in all, a fun run on a muddy trail, and a good time trial for us, since it was our first trail race.

—Tamara “Trail Mix” McClendon