Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Chino Hills Trail Run Series 2016

Its now been a few months, okay a year, since I've ran an organized event. I've been nursing a torn meniscus and it's been a slow process. I was feeling strong back in November, but had a little setback while running in Maui. Anyhow, after a couple months of slow training, decided to go for it.
I went ahead and signed up for the Chino Hills Trail Run Series 10k. What a great event.

 
 


When I signed up there was literally one spot left, so I took it. The event happened to be right smack at the end of the Fred Hall Long Beach show. This is a long week of on your feet, fishing show experience. Good times, but exhausting.

With a nice relaxing 8am start, all of the racers were lined up and ready to go.  The Hoka's were laced up tight and ready to go.  In the 10k, I believe there were about 80-90 of us.  Nice and small group.



The race is set in Chino Hills in Soutthern California. The course is run on dirt trails and fire roads in the hills. With about 1,700 feet of elevation change, it was also a bit of a challenge.


About a mile and a half in, you make a hard right and head up the vertical. It was pretty steep and ended up being a walk for the most part.  Once at the top you run along the ridge with the canyon down to your left and views of Yorba Linda, and on clear days, views all the way to San Clemente Island. After a while running the ridge you make a left and head down a tight single track back down to the main trail. From there, mostly downhill all the way back to the finish at the Discovery Center.



Once crossing the finish line we were greeted with a nice metal. All in all it was a fun run with lots of great people. It seemed really well organized and well run.  My goal for the run was 1:30, but I managed 1:34, so not too bad after being out of the loop for a bit.


The event runs a 10k and 1/2 marathon on the same day.  Later in the year there is a full marathon and 50k I believe on the same day.  We'll see how the year pans out, but maybe the full or 50 will be in my future.  Or maybe not.

Happy Running!