Lake Hodges Trail Fest 25K Race Recap

This past weekend I ran my first 25K (YAY for automatic PRs [personal records], since I'd never run that distance before)!

I DID IT!

But before we get to the race itself, we have to see how we arrived there. You see, back in January I volunteered at a race aid station to help give back to the running community that has given so much to me. As a thank you for volunteering, we were gifted a race entry into any other of their races for the 2025 season. It was still a ways off, but I decided to pick the Lake Hodges Trail Fest because it was another local race (and one that I had actually done before). [2022 Race Recap]

Of course I dressed up as a unicorn to cheer on my fellow runners and refill their water bottles!

Around May I started training for the 50K (I figured I might as well big or go home... or maybe I just figured I'd take advantage of the most expensive race entry ;)). Training was going okay until I started getting up into the longer distances. It seemed as though I had a mental block anytime I tried to run anything over about three hours. The last week of August I had a marathon distance on my schedule and it went pretty poorly. During that run I decided I could 'finish' the 50K, but it would probably include a lot of walking and not feeling very strong, or I could downgrade to the 25K (a distance I had never run before) and finish with a smile on my face. Technically I think I only changed maybe three or four of my workouts, making them shorter than what the original 50K training plan called for, but I kept everything else the same.

If I had a 5 hour run, I did a 2.5 hour run, assuming if this was a 50K training plan I could cut it in half and it'd be a 25K plan.

Two-ish weeks before the race I started to get a twinge in my left groin/ hip flexor, so I took some extra rest days in the week or two leading up to the race, but other than that the body felt fine during training (when people say that running is 90% mental I have to agree... it might be simple but it sure as poo ain't easy!). I'd rather go into a race slightly under trained with no injuries than overtrained, burnt out and injured because I "had to" follow the training plan to the letter. 

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I'm happy to report that getting to race day felt great. I'd be lying if I said I didn't go back and forth mentally on whether I was proud of myself for downgrading to the 25K because I was listening to my body and planning on running strong or if I was disappointed with myself for not 'giving it my all' and 'seeing what my body was capable'. But, as an extra super smart friend told me - "you've got nothing to prove... if you 'had' to run a 50K, you could... running is supposed to be fun."

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So Friday night I laid out all of my goodies to make sure I'd be ready come Saturday morning. #FlatCarlee is ready to go! 

This race's #FlatCarlee included: Minnesota Lakes PRO Compression Socks, Mermaid Sparkle Athletic Skirt, Nathan VaporHowe
Hydration Vest, Clif Bloks, tech tee, elite Road ID, watermelon nuun hydration, handful adjustable bra, Momentum Jewelry wraps,
COROS Pace 3 Watch, Knockaround sunnies, and Altra Mont Blanc Speed.

Ate some homemade pizza (the hubby makes our dough by hand and it is scrum-didily-umptious!). [Okay, okay, it might not 'look' like a traditional pizza, it's more of a cheese bread, but it's delish... don't yuck my yum, mmmmkay?!]

Get in my tummy!

And then set my alarms so I could get a little rest (I normally don't sleep well the night before races, I'm always worried that I'll sleep through my alarms and miss the race [FYI: that has NEVER happened to me, but I'm still scared 'it might'], so I do my best to get good sleep the week leading up to the race and assume the night before will be a crap-shoot).

Tell me I'm not the only one who sets multiple alarms... 

As per usual, I woke up before my first alarm went off and started to get ready for the race. One positive about deciding on the 25K was I got an extra hour of "sleep" since the 50K was set to start at 7am and the 25K didn't kick off till 8am.

Getting ready in the bathroom

A couple weeks before race day the hubby surprised me and said that he was going to spectate (another positive of the 25K, since he would've had to commit a lot more of his day had I been doing the longer distance and probably would've opted out of coming along). He's my number one cheerleader and I couldn't be more appreciative! #HesTheBestest

Pre-race car selfie

The pre-race check in was set for 10 minutes before the start of the race, which meant 7:50am. Since bib pick-up was out of the way from where we live, I decided to grab everything on the morning of, so my game plan was to get to the parking lot by 7am. I know that's a lot of "extra" time for some people, but since the 50K started at 7am, I knew a decent amount of the parking spaces would already be taken, so I wanted a buffer to walk further to grab my goodies, use the potty, etc. 

Left: Bib and t-shirt pick-up // Right: Starting (and finish) line

Thankfully my plan worked to perfection and I was ready to rock 'n' roll when the race director called us over to run through the pre-race dilly-o. I wasn't sure how many people to expect because this was a new distance for this race series, but there were probably a hundred or so of us ready to tackle the trails. #LetsGoDoThisThang #25KorBust

Let's do this thang!

As I mentioned, I haven't run this distance before, but I am somewhat familiar with these trails. The hubby and I enjoy heading out to Escondido to get in some of the dirt out yonder and I've done a few different races around this area as well. The 25K course was like a "T". You start at the bottom of the letter, run up to the top (intersection of the horizontal line and vertical line), turn left, run down to the end of the letter (the upper left end of the "T"), turn around, run back the way you came to the middle, then continue on to the end of the letter (the upper right end of the "T"), turn around, run back to the way you came to the middle, then down to the bottom where you started. Technically it's like three out-and-back sections: out, out-and-back, out-and-back, back. (You know, just in case some of you want to picture in your mind how we ran.)

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Some folks don't like out-and-back courses, but I enjoy them. First, I like knowing what to expect, seeing as you just ran it in the opposite direction. Also, seeing runners on the opposite side gives you a distraction. Lastly, I love cheering on the runners that are either in front of me or behind me (focusing on others takes your mind off of yourself, which sometimes means off of the pain or discomfort you're feeling and sometimes helps get you into a faster, more excited groove). 

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We got a decent amount of rain earlier in the week, but with how dry our ground is, the water got all soaked up and the trails weren't muddy at all. In fact, we were set to have some toasty temps by the time we were finishing the race.

Fall in SoCal ain't too shabby ;) 

The race started off great. The body was feeling good, I found a groove and was clicking the miles off. It helped that I was familiar with the trails, but the race staff also did a great job at marking the course so I never had to guess where I was or if I was going the right way (until later... but I don't want to get ahead of myself and spoil the ending...). 

Left: The only little water crossing on the course // Right: Most of the course is either single or double track

I saw the hubby around Mile 7.25 and told him I was doing awesome. I had a smile on my face that I couldn't wash off.

Hubby wanted to use his 'real' camera to take pictures... hence the different filter on these photos

High fives as I ran by

My little piggy tails (after I chopped off 10 inches of hair to donate it to Children With Hair Loss) bounce

The course was exposed (meaning no shade), but thankfully it was still cool for a while when we started. The elevation wasn't terrible either. Some rolling hills and a few decent climbs, but nothing too intense. (I walked a couple of the steeper parts in the first half of the race, but was super proud of all the running I was doing and how I was feeling.)

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I wish I could say that the AMAZING feeling lasted the whole race, but unfortunately it did not. Around Mile 11 my left hip flexor decided to make its presence known and started screaming. It's strange, it didn't hurt while I was walking, but once I started running I could feel it with every step. So I started adding in walking breaks about every half mile or so. 

There's a hill (that thankfully the 25K didn't have to run, but the 50K had to tackle twice) called "Raptor Ridge",
so the aid station at the base of the climb is decorated with dinosaurs... and OBVIOUSLY I needed a photo!

In case y'all were curious, I took my fuel around Mile 6 and then again around Mile 11.5 (I was using the Strawberry Lemonade Clif Bloks for this race - 3 Bloks = 1 serving.) I also had nuun in my front flasks in my Nathan hydration vest for a little extra electrolytes (and water in the back bladder [I only ever put water in my bladder because it is harder to clean]). 

I'm digging the 'sour' flavor lately since most things you consume while running are always overly sweet

I saw the hubby again around Mile 14.5 or so and told him about my hip flexor rearing its ugly head. He did his best to try to encourage me to keep putting one foot in front of the other and make it to the finish line (don't worry, I was still smiling so much my face was tingling, it was just my leg was tingling at this point as well ;)). 

Tried to muster up some excitement to see the hubby at this point

I'm a lucky duck to have my own personal photographer on course ;)

Since I was walking more than I was expecting to, the temps were starting to rise a bit faster than I would've liked. (When we got to the car, the temp on the dashboard [after letting it simmer down from sitting in the sun] said 86* and we didn't spend more than 10 minutes at the post race party, so it was about that when I finished the race.) #FallInSoCal

You can see where I started walking after Mile 11 in my paces

You may or may not have noticed when looking at my mile splits above that the race was a little long (and by 'a little' I mean almost two miles). We were running a 25K, which is about 15.5 miles (for those of you more familiar with miles instead of kilometers). I noticed on the map that it was showing a little closer to 26K, so I figured because of where the aid stations were and the turnarounds that it would be a bit longer than advertised (honestly, most trail races are never exact, like road races tend to be). I was expecting my watch to show around 16 miles when all was said and done... Well, that was not the case.  You see, at the beginning of the race we took a little detour so that there wouldn't be a bottleneck at the pedestrian/ suspension bridge. Instead of hitting the bridge around a half of a kilometer, we did a little extra jog so that we hit it around two and a half so runners would be more spread out. I was expecting that on the way out. On the way back, because runners would obviously already be spread out, we would take the shorter route back to the finish line. The issue is... the signs sent us back on the extra jog which added the extra two kilometers again. Normally this wouldn't have been as much of an issue, but because of my hip flexor and the heat, it was a little more painful than it needed to be or at least than I was expecting it to be. (Not that I really care about my pace, but if you removed those last two slower miles, my overall average pace would've been a lot more in line with what I was expecting to run.) #IRunForFunNotForTime

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Once I mentally prepared myself for the extra two kilometers, I was able to hobble my way to the finish line. I would say that it appeared as though everyone in the race seemed to be having as much difficulty with the heat as I did. Between the Raptor Ridge Aid Station turnaround at Mile 11.5 and the finish line, I think I only got passed by two or three runners. 

Never any doubt... Elevation Culture always puts on amazing events!

Overall it was a great race. I'd definitely do it again and I hope they keep the 25K (I was telling the hubby he'd have loved it, especially since it's on trails we are familiar with and it's a distance where training wouldn't take over his life ;)). 

Yes, as a matter of fact, I DID try to match my race day outfit with the theme and race medal ;) 

I think if I could offer a few suggestions to make the experience even better I would say to fix the course at the end (I'm not sure if all of the distances ran into the course being 2K's too long since we were all directed to do the extra jog or not) and to offer size XS shirts (since they are all unisex sizing). Other than those two small blips, it's an awesome local race. 

It may not be a metal medal, but I always love the wooden 'bling' these races have!

Do you think you would have been excited for a longer race than expected or disappointed?