The Toughest Trail in Texas

On Saturday, Matt and I did a training run at the Cross Timbers Trail on the Oklahoma/Texas border. It runs along Lake Texoma and is considered by many the toughest trail in Texas. I'm not completely sure about that - but it was an ass whipping!

We started the run at 3pm and finished up sometime around 11pm. The goal for this run was to start on somewhat tired legs (from walking around all day doing normal Saturday chores) and to finish up in the dark to get me used to night running.

We started at one end of the trail and did an out and back. We timed it to have just enough daylight to get back to the car before sunset. We did not want to get caught out there without lights when it got dark. We could have made it back to the car in the dark, but it would have been very, very slow going.

The trail itself is really beautiful. It runs along Lake Texoma so you really can't get lost -- you just keep the lake to your right. There were many nice climbs, some pretty hairy descents, and actually a couple of short flat sections where you could really stretch your legs and run hard. We met a few hikers who were out on the trail and camping overnight. I made note of this as a good place to do a hike/camping trip with my family.

They do a trail race here every year and due to the difficulty of the course it posts some of the slowest finishing times of any other race in Texas. After spending 6 plus hours on it, I could really see why.

After making it back to the car, we grabbed our lights and headed out into the night. This was my first time trail running at night. It took a little while to get used to it, but it wasn't too bad. You just have to stay focused. If you let your mind wander for a moment, you can easily trip over a root or rock and hit the ground. Your pace slows down a bit on the flats and on the downhills, but you can still crank it up the hills OK.

We ran the toughest part of the trail over and over again. At one point, I started doing the math in my head about what time we'd get back to Dallas. When I calculated it would be after 2am, I told Matt it was time to hang it up. Plus I was starving! So we packed it in and headed back to Dallas. We stopped for a quick Whataburger with all the drunk folks and I hit my pillow sometime after 2am.

Great run - felt good most of the time - just a little IT Band soreness for about 15 minutes during the last part of the run. 61 days to go until WS100!