I had such a wonderful day yesterday – all of it was spent on trails! We had GORGEOUS weather this weekend here in DC – I’m hoping that spring has sprung because winter? I’m totally over you. Sorry.
My Sunday began bright and early (actually… dark and super early thanks to Spring Forward) with a trail race!
I’ve been hearing great things about the Backyard Burn trail race series for awhile now. From their website:
The tenth annual Spring Backyard Burn is a series of 5 and 10 mile trail running races held on some of the best trail networks in the Northern Virginia Area. All the courses include a mixture of forested fire roads, twisty hiking trails, several stream crossings, grassy fields, and minimal pavement.
Sounded good to me! I gathered a few buddies (my college friends Kathleen and Sarah and my running buddy Karen) and we signed up for yesterday’s trail race (the 5 mile option) taking place at Wakefield Park in Annandale, VA.
It was FREEZING when we arrived but once the sun came out to play it turned into a lovely day. At 9 a.m., we lined up and got ready to go! It was fun to do such a small, low key race – I’m used to enormous DC races now!
And we’re off! The race itself was awesome – since it was on a trail, we had to pay a lot of attention to our feet so we didn’t trip on a root or rock, so the time seriously FLEW by. I could hardly believe it every time my watch beeped another mile because I was so distracted by not falling (and by chatting with the girls)!
There were a couple stream crossings:
And a lot of beautiful scenery.
The girls and I stuck together and chatted for nearly the entire way, not worrying about pace and just having fun with it. I really love trail races and runs – I need to do more of them!
Before we knew it, we were done! We’d gotten an email the day before that the 5 mile option was really closer to 5.5 – according to my watch, it ended up being about 5.6 miles. Nice!
Trail race success. 
Our average pace was about 9:45 minute miles – about as fast as we could have gone without biting the dust on the winding and rocky trail!
Thanks for the fun morning, ladies! We need to do another trail run together ASAP.
When I arrived home, Matt said that one of his buddies had invited us out on a hike. More trails? Don’t mind if I do! I had a quick lunch, pounded a latte, and out we went. We all met up at Fountainhead Regional Park in Fairfax, VA.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say that sky was Carolina blue. 
Matt and I had never been out to Fountainhead Park before so it was fun to explore a new area. It was really pretty – definitely one to return to again!
My hiking companions:
Me and Matt (I’m rocking my new shirt from the trail race!):
We ended up hiking about 6 miles. The weather was so nice we didn’t want to stop! And yes, I was totally exhausted last night after such an active day.
How did you enjoy the great outdoors this weekend?
EX2 Adventures Backyard Burn Trail Race + Hiking! originally appeared on fANNEtastic food on March 11, 2013.
The post EX2 Adventures Backyard Burn Trail Race + Hiking! appeared first on fANNEtastic food.