Ramble Trail 8K Race Report

Prior to the start of this morning's Ramble Trail 8K in Troy, N.C., race director Tim Long offered a few words of advice for the trail running novices like myself. "Road runners be sure to pick your feet up a bit more than you're accustomed to, or you might fall."

This being my first trail race, I heeded Long's advice...but still fell. Hard. It could have been worse, however. After stumbling and losing my balance earlier, I nearly face planted in some gravel before catching myself. That would have been bad.

After thinking, 'OK. That's my close call with the fall," it happened about a half mile later and about halfway into the race -- I fell on a stretch of uneven, rocky and rooted terrain. I suffered a nasty gash on my palm, some scrapes on my knees, a swollen right knee and a bruised ego. After all, why did I have to fall while running alongside Sara Neumann, an attractive young lady from Charlotte who had befriended with some words of encouragement just before the fall? Oh well. Nothing hurt but my pride.

I'm proud to say, however, that despite the fall, I brushed myself off, pulled myself back together and rambled to the finish with a personal best 8K time of 39 minutes, 9 seconds, good enough for seventh overall and second in my age group. Following the race, a fellow runner who must have witnessed "the fall" approached me and said, "Good recovery." Those words pretty much summed the race up. As the ancient Chinese proverb says, "Failure is not falling down, but refusing to get up."

Complete Results: 2007 Ramble Trail 8K