Paris Mountain Trail race results

What a great weekend! On Friday evening, Lucy and I drove to Atlanta to pick my sister up. She had a layover from a company trip and decided to stay with us for the weekend. We were supposed to have a lazy Friday night so we could wake up early Saturday to run in the Paris Mountain Trail race. Instead, Melanie's plane was delayed over 3 hours in Chicago because of bad weather. Instead of arriving back in Greenville around 10:00 PM, we didn't get back and into the bed until 2:00 AM.
I was already undecided about running the race mainly because my twisted ankle from three weeks earlier hadn't healed as fast as I hoped. This was my 'homefield' and considering I run on this trail 2-3 times/week, I wanted to give my best shot. Melanie had agreed to race with me and since I was hobbled, I assumed I would just walk the race with her. In the morning, I woke up around 7:00am and immediately said, "I'm not racing" and went back to sleep. Around 7:20, guilt woke up again so I crawled out of bed and decided I would go. It was a different story for Melanie who wouldn't stir from her comfortable spot on the sofa.
Now knowing I would be going alone, I decided to test my ankle and run the 7 miles course. The trail is a great one - not too hard as other Mountain trails, but hard enough that you have to be a comfortable at offroad running. The main 'hill' has a 1750 ft elevation but there are many more smaller hills throughout the course. I'm just guessing, but I figure there is probably 3000-4000 feet of elevation gained/lost per lap. The trail drains wonderfully so you don't have to worry about a sloppy course and it was well marked (considering me along with the race director marked the course the day before with 60 pounds of flour!!!)
My ankle still had some slight pain, but I put on several pairs of socks to add as much support as I could. The weather was GREAT - at racetime (9:00), the temperature was probably 60 degrees and reached a high in the mid-70s. I would hate to have to run that course in rain or worse - sleet. The mountain parts would almost be impossible....or at least dangerous.
I'm happy to report my ankle gave me very little trouble and I tied my fastest time on the trail - 1:05:04 (24th place out of 90 entries). I faded toward the end and actually tripped about 100 feet from the finish, but was proud that I made myself go and compete. Considering I hadn't run in almost a month and still had lingering pain, I did well. Next year, I'm shooting to break the 1 hour mark.

Oh...I designed the T-shirt for the race! Since it was a rush job, I used a previous design from the Kansas City Trail Race Series I did last year, but changed the wording. John, the race director, decided to go with the camo shirt for an interesting combo. You definitely can't miss it!!!