The description of the trail race was pretty accurate, "not large" hills but offering a distinct challenge. If they took over 90 seconds to get up, and it's faster to take wide steps up than run then to me they are big! The "distinctly challenging hills" took all the wind out of me and burned the hell out my quads climbing them.

The trail was marked with white dots. One dot means straight ahead, and two dots with an arrow indicate a turn and which direction. Where there may have been confusion in the trails, they marked it off in either spray chalk or used orange tape to block off other access ways. Some places you had to pay attention to the ground's shape as the fallen leaves obscured an apparent trail. Also on the steep downhills, if you weren't careful, you'd slip on all the leaves.

The "approximate mile markers" spray painted on the trees could have been pretty close because there were plenty enough trees around to mark them. The accuracy may have been limited to being able to measure the wound-up trail.

1 - 9:20
2 - 10:27
3 - 10:31
4 - 10:08
5 - 10:19 (self-serve water)
6 - 9:26
7 - 10:51
8 - 12:01 (between miles 7 and 9 were the worst hills!)
9 - 11:01
9.5 - 5:07



Carry my own water if there's a next time for this race.

Walk from the finish line back to the Senior Center. Stretch a little. Rehydrate.


Definitely the steep hills and severe downhills. I did twist my right ankle twice, but not so severely that I couldn't run on it again on the next step.


This was a low-key race proceeds to go towards the Groton Trail Committee to develop and maintain trails around Groton. No awards ceremony, and I don't believe that there were more than 200 runners combined with the 3.4-mile race. I can't even remember where I found out about this race! To further illustrate how low-key it was, the 2 water stations on the run were SELF-SERVE!! LOL! I got a kick out of that, digging through the cups trying to determine if they are dirty discards, or just unstacked clean ones. So it took a little longer to hydrate than I'd have liked, but oh well. I should have carried a water bottle but decided against it so it's my own fault. They were placed around 4.5 miles and close to 8 miles.

The course was very challenging, and I definitely ran it as hard as I could. I'm trying to maintain an easy 9-10 mile long run base while not training for anything in the "off season". I'm constantly getting lost on the trails I run (unmarked), so I took this as an opportunity for a guaranteed self-guided trail tour combined with a long run. I didn't know it would be Eco-Challenge quality though :)

What I really enjoy about trail running is having to negotiate the rocks, roots, up- and downhills, enjoying nature without having to inhale exhaust or dodge cars, and not running on the same boring belt. What I dislike is having to look at my mile splits!

I wanted 9:30 miles, maybe 9:45's. NOT! Also they marked the approximate mileage on the trees, but there were enough trees around that I don't think the mile markers were too far off.