"But Your Feet Will Get Wet"

We were talking with a bro at meeting last night. He is doing the Brazen trail run that we are doing this Saturday. He had pre-run the course to see what it was like. He said it was muddy. We asked if the creeks were full and he said yes. I said "woo hoo, I can't wait to run through them!" He looked at me a little like I was crazy and said, "you can't really run through them, your feet will get wet." Did I mention this will be his first organized trail run? : )
Took me back to my first trail run, being so green, and not really knowing what we had gotten ourselves into. Such a different mentality on the trail than on the road. On the trail, you don't dodge puddles, you aim for them, you don't avoid the mud, you enjoy it. But getting your feet wet causes friction, and then blisters you say?? Trail runners say the bigger the blister the better. If you finish w/o one, you took too long trying not to get wet. Anther bro recently said to Brian that you have to be careful while trail running because you can fall. Um, yeah....but isn't that part of the charm of a trail run?? You never know when you're gonna biff, but you always know the runner that comes up behind you and passes will yell out "are you ok?" as they do so. My personal strategy is to fall early and get it over with because it is going to happen sooner or later.
I am so looking forward to this weekend, not only to get out there w/the kids and have a great run, but also to see this bro get to experience his first organized trail run and...the mud...and water, and all the other good things a Brazen race always delivers!
This is one of my favorite videos as it captures the beauty and diverse landscape we get to enjoy here in CA. Some of it is taken from the Western States 100 run from Squaw Valley to Auburn Ca. Take a look at these amazing trail runners and their wet feet : )