I’ve always enjoyed the extra challenge of a trail race, and some of my favorite races were the annual trail races I ran in California as part of the Xterra series. I ran the Leatherman’s Loop in April, but I had yet to run a trail race in Connecticut. I read about a race called the Soapstone Assault, in which runners run around the base of Soapstone Mountain, ascending 6 times and descending 5. It sounded both exciting and kind of awful: a fun challenge.

I left the house early for the 70 minute drive up to Somers, near the Massachusetts border, realizing halfway there that I had no cash for the day-of, cash-only registration. Luckily, the five dollar bill in the glove compartment was still there, which covered it.

The race was well organized, with the handicap start (“modified Dipsea,” as they called it) sending runners out in reverse age order. I was in the second or third to last group, but didn’t really deserve to be there. We set off and fairly quickly made our first ascent, not particularly long but nice and steep. Between the second descent and third ascent, I landed awkwardly on a rock and twisted my ankle. I kept running, taking my next few steps a little gingerly but after that, trying not to think about it, I ran the final three miles, ending with a Mt. Marathon-style hand-over-hand vertical ascent. It was quite a race, and by the time I was ready to head down from the summit, my ankle was so swollen I could hardly walk.

Time to take a few weeks off, between the trip to Ireland and the inability to put any weight on my right leg… Here’s a look at the course, according to my GPS watch.

Soapstone Assault | 4.88M | 7/26/15 | 1:04:49 | 7/169