August 15th, 2015
Time 2:06:44.2 14:05/m
For the first time, in a long time, I was super nervous about attending this race. River Valley Run was my first rugged trail run and I was ballsy enough to register for the longest distance, the 15k. The only trail I’ve ever trained on is the NCR Trail, which is like running on cotton balls compared to the dirt hills I had endured in this race.
There were three adult races to choose from: the 5k on pavement, the 10k trail run and the first RVR 15k trail run. Of course my sister (Ahem… who showed up hungover) chose the 15k, so I decided to run it with her. The morning weather was absolutely perfect and it had been months since I had experienced running in anything cooler than 70º.
PROS…
LOTS OF HILLS…
…tons and tons and tons and tons… This could be a “Con” if you dislike a challenge; however, I’m currently preparing for the Baltimore Marathon, so I found this to be valuable within my training program…
…I ran up this hill, not down it.
HEAVILY SHADED…
…with this downhill run being the only exception…
…the rest of the race had been entirely shaded, even within open fields…
NOT ONE, BUT TWO RIVERS TO RUN THROUGH…
The majority of the race was along side a river, hence, the name “River” Valley Run…
…but I was surprised to see that we would be running through it twice!
I also liked that, during the first initial run through, I could choose whether I’d like to run through the river or walk over a small foot bridge. The second run through, I had no choice though, but it was extremely refreshing!
TONS OF VOLUNTEERS…
It seemed like there had been a volunteer around every bend and at the top of every hill! I absolutely loved this, because it seemed like without any, it would be very difficult to navigate the trail, making it pretty simple to get lost.
BEAUTIFUL SCENERY…
…Please, see for yourself…
Lastly, CHICK-FIL-A AT THE FINISH LINE!
…and not only bagels, but bagels with cream cheese! I ate them too fast to take a pic, but the race provided Chick-fil-A breakfast crispy chicken sandwiches on buttery biscuits 🙂
CONS…
SAFETY…
It is very likely that more than a handful of people became injured during this race. I witnessed a few myself and, honestly, I have no idea how I came out of there without falling or rolling an ankle. If you are currently training for a big race, it may be too much of a risk to sign up for this one.
SPACE…
As you can see, in reference to my above chip time, I’m a pretty steady & slow runner. This caused somewhat of an annoyance to the elites who began the 10k shortly after we began our 15k. I was sure to stay out of the way while the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, even 4th and 5th place runners of the 10k came rolling through; however, there were so many more thereafter, yelling “TO THE LEFT!”. Well, in this race, there is no left nor right. There is just the single-file trail… so if you’d like to beat your own PR, this may not be the race to sign-up for. I had to stop numerous times in order to ensure my ankles were still in tact after people running up on them.
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTLY…
On a rating level of 1 to 10 for difficulty, this was at about a 15. I’m glad I had some years under my belt, but I’m still going to opt out for the 10k if I ever choose to register again. 9.3 miles is just too much for trying a dirt, trail run for the first time.
Overall, it was another accomplishment proven to myself… It was a difficult race, but the feeling of pride is so much stronger when knowing how much I truly fought to run across that finish line. Plus, I must’ve had a ton of fun…

The Proof is in the pictures people!!
Oh yeah, and I placed #5 in my female age group… but then realized that there were only 7 female 20-29 year olds; therefore, I was not 5th from first… I was 3rd from last.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to stop back shortly to see how my Baltimore Marathon Training is going!