There are not many races that I run year after year. But Sehgahunda Trail Marathon and Relay keeps bringing me back. It takes place at a beautiful state park, that has so much to explore. The trails are some of my favorites to run on. Not too much climbing (my nemesis). And there are a variety of ways to participate in the event.

I have run this event in every configuration possible. Solo full marathon, 4 person relay multiple times, 2 person relay, 3 person relay. The only thing left is to run Sehgahunda in conjunction with the Vail of 3 Falls races the next day for a Sehgahunda 72 finish. But I don’t know if I will ever actually do that.

So, in mid May I was back for another run of Sehgahunda.

What keeps me coming back

But the biggest reason that keeps brining me back is the friends I run with and the memories wee have made. Every year this has been an annual tradition to run this event with my friends. In a world that keeps us all so busy and sometimes makes it hard to find time for our friendships in real life it is nice to have a tradition that keeps your friendships together.

And this year added an even more exciting component for me. For the first time, my wife was going to be on our relay team with us. My wife has been by my side crewing and cheering at so many of my races, and seeing her getting into running has been one of my biggest joys. She has been at Sehgahunda many times with us. But she has never made the leap to run it. She was supposed to run it last year, but had to miss with an injury. I almost missed last year as I was recovering from an injury, but I was just healthy enough to hit the trails in 2025.

Running

The last several years, the same person has lead us off on the relay, which means she always gets the best running weather. It always seems to be a bit unseasonably warm at this event somehow. Then the rest of us get to run in the progressively warming air. I have run the second leg multiple times as my relay leg. And I have run the 4th leg before as part of the four person relay. But, I think this was the first year I ran the third leg of the relay separately.

I was happy to get to run the 3rd leg because that meant I would be handing off to my wife who would finish the event for us on the fourth leg. And then we could all run it in to the finish line together.

I think that she thought me handing off to her was a good idea too, until I actually showed up at the check point drenched in sweat reaching over to her to put the race belt with our bib on her and dripping sweat all over her. But that is what true love is.

The trails

I love these trails. The main trails are some of the most runnable terrain I have ever raced on. Relatively smooth and flat. No huge climbs. Just punctuated with periodic gullies, which depending on your risk aversion can be tackled in a variety of ways.

The biggest challenge of this race is often the section that leads up out of the woods to the aid stations and checkpoints. They are frequently quite a slog. In years when it is particularly wet it is like wading through a muddy sludge you cannot fathom. It will simultaneously suck your shoes off and cause you to slip and slide all over the place. If you are descending it is literally like skiing downhill except with less control because you do not have the proper equipment.

This year it was relatively dry. So we were hoping for a bit better conditions. And the main trails in the woods were just about as good as they could be.

Running leg 3 I could not really remember what my section would be like since I have only seen those trails a couple of times. I knew I would have to navigate the potentially treacherous aid stations sections 3 times. Descending from where I started. Then another aid stations sections in the middle. And finishing t the aid stations where I would hand off to my wife.

Lucky for me the only aid stations sections where it was really muddy was the one where I started so I only had to descend on it. Going up and down on the sections where you are not handing off is kind of soul crushing. I did not miss that. The other aid stations sections where segments were pretty dry.

I had a lot of fun out there on the trails this year, finally feeling healthy and hitting the trails for the first time in 2026. I typically run with my hydration pack on out of an abundance of caution, but this year I only carried a 500mm soft flask and refilled it at the aid station. IT was just the right amount of fluids.

Finishing my segment and handing off to my wife was a new experience and a new level of joy for me. We have run some races together in the past, but we have not been on a team together before.

I think I am already looking forward to 2027.

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