trail running

My latest interest is trail running. I took part in a relay race event(paddling,running,mountain biking) over the weekend and I was doing the running part.It was a relatively small race and my portion was to do 5 K of trail running.Easy right? I did try to run a mile two days before the race on a trail but could never figure out directions within the woods and gave up. So,I really did not know what to expect and my trail running experience was zero to say the least. I did relatively okay and met my expectations,I ran the 5K part in 33 mins 22 secs.The fastest guy did it in a blistering 20m 54 s.Whew! My numbers was somewhere in the middle in the median curve. But i realized a few things when running the trail. It is much harder than regular road running.It is more fun as I am running between the trees and more close to nature.It is more work out for my legs, I used muscles which was never used before on paved path running and i can still feel soreness in them,downhill running is tough,foot placement is totally different which means more effort on ankles and I need to be more conscious of my running and where I put my feet so that i dont trip unlike paved path where you dont really look where you place your feet. The uphill and downhill constantly changes your tempo and you cannot sustain a regular breathing like you do on regular running which means more effort. Its a totally different ball game. I realized you just cannot run a trail without training specifically for it. I have registered for a 13.1 K trail run on Sep 22nd and I am hoping to have a better time with enough training behind my back.