Oh Snap! No real "Oh Snap!" moment today, but I promised to begin my report this way, so here ya go, Joe!
True to weather men & women, they have no idea what they're talking about. What happened to the 1-2" of snow overnight and snow to rain today? It didn't rain or snow at all last night or today. I thought for sure it would be a wet & muddy mess, but there was only one big mud slog...so I went straight through it. I think I was the only one. Anyways, the weather was high 30s and overcast, so great running weather! Splits: 11:19, 10:10, 10:15, 11:23, 8:18 This run benefits the OCD Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and this was the 4th year for the run. The weather was the same last year, but the first two years it was a nasty, cold & snowy mess. Last year, I was recovering from an achilles sprain from my first Half, so I didn't run it. The whole family volunteered and it was a great experience. I told myself I was going to be ready for this race this year. Although it wasn't going to be my "key" race, I've been looking forward to it all year. My wife wanted to do the 1 mile walk/run with her friend so my two kids were going to volunteer this year. A couple months ago I realized they scheduled the youth temple trip to DC today so my daughter wasn't able to help, but my son was still psyched to help. Last night he started complaining about how cold and snowy it was going to be and how he had to get up early. We reminded him that he committed to helping and he wasn't going to back out. Since he was going to be directing runners on the course again this year, I showed him some youtubes of how to properly do it: that dancing traffic cop, the robot, poppin' and lockin', etc. He still complained a little, but I did see him practicing his stopping on a dime. I woke up early and took the dog out, ate a bagel and banana, and took some Naproxen. The foot was angry so I was trying to think of the best way to get through this. Had it snowed, I think I may have opted for hiking boots since I forgot to bring home my less-worn running shoes from work. I stuck with the running shoes since I wasn't sure the boots would help the foot any better. I went back to bed for an hour until I had to get up to take my daughter to the church. Came back, got dressed and we headed out. We got there about 45 min before the start and the director was out on the course, so my son ended up not being able to volunteer since the ladies handing out numbers and shirts didn't know where to have him help. He decided to be a bandit and do the 1 mile walk with mom. :-) Ken, from the ward was there and so we all stood around and talked. I wasn't too concerned about getting warmed up well since I knew I wouldn't be flying out of the gate. I was going to just take it nice and easy and aim to finish. Ken had somewhat the same plan since it was his first real race. They gave us some info on the course - a change from last year due to construction on the section that my son had directed runners last year, so he would have had to be at a different spot anyways, which he would have been bummed about. The horn went off and we hit the course. I stayed with Ken and we chatted as we went. The first mile was a half mile of gradual incline to the 1 mile walk/run turn around, then another half mile up a big hill. The pace was comfortable but I was feeling the 3+ weeks of little cardio training. Oh well, keeping it slow was OK with me since the foot was in pain from all the uphill. There were 78 runners and so things got fairly well spaced out pretty quickly which is good since a lot of the course was on single-track or narrow trails. At this mile, we really didn't pass a lot and didn't get passed a lot. I honestly didn't notice how many were in front of us or in back of us since I was just going to run the best I could all things considered.
I had overdressed some and knew I had, but in the event I ended up walking a good portion of it, I didn't want to be cold. So, I stripped off the ear warmer headband and gloves at this point, but I really wanted to take the long sleeved T off but didn't. In the second mile, we had
a guy come up from behind us. I was wearing my signature skull & crossbones dorag and as he came up, he asked me if I think our dorags make us faster (of course they do!). He had a confederate flag one on. We called him the Good 'ol Boy. He was very nice and after a couple minutes of chatting, he dropped us. There was some downhill in this mile and the next and we eventually caught the Good 'ol Boy - he had slowed behind Pink Chick and wasn't going around her. At the 3 mile marker they had an aid station - just some water, but was just enough. We walked through it then headed up the hill. Pink Chick and the Good 'ol Boy had left us in the dust. About the 3.25 marker, we got to the switchbacks. Those were brutal. This is where I actually saw runners other than GoB and PC since we could see them working their way up the hill. When we got to the top, I was anxious to finish strong knowing that much of the last mile was downhill. Ken was struggling and told me not to hold back due to him. He didn't have to tell me twice. :-) I told him I'd see him at the finish and headed off with about 1.5mi left. I could see PC with GoB ahead of her. He was gaining on Ninja Chick (she was dressed in all black spandex & had long black hair). I went as fast as my foot would allow (8:00 or so) on the flat section before the mile downhill. I caught PC and saw I was gaining on GoB and NC, but I wasn't sure I was going to catch them, but at this point, this race became a race since GoB had to have been in my 40-49 AG. With about 1/2 mile to go, I caught GoB and NC had gained some distance on us. I had learned over the course of the race that the downhill was quite
tolerable for the foot, so that gave me some encouragement, but not
being an experienced trail runner and my low traction shoes, I worried
about falling. I kept pushing the pace over the very heavy leaf cover, knowing I risked a twisted ankle or a slip and fall.
I decided that an injury or a fall was worth the risk if I could avoid getting chicked by the Ninja. So, I started to turn it on. At about the 4.6mi mark, the trail becomes less risky so I let loose, but so did the Ninja. I caught her with about .2mi left and she tried to hang on when she realized I was going to pass her, but I was flailing my arms so much as my legs spun with every (what seemed like) 20 foot stride, I don't think she could have gotten around anyways. I was totally out of control. One wrong step and I was going to be down for the count! I came around the last corner and saw the time - 50:31. Still out of control and flailing like I was going to take off, I kept pushing wanting to get under 51:00. I saw my wife and son waiting before the finish line and my son started doing his version of the robot and held out his hand to give me a high-5. Haha He was hilarious. I came through the finish line into the chute and I must have still been flailing because the lady taking the tags at the end of the chute took a step back and told me to take it easy...she just needed to take my tag. Oh well, I was happy I was done and I had beat GoB and PC, and I avoided getting chicked by the Ninja! I walked over to the fam and we hung out chatting and cheering the racers on until the last runner. GoB came up and we chatted for a couple of minutes. He was a really nice guy.
Ken did great - he came in just about two minutes after me. He was looking good and I was proud he did so well. We committed to run it again next year. Overall, I really enjoyed this race. The course was tough and would have seemed even tougher if we hadn't walked some of the hills and if I was really racing this for a good time. The volunteers were great and the course was well marked. It was a ton of fun and I have found I love trail running. Having to worry about each foot placement, making sure you lift your foot high enough over the rocks & stumps to avoid falling, etc. made it more "engaging" than some of my other races. The danger level was cool too. I won't give up on road races, but I will definitely find more trails to run. I don't feel too bad about my time, either. I had a 50:00 goal before my foot issues, not knowing what my pace would be on a trail course, so I did pretty well. The winner won by just a handful of seconds at 37:xx. He was 20 and the second place was in the 50-59 AG. Apparently, after that, it was a while before the next runners came in. I didn't take a real close look at the finish results except to note that I would have had to run a sub-44:00 to get 3rd place in my AG. I think that should be doable next year. According to my Garmin, I hit a 4:52 pace in that last stretch with a sub-6:00 for the last 0.2mi. Man, if that's what it feels like (the speed, not the uncontrolled flailing) to run that fast, you fast guys are lucky! That was so awesome and sooo fun! No wonder you all love running so much!
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