Last year, I felt like I ran too slow and conservative early on in the race. This year, I decided to go out hard and see if I could stay in front of a lot of people. I knew there was a chance that that strategy could blow up on me.
I took off very fast. I was definitely inside the Top 10 as I was flying down the paved start of the race. I ran fast and was breathing heavy. Obviously, I knew I wouldn't sustain it. I hoped that on the trail I could slow down a bit and recover. I knew some faster people would certainly pass me.The first uphill slowed me down and quite a few people passed me. I continued to breath heavy and just couldn't recover. The humidity was getting to me, even this early on.
As I got to about 2/3 of a mile, the lead women passed me. I knew right then that I definitely went out way too fast. Not long after the first mile, I already had to walk a short uphill because I had overdone it. I definitely was the first person in the lead pack to be walking.
I think my friend Tim was the first person that I knew that went by me. I kept waiting for Flo and was surprised that quite a few women were ahead of her. She ended up passing me right before mile 2.
Of course I had to walk a lot of the long uphill after that. Sarah passed me in this section. The only cool thing about fading so badly was that I was passed by a lot of friends and got to chat with them.
Again, I was dieing as I started running after the uphill. Of course it was cloudy at the beginning of the race and now that we were out of the woods, the sun was blazing. That slowed me even more. I did pass some people in this area and on the rolling hills. As I was going by one woman, I realized that I had met her before when a friend was doing track workouts. I chatted with her for a bit. I was ahead of her, but then eventually she went flying past and finished well ahead of me.
I got to the first road crossing just after mile 3. My friend Jessica was working there. I already told her I was toast and that my strategy backfired. I said the same thing to my dad who was taking photos just up the trail. I told April that as well at the water stop by the Environmental Center. I was low on water, so I took some to refill my handheld.
Someone was on the ground at the bottom of a hill past the Environmental Center. I guess maybe he collapsed from the heat. I knew if I didn't take it easy, that could very well be me. I don't handle the heat well at all.
My friend Mel had caught me in this section and we ran/walked together for some time. As I was cruising along, this cute young lady passed me and I realized it was another friend, Chelsea. I chased her down to chat with her for a bit. I gave her some idea of the course ahead. I was impressed with how strong she was running. She had never run there before. Sometimes I think that that is more helpful than actually knowing the course.
It wasn't long until she left me and I dropped back to Mel again. I passed some people on the long uphill and some passed me. Mel was gone at that point. The dogs were in their yard barking at every single person.
Around this time, I finally began to recover a bit. Part of it was the easier trail section. I think the biggest part of it was that it got cloudy again. I was soaked from sweating, but at least I felt better for awhile.I knew the hills at the end would continue to destroy me. There was one short uphill grassy section and three people in front of me were going slowly. I didn't want to follow them, so I just blew right past them. I had to tie my shoe after that, but I didn't want to stop. Eventually, I tied it later in the race.
I even struggled with the smaller hills before the big hills. The last water stop was at one of the hills before the big hill. My friend Michele filled me up with some water. It was great to have so many friends volunteering. At this point, I was in survival mode.
I got to talking with and running with a woman briefly during this part of the race. It was nothing exciting, just small talk. Finally, we were to the dreaded huge hill. I knew I had no chance of running it, so I just began walking from the bottom. That was certainly tough, but it was much easier than running it partway and then trying to walk. That can be very exhausting. That is one key thing I learned today, either run an entire hill or walk the whole thing. Don't start running and then walk when you get halfway up it. That is so hard.
I walked up the other hill after that and that one didn't seem too bad either. We then got to the creek crossing. It wasn't as high as it had been a week ago. It was quite refreshing. It was funny because I came up from behind someone and he looked at the creek like he didn't know what to do. I passed him and flew right through it.
I crossed the road and again walked the next hill. Near the top, I think 3 more guys passed me. I couldn't probably run this section and suffered, but by this point, there was no reason to. It was already clear that my time would actually be worse than last year and I might not even break 1:40.
When I got to the grass uphill, I saw Ron and his wife volunteering. I chatted with them briefly. This grassy uphill frustrated me last year when I didn't know it was coming. Being prepared, it was much better. I just cruised up it. I had to run it in some fashion.
When you are going out, you can see the people coming back. I saw Chelsea and told her it was all a downhill finish from there. Then I saw Mel. He was pretty far ahead of me. Finally, I made it to the turn around. My friend Laurie was there. I told her that I was never happier to see her. Now, I was heading downhill.
I saw another friend Tim behind me as I was running in. I took off and blew passed a guy. I thought maybe I started going too early. I cruised through the grass downhill. I saw yet another friend Christina coming in the other direction. As I got onto the pavement, Tim came up and passed me. I might've been able to get him back at the line because I usually have a deadly finishing kick, but I figured there was no point in doing so at that time. I would've gone harder to defend my position at that point, but that was it. I finished up and was glad to be done. I didn't take a towel right away because I didn't realize they had finisher towels. Those were cool.
I hung around after the race and chatted with Chelsea for a bit and someone from my old neighborhood as well as some brief conversations with other friends. It was fun socializing. My dad was taking photos and at that point, I didn't realize that he was still doing so. I finally found him and let him go home. I left too for a basketball game.
My strategy backfired, but I still think it was somewhat sound. The key is to go out hard, but not too hard. You want to go out faster than your race pace, but not too fast that you destroy yourself. I sort of figured that might happen, but I had nothing to lose. Go hard early and survive was about the only chance I had to run a fast time.I was hoping that going to Trexler every week would pay off more than it did. The problem is I'm still just beat up and because of it, I never run hard at all when I'm there. I've become too used to just cruising around there and surviving the hills. It pays to be able to run fast on the runnable flat and downhill sections. I take those too easy too.
I love this race, but this might actually be the last time I do it. It is just so tricky because it is a challenging course, but it is also a short enough distance that you kind of have to run it hard. It makes for a difficult race. My friend Aaron said he wants to organize an ultra there sometime and I think I would like that much more. I love the take it easy and just try to cover distance approach. That seems better than running hard for almost 10 miles. If I don't run again, I'll volunteer for it.
9.21 miles - 1:38:06 (10:39 pace)
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