overtaking haynes

I probably wouldn't have done this race if it didn't happen to be only 35 mins from where i live and have huge hype. you have to sign up the day it's open and there were 955 finishers which is absurd for a trail race! i wanted to see what all the hype was about. 

 i got to the race and there were already hundreds of cars, a bagpipe player and people everywhere! the race bibs were cool and actually had your first name on it. had it been last year i would have been aiming for a top ten finish but because of my training/perceived weakness i just wanted to have a good time and not embarrass myself. it was about 80 even at 9am in the morning.

 i saw a familiar face, a guy who has beaten me in a half marathon trail race (passed me in the last 5 miles) and i crushed him at a longer more rugged race last year. i expected to be crushed today and he did beat me.

 anyways, i lined up at the start in the front row. not many people seemed all that intimidating which was good. i found myself surprisingly in the top 10 across the large field and into the woods. it's always cool when the leaders are right there. the first half mile was about 5:40 pace which i knew was too fast. after about a mile we crossed an almost waste deep river which was pretty exciting and i started to settle in. i was passed at mile 2 or so by the guy i knew but he never got too far away. after about a half mile called the mud flats which were ridiculously muddy there was this huge sand hill with another bagpipe player which i was told i was in 10th place. there was a scrawny 17 yr old who for 1 sec overtook me but i shot by him once the hill was over. i put some distance on him but another guy came behind me and i could feel his breathing. i was pushing the whole time and i thought i would die because i had no confidence. i was passed after about a half mile and i stayed with him and he walked a few steps every once in a while on the hills and i caught up to him and passed him. we traded for a while and i had the lead on a long downhill which i knew he wouldn't pass me on. when it flattened out he passed me and i was sure he would surge away from me but i was able to hold on only about 5 sec back to the last field with about 0.5 miles to go. There was a tall grassy section and a bunch of people gathered and i thought  to myself i'm going to finish 10th, that's pretty awesome, i can't pass this guy. but the crowd of spectators were at the final water crossing! this crossing was also waist deep and the guy fell in and lost his footing. i saw him fall to his neck and i went around him on his right and surged ahead not looking back. i was sure the finish line was feet away! i'm going to win. much to my chagrin it was not and i had to go about a 1/4 mile uphill across the field beyond the original starting line. i had used up all my adrenaline and speed in the surge through the river and up the bank about a 100 feet. i was sure i was doomed, but i guess i had opened enough of a gap to hold on. it was pretty exciting and winning duels like that are always extremely rewarding!

i really needed this to feel good about running again.

3.4 mile hike after


 

trail run at centennial watershed starting on the easton side. beautiful river run. wish my legs had more in them so i could have run farther. 

am run up john read rd and back and added on whortleberry. wish i got to run in the evening also but had class. legs feeling a bit better but slow still. 

6.6 miles am, paced brother down our race course to get a PR. he kind of died coming back so only about .6 miles was tempo for me.

explored some more trails in town and found a nice 2.6 mile hiking loop after.

pm run after work. hadn't done a full centennial trail in a while and did the 6 miles out and ran on the road back. only 4 miles on pavement, 1hr 53 mins. legs felt tired and began to hurt a bit after about 10 miles. went a little hard yesterday and i guess i'm still not used to running that long. i still don't get why the body loses its ability to run distance in only a couple months after so consistently running 25 miles every week with ease. saw a milk snake on the road towards the end. 3rd snake of the year. at this rate i'll see 10 which i'm not looking forward to. i guess they're kind of cool though as long as they don't surprise you too badly. 

6.75 mile am run at aspetuck. went hiking after 6.6 miles after at mountain lakes camp park in ny. saw 3 water snakes! maybe it was the same one on the way back and i really saw only 2 different ones. snake count up to 6. the hike was kind of creepy, we explored an old abandoned kids camp with empty swimming pools and overgrown basketball courts. it was straight out of friday the 13 but far creepier even during the late afternoon.