overtaking haynes

now that i live only a couple hrs from the catskills in NY i decided to give the escarpment trail run a try and see what was so difficult about it. this is hands down the most ridiculous course i've ever raced and i've raced many. it was really fun, there were no views despite running along a high mountain ridge the whole time. there would have been a couple if it wasn't cloudy and then raining and then crazy thunderstorms with hail by the end (thankfully i was in my car by then). I didn't know how i would feel. i had lost confidence in the last couple weeks since iceland since i hadn't been running that much trying to recover and didn't feel that great while running. There were 175 people who signed up and at the start we had to run through a mud pit up almost to the waist from the huge storm the night before. i settled in, i think in 11th place going up the first 2000ft climb. there is apparently 10k of elevation gain in the 30km race which i don't doubt. i hate the first climb more than anything because everyone is establishing position and you don't know how many faster people there are than you. it's just nice getting that settled after the first hr and then you know if you feel good you'll stay put and move up and if you don't at least you control you own destiny. so i got up to the top and there was all this poison ivy and shrubbery that was irritating my legs. after about 45 min i got to the top and i caught up to 2 guys who had passed me on the climb and annihilated them on the downhill which was especially sketchy because you couldn't see what you were running on. i'm not exaggerating. then the next climb wasn't as long but involved climbing with your hands and was sick steep for about a mile. one of the guys caught up to me who i found out ran a 4:08 mile last yr but apparently was partying more this year. i again crushed him on the downhill and would not hear his footsteps again. the rest of the course didn't bring any huge memorable climbs although it did go up still. a lot of sitting on rocks so you didn't slip and i caught up to another person and then in the last mile i passed 2 more. there was one place near the end in the fog where i could have easily fallen off a cliff if i wasn't careful. would have been nice to have a warning sign. i was talking to a guy who beat me this year who last year fell 10 feet off a rock only 100yds from the finish and broke 4 ribs. i'll probably do this race again. i felt pretty good and realize that i have really good endurance. i can just keep going, maybe not as fast as i would like. the winning time was 2:59 and i finished in 3:25 which i guess is respectable. overall i'm pretty satisfied. i'm glad all the big races are out of the way now and i can go back to the weekend trail racing series of shorter distances. just the cape cod marathon to go i guess to prove myself. 

ran up the road and across the street to the trails i ran when i was in h.s. there didn't used to be a development next to these trails and a couple hundred acres were destroyed basically and there was a good access trail. my brother and i didn't realize how overgrown the alternate access trail was and were sketched out about ticks and me about snakes but i beat him in a double rock paper scissors and not only did we do the trail but he had to lead. when i led i just farted on him at will which made him lead again. i didn't really feel tired at all from the race yesterday which surprised me. legs didn't feel dead or anything, just a slight soreness in my sides but barely. i won't be going back to these trails anytime soon although they would be nice in the winter but then i have to worry about bow hunters.

feeling very uninspired...wasn't even going to run but my two brothers were going to run out an back on the dirt road at the bottom of our driveway so i went. i guess recovery isn't a bad thing. i feel so unmotivated immediately after racing a long distance. i guess what i don't know is how long one should really take off or run easy for in order to not get worn down. everyone is probably different and i didn't feel like the race took a lot out of me. The downhills were much too technical to push it so i guess i only raced about 9 miles and some of that was using my hands so i'm down to 8 maybe. i don't really have any sort of plan this week. hoping i guess that i want to run...short 7 mile trail race this sat. will wear road racing shoes for the first time...my heavy clunkers meant for 100 mile races have got to go! it's hard picking out a new shoe though when you've had the same ones for years. i've gone through 8 pairs of them. I wonder if i'd gain minutes in races over 3hrs by wearing trail racers. i'd like to think it's that easy...only one way to find out. 

2hr 13 min trail run, felt fine, started to feel like i was locking up a little bit

by the end but was glad my legs felt fairly fresh. listened to a book on tape while running which made the time pass much better. i think this will be a new thing for me.

262 miles on brooks.  

did a 7 mile trail race today. didn't get to run yesterday cause couldn't wake up early enough in the morning (since i actually work now) and went to see my old dog who my brother is helping to take care of while his new parents are away. needless to say i felt pretty good today with the day off and low mileage. I decided to wear road racing shoes since the distance was so short and not my clunky trail runners. MUCH better, I felt so much more nimble and light. mentally it was good.

I went out kind of hard i guess although it never feels hard until after 3 or 4 minutes especially if the first 3 miles are climbing. there was this really fast road runner guy who beat the guy who wins all the trail races pretty handily last year and he broke his own record again this year and easily won by 4 min over him and 7 over me (who i just checked on and consistently runs 5 mile road races in the high 25 minute range). So i settled into 3rd place and lost site of the 2nd place guy after about 4 min which when it is Ben Nephew is pretty good for me. Must be the shoes :) I'm running alone until mile 2.5 when there is a break in the trail and no marker. i go left and then think i should just go straight which was the right decision thankfully. i lost probably 10-15 sec there and got passed in the next minute by a tall skinny looking guy who at least looked fast. I knew after mile 3 people said you could double your time and predict your finishing time so i was thankful that it would be a lot easier. There was a beautiful view i caught out of the corner of my eye but wanted to pull back the 15 sec that i now trailed the guy in front of me. As the trail got a little technical and downhill i completely recovered and caught up and passed the guy by mile 4. then there was a dirt road which we ran evenly on and some rollers. I couldn't shake him but i wasn't red lining yet...i was hoping that the trail would steepen and get more technical....with one mile to go it did and i accelerated as fast as i could on the downhill and sprinted the next uphill to get out of site and discourage my opponent. it worked and i ended up beating him by 50 sec. it was awesome to have a runner to push you...Luckily too cause he was my age and would have gotten the medal instead of me.

after the race we were lucky enough to have a clean and cold river to clean off in. Awesome race!

hopefully tomorrow i can get a nice long run in.