Draper Trails Day 15 Mile Race.
My wife wanted to do a trail race, so I signed up for the 15 thinking I could get in a good workout and a long run all in one. My original plan was to run 2 hours today, so I figured I'd race the 15 miles and then add on whatever distance was necessary to reach two hours. How plans change....
The first three plus miles of the race were uphill. And I mean UP hill. The trail kept winding up a canyon, up and up and up. I didn't have a watch on and there were no mile markers, but I'd guess I was running 10:00 pace at best. Maybe even closer to 12:00 pace at times. To say the least, it was a b****.
The next 2-3 miles were down hill on a dirt road. I took the lead here and ran pretty hard downhill (yeah my legs are still feeling that). Anyway, here I probably ran closer to 5:15-5:30 pace for a couple miles. Note: This was the only easy part of the race.
After the 6 mile loop, the course was out 4.5 and then back. These 4.5 were very difficult. Tough footing, lots of hills, lots of turns. No fun. Anyway, at least I didn't have a watch. I almost got lost a few times, but made it out to the 15 mile turnaround and headed back. The last 4.5 I honestly jogged easy. My legs were hurting and I was winning by about 10 minutes. I had no idea what my time was or how long I had been running at this point -- no watch. Up and down back through the trails dodging oncoming runners and I made it back to the finish. I was guessing I'd be over 7:30 pace, so I was figuring about 1:55ish for the time. I was excited only that I would be close to 2 hours.
Then I crossed the finish line in 2:06. Almost 8:30 pace. Yikes. I can't say enough about the difficulty of the course. I didn't have a bad day. In fact, I ran some parts extremely hard. At least I got my 2 hours in.
Oh, and I'll never run that 15 mile again.
Steve | 