Well it was prefect conditions for a crazy trail run! First of all it rained all night and then continued to rain throughout the race and after. The trail is newly cut and pretty rough anyway, and the mud made it quite dangerous. This is the first race of a trail series, the 10k and 1/2 marathon will be later in the summer. I warmed up 1.3 miles with Tim before and pretty much was soaked before the race.
There were two dudes and a Riverton Track kid that looked pretty serious. I have learned over the years that sometimes you need to pick your battles, this was not one that was worth it to me, I will pick them for the 10k and 1/2 marathon instead. I just didn't want to get hurt!
Those 3 took off at the start and I let them. I figured it would be almost impossible to catch them and it was. First mile I was slipping and sliding allover the place (8:45). The next mile wasn't any better, not to mention the mud was 2 inches thick at the bottom of my shoes. We turned around at the summit which was half way. It is about a 500 foot climb up the switch backs to the top. At the top I was a distant 4th with no one too close behind. The next 1/2 mile was crazy going down the slick muddy trail and passing by the runners coming up with all the rough trail and roots and rocks. 2nd mile was (8:18). The next mile we were still going by people and switch backs were nuts, I almost went down 10 or more times. One time I did go down but caught myself luckly. I coudn't gain anything on the guys in front, who were struggling like me, until .25 to go when we hit some gravel trail before the last small single track before the 50 meters of pavement at the finish. I started to roll on the other 3, but needed another half a block to catch them. 3rd mile was (6:51) and the last .2 was 1:02. I just missed the kid and 2nd place guy at the end, and took 4th. Not too worried about the other races with those 3 though. To put this in perspective I ran the course on Monday when it was in the high 70s and the two miles before I had climed about 500 feet. My splits were 8:34, 7:10, and 5:55, so 2.5-3 minutes faster than the race today. Crazy run and pretty dangerous and scary, but still fun. Nice to run a race again, even if I didn't run that fast.
Cooled down a mile and then got a nice pair of compression socks for the divison win. Everyone was soaked and freezing at the end though. I had to go home and spray off with the hose (which actually felt warm because I was so cold) before I took my 30 minute shower to warm up. So much for yard work and BBQs today, eh!
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