Running race 3:19:00 [3] 25.7 km (7:45 / km) +440m 7:08 / km
Fools 25K in Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio. Mrs. Tiny, Hermes and I had done another one of the Western Reserve races in December and enjoyed the combination of a road trip / race so much that Mrs. Tiny and I signed up for this one as well. It's always fun to run on new trails and from experiences the past few years, know that the trails are often in better shape a few hours across the border than they are here.
Got down to Hudson, OH where we were staying in good time to do our packet pick-up at a local running store, do a little shopping and have a nice dinner at the Rosewood Grill. Checked out the local Target and got to the hotel despite our GPS' best efforts to confuse us. A 9:00 a.m. start meant a nice full night of sleep and a relaxed morning.
Temperatures were colder than expected which meant that a lot of the course was frozen, which proved a little challenging at the start of the course as we were running on previously thawed mud that had frozen in ankle-cringing ways. After the first few kms the trails got a bit better and by the end the sun had warmed things up considerably. Most of the trails were doubletrack with a few kms of fun technical singletrack thrown in. There was just enough climbing to make things interesting and lots and lots of stairs. Great aid stations and a make your own baked potato as the post-race meal!
Given the course conditions, I was really pleased with how things went. I felt great until about 20km when the legs started to feel a bit heavy. I managed my hydration and nutrition well and felt like I paced myself appropriately too. So overall, this felt like a great first outing of the season. Despite her pre-race concerns about how slow she was going to be, Mrs. Tiny had a great race as well, just missing squeaking in under 3:00. My roommate Allison, who had never run a trail race before, came down with us as well and enjoyed the experience but admitted it was the hardest race she'd ever run.