Training Log Archive: cmorse

short & fast it is, off to Bimblers w/ Dave S & Jaime

Warm up run on the course with Dave. Unfortunately, when I came to the first downed tree, I went to gracefully jump up and over, caught a toe and came down quite ungracefully on top of the tree - drew blood in 4 different locations and quite rattled. Shook it off and cut the warm up short.

A bit sore from my tree encounter, but ready to go at 9am. Race is advertised as 10k(ish) but Dave's GPS says 7.4 miles and it had a lot of rolling climb so I think 200m is a comfortable estimate. Lots of rocks, roots, muddy sections and twisting trails including some requiring navigation on all fours. A very enjoyable, but technical course. After my warmup issue, I started conservatively back in the pack, but soon got frustrated with the pace of those in front of me so began slowly picking off folks and moving up the field. Got in behind Marie for most of the first 4-5km, but eventually she moved ahead to win the womens race in solid fashion. I kept moving along at a good steady pace, holding a little in reserve since I knew the course was longer than 10k, but had no real notion of how long, nor had I ever run it before. Wasn't wearing a watch, so time was of no help - just went on how I felt. Continued to slowly pick folks off, mostly on gentler climbs. Finished up just over an hour in 15th spot, 3rd masters, about 10 minutes behind Wil Hawkins, who totally crushed the course... Probably 200-220 total runners. Quite happy with the result.