Running race (Trail) 1:12:45 [4] 12.15 km (5:59 / km) +877m 4:24 / km
I probably wouldn't have done this race so soon after pushing so hard at the Ancaster Old Mill 10K, but I'd bought the event entry at a silent auction fundraiser awhile ago. So I decided not to race all out today. I just treated it like a training run with faster runners. Normally, if I'm trying to race, I keep looking for pony tails ahead of me, then I see if I can catch them. If any woman who looks my age dares to pass me, I accelerate if I've got anything left. But today I set different goals:
1) Run the entire race, including all the steep, twisty single track. ---> I almost succeeded at this, but there was one very steep hill where I came up behind a line of walkers on a narrow trail - it looked like a photo of the Chilkoot Pass in the Gold Rush. Running up that hill would have been hard enough, but to go onto uneven off-trail terrain to pass all those people... well, I just didn't have it in me. I did sprint up the final part when there were only a few people left to pass.
2) Reach the 6K marker without wishing the race was over. I'm good at pacing for long-term endurance, but not good at pacing for "sprints" like this, so in both the Ancaster and 5 Peaks Albion races, I pushed too hard early on and spent the last few km wishing I was at the finish. ---> I succeeded at this. The second half of the race felt pretty good and my splits for the 1st half and 2nd half were identical.
3) Don't get poison ivy - which was everywhere! ---> It's only 30 hrs ago, so it's too early to know whether I escaped.
4) Run in difficult technical terrain without my Active Ankle to improve my proprioception - and don't twist the darned ankle again. ---> Successful.
It was a beautiful day for running; much of the race course passed through cool, shady forest. Since I didn't want to push hard, I made sure to let gravity work for me when it could, going fast on the downhills. I had no trouble ignoring what other runners did, since my goals for the race had nothing to do with them. So it was just plain fun!
Compared to 5 Peaks Albion, my pace was slower - but I think most people went a little slower, since the course travelled more single track. Compared to last year's 5 Peaks Durham race, my pace was 15 sec/km faster, which is cool, because I pushed harder last year (and - sigh - weighed less). I was 10th of 38 in my age group today, finishing in the top 20% of women overall. That's good for me.
Great race for 'Bent at 55 min. Winning time of 45 min was set by orienteer Laszlo Orosz. 'Bent had no nav errors this year! (The course is fully marked, but last year didn't go so well for 'Bent.) We were excited for our high school adventure racer friends. One of them won the age 15-19 category in the 5K event, and the other won his category in our 12K event, finishing 7th overall of 306 racers! Those kids are awesome!!