Saturday was my first race as I enter a year of trail running. The race we chose was a local race put on by a very reputable race director, Keira Henniger. We signed up for the 30K because it fit perfect into my training plan.
I was very nervous the night before. This is a new arena for me and I wasn’t 100% what to expect. Night before I laid out my kit. I had picked up a pair of arm warmers from Coeur Sports which were way better than I had expected! Not only did they have thumb holes they also had little mittens to cover my fingers if it was colder. Alarm was set for 5:30 AM and off to sleep I went!
The race started promptly at 7:30 AM. The course was three 10K loops all over Paramount Ranch. I really wasn’t sure what the course would be like but I didn’t expect it to be as hard as it was.
It was a lot of up and down and very little flat. Plus, we had had a fair amount of rain over the week so it was pretty muddy. But what made it hard was the whole course was pretty much runnable. None of the climbs were so hard that you had to walk the whole thing so you just pushed through the whole course. My goal was to run each lap as even as I could. I wasn’t going to worry about my place in the race until the last lap. I knew that if I could run each lap as close to even as possible I would have a good race.
Mission accomplished! As you an see above I ran all three loops with only a 2 minutes spread! (see the Garmin Data here) Plus, I ran the last loop the fastest! I was so pleased with my run. I worked really hard the last loop to catch a couple people I had been watching during the race. Once I caught the first one I just kept looking ahead to the next. This really helped me focus on consistent running and kept me from easing off on the hills. I found that most of the other runners were walking the hills so I made it my goal to run as much of the hills as possible.
When I finished and finally caught my breath Stuart and I went to look at how I did…4th 😦 I really wanted 3rd. But I knew I had run a really smart race and had done all I could. I was happy!
We got home after a smoothie and picking up the kids. I had developed quite rat’s nest in my hair while I ran! I will be running with braids from here on out! Yikes!
Today I finally found the complete results on line and got a nice surprise! I actually got 3rd after all and was the 6th overall woman! WOOT!
I am so glad that I have two more races on my calendar that will be run by Keira. The race was wonderfully run and it is pretty cool to have the race director cheering for you when you come through! Also, it is great to be running races with Stuart! This race was great because we crossed paths a few times. It is always great to see a familiar face and get a few words of encouragement from someone you love!
See Becca Try to Tri 