I raced twice this weekend, a trail run and a criterium (or "crit"). It was structured to be a pretty decent weekend, with the trail run and a few extra warm-up and cool-down miles to take place of my longer training run for the week and the crit to be followed by a longer ride to take place of my longer training ride. This of course, was all planned before I came down with a nasty head and chest cold on Monday. After taking 4 days off of training, I still figured I'd be well rested and ready to at least give a 75-80% race level effort and have fun.
Hurt the Dirt Trail Run 10k "Plus"
I signed up for this race through work, as one of our brands, Patagonia Footwear, was the title sponsor. In addition to a reduced entry fee, the marketing team gave us a free pair of trail running shoes to represent the brand. Loving a great deal, I couldn't turn it down. So I picked these shoes. Laced 'em up, and hoped for a nice morning of training followed by a harder bike ride.
The race started 1.3 miles from the parking lot, so I used the distance as my warm-up. I wanted to run 8-10 miles anyway. This was a comfortable pace and helped me loosen up. But after standing around for 30 minutes waiting for our heat to start, I must have tightened up a bit. I lined up near the front as no one seemed to be interested in doing so, took off at the gun, and found myself running comfortably in 5th or 6th position. This is where the competitive side can take over, and it did. The first mile went down easy, then the second. I passed two people and was in 4th place, pacing on the heels of 3rd place. Mile three went by and still cruising. Somewhere between mile 3-4 my legs started to tighten up. I took a PowerBar gel that I was carrying with me and it seemed to ease things up for a bit.
For anyone who hasn't gone mountain biking or trail running in West Michigan, let me give you an idea of how many twist and turns and small rises and downhills there are on the trails we were running. This will preface the remainder of the race. The green highlighted line is the trail we ran on. Aside from perhaps a mile, the course is never flat nor straight. This is much harder on your legs than running on a road or path!
Back to the run. I hit the second to last straight section and had to stop running to stretch my legs out. I injured myself running through this type of issue last summer and really had that in mind as my legs started to cramp up. Top 3 at a small trail race is not the consolation prize I want in exchange for dealing with another injury. I was clearly dehydrated from being sick, so I decided to back of and jog what I could, walk what I couldn't, and stretch out as much as possible. Surprisingly, I was still in the top ten when we made the last half mile, but at list point all I could do was walk. I got a few hundred yards to the finish and jogged in, went straight to the gatorade and bananas, then off to stretch and compose myself.
After I loosened up, I decided I would try to jog back to my car. I felt okay and thought the flat road might be tolerable. Thank goodness I was right. I made it back at a slow pace, but it was comforting that I could still run. When I got hurt last year, I couldn't even walk. I don't know what place I came in, but I'm glad that I pulled myself out of the running before doing any serious damage.
For you data geeks, here's the garmin file on strava.
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