Racing Sans Bike

A few weeks ago, I decided to pass up one of my favorite MTB races and do a trail run instead due to some work travel. It was difficult decision since I really enjoyed the Landmine race last year. Plus, it's actually one of the few MTB races that's relatively close to home. Regardless, there was no way I was going to make it work and so opted for the Run Like A Girl trail run in Great Brook Farm. And part of me was secretly excited - it would be my first running race in two years. And it was on dirt.

The night before the race I listened to the remnants of Hurrican Hanna pound on the roof. I thought this could make for an epic race with huge mud puddles. The forecast called for continued showers in the morning. Unlike riding, I actually enjoy running in the rain so now I was doubly thrilled. The drawback was this meant it could be somewhat slippery and treacherous for S. I really didn't want to see her re-injure her ankle or knee, especially since the race had been my idea.

Woke up Sunday morning to no rain and sunny skies. Nice! We packed up the Fat A$$ with a cooler of post-race tailgating beverages and headed over to Great Brook Farm. You know you've been racing on bikes more than on foot when you think, "Which side do they want us to pin the number on?" Quickly recovered from that brain freeze, pinned the number on in good runner fashion and waited for the race to start.

I didn't have any expectations for the race. Only goal was to finish and hopefully not get tripped up by a rock or root and face plant. Lining up for the start, I had little idea what pace I would be running and so wasn't clear how far up front I should seed myself. I opted for about 1/3 of the way back in the field and hoped I could pass a bunch of people and get out of the crowd quickly.

The first mile was on a double-track trail. I had some difficulty getting into a steady pace due to the field funneling down from the wide start to the narrower trail. Fortunately, the rain had left some big puddles (but for the most part the trails were fairly dry) and for some odd reason, the other women chose to run AROUND the puddles. This caused some crowding along the edges of the trail but left the middle wide open. So I felt like Moses parting the great sea of runners, ran directly up the middle of the trail, through the puddles and incredibly, got angry shouts from other runners who were splashed as a result. IT'S A TRAIL RACE, PEOPLE!

By the end of the first mile and thanks to the puddles, I finally was able to settle into a pace. The second mile was in the wide open fields with the super warm sun beating down. Throw in the muggy air and I was praying we'd head back into the shade of the woods soon. There were some small rolling hills through here and I used those as opportunities to pick off a few more runners. Once in the woods, I picked up the pace a little more as I started to cool off. By now I was looking for the water stop as we were told it was at mile 3. Looking at my watch, I'm thinking I'm running SUPER slow. Geez...have I lost that much running fitness?!?!?! What a sucky time!! By now, I'm on a very narrow single track trail, getting anxious that I'm running so slowly and now doubly annoyed since it's difficult to pass folks. Finally, we hit the water stop. Grab two glasses - one to pour on my head, one to drink. I start thinking to myself that we can't be far from the finish but that doesn't make sense - we still have two miles to go. But my memory of moutain biking on these trails doesn't jive with that. Weird. But sure enough, around the pound, down a hill and splash through one big puddle and there's the finish line. Guess they lied about how far in the water stop was.

All in all, felt great to be in a running race again. My time was decent (10th in my age group) considering I haven't been training at all and my legs felt great the next day. S also had a great race with a much faster time than expected despite hobbling on a semi-fused ankle. And one perk running races have over cycling, cool schwag. We all got technical fabric tshirts, regular tshirts, lots of great post race food and S even snagged us a couple of technical running caps. :)

Later, we made our own fun in the parking and had a great time relaxing with some post-race pumpkin ales AND enjoyed a belated birthday celebration - more cupcakes!