Posts Tagged ‘Trail Nut 10k’

This may sound confusing, but to me it makes sense — some of my top racing moments of 2011 may not show up in a later post with top running moments of the year, or some of these moments may rank differently. The Baltimore Marathon, for example, was definitely one of the biggest highlights for me — ever — but from a racing perspective, it’s not my No. 1 moment of the year. Read on …

5. Trail race + age group award + running with my son
In May I was very humbled by running the Mountain Junkies Trail Nut 10k trail race in Bedford. That experience was one that reminded me how challenging running on multiple surfaces really is.

This race was made special in that I was 2nd in my age group and my son wanted to run with me after – a perfect way to cool down. Winning a free pair of Injinji socks added to that great day.

4. Sub 7-minute final mile, Percival’s Island 5-Miler
The fact that I set a PR in this race is not the reason this is here – the final mile of that race is. As I think back to that day, I’m still not sure why I couldn’t pick up the pace in the first four miles, nor do I know where I found the motivation to have one of the best miles ever in a race. I do know, though, that it’s worth this list.

3. PR in the Baltimore Marathon
Here’s where this list gets tricky. Coming back this year after an injury and running in the marathon may very well be my best running highlight this year (that’s for another list before the end of the year), but when it comes to racing, it’s not what stands out as the best moment.

Here’s why: as I near the finish of 8 years of running, I have to think about where I started and where I am now. When it comes to racing, the marathon is not where my roots stand. Yes, it is very important to me that I ran 26.2 miles and was not injured afterward, but as I allow hindsight to tell the story, the Baltimore Marathon was not the best racing highlight of my year. Considering that I ran 13 races this year (also a PR), No. 3 isn’t so bad.

2. Destroying my 5k PR
In July I set out for a PR in the 5k at a race in Ohio. It was the first time in a while that I’ve approached a 5k with a “PR or go home” mentality. While I did set a PR that day, the next month I once again set my PR in a 5k (the Fab 5k, another Mountain Junkies race) with a time of 21:52. I have shaved 49 second off my 5k PR this year — more than 16 seconds per mile.

1. Getting back to the start line
Nearly 5 months after being injured after the Richmond Marathon, I went back to the River City for my first race of the year – the Monument Avenue 10k. Not only was getting to the start line a huge deal, I also managed to get a PR by 3 seconds with a well-executed negative split. There’s no doubt in my mind that day was my greatest race moment this year.

It’s so easy to get carried away with thoughts after a race or a different experience. After Saturday’s Trail Nut race, my thoughts are all over the place.

About a year ago, I posted this video to Facebook and recently posted it to YouTube from a run on Sharp Top mountain in Bedford County:

I’ve watched this video a few times today because I love my voice so much I need to be reminded of how much I was in love with the trails and mountain running just a year ago. The only problem is I only did a handful of runs like that. (If you happen to be a longtime reader, yes, I did blog about that run last year HERE.)

As I look back at my running over the years, even before this blog, I think it’s no coincidence that my injuries have come after many months of just running on roads. After Saturday, I realized that the mix of the two may be very beneficial to me.

Prior to the start of this blog 4 years ago, I ran trails quite a bit, hitting them at least once a week. I had ZERO injuries until I trained for a 10 miler in mid-2006 after I drifted away from trails. While it wasn’t all that much, the first half of last year I had a trail run at least once a month – my injury in the fall came after 4 months completely on roads.

The learning experiences from this past weekend aren’t limited to my post from Sunday. I realized while running Saturday how different my form was on the trails because it HAD to be. As I continue to work on stopping so much heel striking, I noticed how it was nearly impossible to heel strike even if I tried.

I even analyzed this inset photo from the race, blew up the area of my feet and noticed that the next step I was going to take was not going to be a heel strike.

The great thing about this photo is that it was a fairly flat portion of the race – whatever I’m doing to make these changes in my cadence is working.

The desire to run on trails more is also important to the “having fun” aspect of running. In my video above, I had a blast on that run up Sharp Top mountain. In Saturday’s race, I had the most fun I’ve had in years. I still think about how much fun a mountain adventure was back in January 2010.

At this stage of my running and what I feel like is a continued comeback, I have to keep mixing it up. It’s important, I think, to change things, to challenge myself and to keep having fun. If I’m going to have a stronger half of 2011 than the first half – which was my main 2011 goal – all of these things have to happen.

My son wanted to run soooooo bad after Saturday’s race, so I took him along for a bit of a cool down:

This is, by far, my newest favorite running photo (I’m not sure I actually had a favorite until now). Just a week removed from his first race, he really wants to do another one. I certainly won’t be holding him back.

I also won a door prize - a pair of Injinji socks to my growing collection.

My first trail race in nearly 4 years has left me with not much to say. Running yesterday’s Trail Nut 10k in Bedford was somewhat spontaneous — I did blog about it the other day and discussed it on Twitter a bit — but I honestly didn’t decide until late Friday that I’d do it.

I thought a lot this week about the bitter taste of last year’s DNF in the half marathon of the Trail Nut event, even though that was really out of my control. At some point this week I realized I HAD to do this race.

What transpired was the most fun I’ve ever had in a race. It was so awesome, humbling, crazy, exhilarating … there are so many adjectives that I can’t even think of to describe the race. In the 56:27:16 that it took to do this, I learned so much, as well as had many things about trail racing reemphasized:

• Go as fast as possible to get to the trail head. There was a little more than a quarter mile through grass, up a hill to the trail head. I learned that in my DNF last year, but I really used my climbing skills to pass about 10 people. Had I not done that, I might not be nearly as happy about this race.
• Pacing is pretty much impossible due to the single-track nature, especially to this race. Fortunately I got behind someone that was going a speed I liked and then passed her when the trail opened up a couple of miles in going up a hill.
• “Pass to the left” is an important phrase. I think I had just 3-4 people pass me, but that statement was so crucial 4 miles or so into the race as I caught the tail end of the half marathoners who started 10 minutes before us. It’s also important to know that sometimes on a trail, passing just cannot happen until things flatten out or the trail opens up a bit.
• It’s OK to power walk the hills. That’s true of any race, but there were a couple of times in which I was actually slower “running.” So I stopped the motion and effort of running and did more of a hiking motion.

I felt like I was learning as I was racing. Using all these things led to finishing second out of seven in my age group (the race winner was actually in my age group) — my first age group award since 2007 — and placing 28th out of 96 runners. I still don’t have the right words to explain what this race means to me. I still need to let it sink in a bit.

Here’s a look at the course on the Garmin and elevation profile: