Race Report - MRTC Winter Cross Country Series - 3K (Read 481 times)

The Memphis Runners Track Club sponsors a winter cross-country race series that benefits a scholarship fund at the University of Memphis. (Last year, this series raised $30K for the university.) Today was the first of four races, a 3K. I was nervous for a couple of reasons: The short distance – I’m not usually feeling good until midway through my second mile and The terrain – turns out this was a trail race and I’ve only ever run on asphalt. So, it’s rained in Memphis since Friday, the sky is overcast and it’s a cool 47F. I get to the race too early, and taking some sage advice from more experienced RA folks, I do about a mile warm up however, part of my warm up is along the trail we’ll be running and I totally psyche myself out. The trail is muddy, torn up, full of wet leaves. I’m in a total panic wondering what I’ve gotten myself into! I go to the gathering point and strike up a conversation with a woman who was concerned about the terrain. We made a pact that if one of us went down, we’d help each other up. Feeling slightly better about the whole thing since there was someone more nervous than me, I go to the start. I position myself about midway through the pack and we go off on a downhill across a field. The ground is wet and the leaves made it really slippery. We take a right around some trees and that’s where it started to get interesting. We go into the woods and the trail narrows to about two people wide and it’s a mud pit. The footing is tricky with tree roots and fallen trees. At one point, there is a tree laying across the trail and we come to a bunched up walk as people made their way over it. At about three quarters of a mile in, I realized I was having a blast. Stomping through puddles, jumping over tree roots, and slopping through the mud. The path opened up and I was able to pass a few people. The crowd really thinned out (probably because so many people were ahead of me) and I was really enjoying the run. We came out of the woods, and had a half mile left to the finish. There was an encouraging crowd through this stretch and I was able to pick up the pace some. The time on my garmin was 20:44, 11:20 pace which I’m really pleased with considering the terrain and slow downs on the narrow parts. Hopefully, the official times will be posted later tonight. Overall, I loved the race and had a ball. I’m definitely going to seek out some more trails! Robin

Hi Robin, Well done! Sounds like it was exciting and fun!

Congrats, Robin! Glad you had a good time as well

Well done! And considering the terrain and the mud, a very nice time. Are all the races in this series trail races? Are they hilly? I'm curious what you would have done on a flat road course.

At about three quarters of a mile in, I realized I was having a blast. Stomping through puddles, jumping over tree roots, and slopping through the mud. ... I’m definitely going to seek out some more trails! Robin

Exactly! Glad you enjoyed it...nice report. Congrats on a great first trail run! Lynn B