September has been crazy busy for me so far, but knowing that I have hernia surgery scheduled for mid-October and then a recovery period of who knows how long, I wanted to fit in at least one race before my goal 5K on October 5th to check up on where I'm at after building a base over the winter and training all summer. I found the Neponset Valley Humane Society's 5K fun run through Cool Running - only race day registration, no results from last year, no map of the course, but the date and time lined up with what my schedule would allow while giving me a few weeks before my goal race just in case the worst (injury) happened. Plus it benefits homeless cats!

Registration started at 8:30 for a 9:00 start. I got there a few minutes after 8:30, got my number, and warmed up a little. 1.3 miles with a couple strides in the parking lot, I wanted to take this non-goal-race opportunity to try a longer warmup of 2 miles but time was not on my side. There were maybe 15 or 20 people total lined up at the start, we got a brief welcome speech and description of the course through the state park trails (wait, this is a trail race? I had figured it would be at least partly on trails based on the start location but didn't know that it would be entirely on trails/dirt access roads until that moment). No official timing, just volunteers with cell phone timers yelling "GO!"

Mile 1 started downhill on a rocky trail - lots of rocks. I started off at a good clip but not overly fast so as to avoid faceplanting on the ground. The already-small crowd thinned out pretty quickly. I hung out near a guy with headphones going about my pace for a minute or so but he dropped off pretty quickly and I was on my own from there on out. I've never had to run in no man's land before and I spent almost the entire race alone this time, it was a big mental challenge but one that I feel like I met head-on. There were no mile markers, just orange arrows and cones indicating which trails to take and which fields to cross. The middle of the race was mostly flat - the stretches through fields were typically well-worn dirt paths with few rocks, stretches through the woods required you to pay attention to where you put your feet to avoid turning an ankle or falling, but other than requiring some attention the footing really wasn't bad. Would have been nice to be able to zone out but I decided I'd just consider it additional mental fortitude training. First mile was 8:12 - between just not being really familiar with all-out race effort and the rocky downhills, I didn't go out super fast. Second mile was 7:58, feeling pretty good.

The course was well-marked except for one field at around mile 2.5 - there was an arrow pointing to the right on a sawhorse, but two more sheets of orange paper scattered behind it. I loped into the middle of the field and looked around for a second before seeing the path way off to the right that the initial sign was trying to indicate. Another woman came up behind me and I pointed her in the right direction before taking off again at a sprint - I had already come this far as the first woman, I wasn't going to let anyone pass me now! Trails got a little rocky after that, I came up behind one guy who was walking. He started to run again when he heard me pass him but he didn't catch me. I wheezed my way up the same rocky hill that we ran down at the start for the last 0.15 miles or so - I had a little bit of gas in the tank still but just wanted to be DONE - and crossed the line at 24:47 by the volunteers' timers, 24:46/3.06 miles by my watch. Mile 3 was 8:04 thanks to my detour in the field, last 0.06 at 8:15 pace thanks to that hill.

Though I wasn't sure what to expect from such a small race with a course that was a total unknown to me, it really ended up being the perfect confidence boost/tune-up race. I'd been doing some of my miles on trails anyway after moving to a town full of conservation land so the transition from road to dirt wasn't a huge shock, and knowing that I could kill my A goal from the beginning of the summer, on trails and with a navigational mishap, makes me confident that I might actually see 23x a few weeks from now on a flat, fast course on roads that I've run many times before. I'm feeling good today, not sore at all (yet, anyway), so the plan now is to put in a couple more solid weeks of mileage and workouts (but continue to be cautious and take days off if I feel like I need them - can't get sidelined by injury on race day!) and see where that takes me for my race October 5th, and my first-ever 10K race October 13th. This whole year has been one long lesson in what my coach calls "taking ownership of your training" - i.e. don't let your stubbornness lead you to injury - and it's already paying dividends for me

As an aside, I spent some time talking to the volunteers before and after the race and I may end up as the race director for next year's event - they said this kind of event wasn't their forte and seemed like they'd be thrilled to have me take over if I wanted to. Going to spend some time figuring out how to advertise this thing, solicit sponsors, and maybe get an actual timing company or at the very least record/publish finish times and give out awards. Any advice on this front is completely appreciated - I have a wealth of local resources in my running club to draw from, but since this will be my first stint as an RD I'll take any and all help I can get!

Wow, you are speedy!  And on a tough-terrain course too!  Way to go!  Congrats!

Good luck with doing the RD duties for this one if you take it on for next year.

Fellow kitty-lover here; I would have signed up for that race in an instant.  Congratulations on a great race!  I totally agree that you've got 23-odd in the bag for October.  Good luck in that race and your upcoming 10k!  Any particular goal for the 10k?

Thanks music_girl and Ginny! Not totally set on a goal for the 10K yet.. McMillan equivalent would be somewhere around 50:00 depending on how my next race goes, but that's assuming optimal training for the distance, I don't know how different that is from what I've been doing all summer. I might try something like 2x2 miles at 8:00ish pace this week or next and if that feels good, I'll go out at that pace for the actual race and just try to hang on until the end.

You are doing great and have become very disciplined in your training. Congrats!

I bet it will be a better race with you as RD, Lauren.  At least the trail markings will be better, as well as the advertising.  Good luck with the October races and the surgery.

Well done, Lauren. On a rocky trail race, that is just great. You seem to be getting faster and faster so just wait until your next road race! (though trail races are fun).  Good stuff!

Thanks everyone!

For all my whining about the minutia of events I would not direct one for a million dollars.  lol

 

You should be real strong for your next race.  It will be interesting to see how your 10k goes coming so close after a 5k but just do your best.

 

It is nice to see you doing so well, congrats on this race and continued good luck!

I figured the 10K will be an automatic PR since I've never run one before - my plan for the week in between is to run a few easy miles, maybe a short workout (strides or 200s) to get my legs turning over again that Friday, and then go for it.