This is the second year for Howl at the Moon, but the first year for the 10k as they only had a 5k and 5 miler last year. I chose to run the 10k, and I probably would have ran a 15k if they had it on there. I've been feeling real good lately with my running and my plan, taking these last 2 weeks and next week easy before the marathon training begins. 

  I felt confident that I was of the few that knew these trails well, especially in the dark but it seems it didn't work out that way too well. 

   We started off and I knew very quickly that the runners in the front were most likely running the 5k, at least half of them and the woman. I tried to take a somewhat easy but fast pace, that didn't happen as I got caught up in the midst of speed. The first .1-.2 is through a flat grassy field (I do not excel at running these fast) then .1-.2 on an ATV trail (10 feet wide, not much roots) and it was the muddiest section but I didn't mind. Then we were up on the levee for .2 or so before hitting single track trails with lots of roots but not a lot of space to pass, I run pretty dang well on these trails, especially with roots. I let the people in front of me get some distance as I figured they were doing the 5k, one guy stayed pretty close behind me but didn't act as if he wanted to pass. 

  I hit mile 1 with an 8:46 min/mile pace, then tried to force myself to slow down some as I still had 5 miles or so to go. As we got back up on the levee headed back towards the finish, two ladies passed me (one finished the 5k) and I tried not to worry and told myself they were running the 5k..... wish I had known one of them was running the 10k. I could already tell that my garmin wasn't on track with their calculations, by the time we hit the 5k finish, my garmin said 2.8 rather than 3.1 but I tried not to fuss about it - their chronotrack said I crossed the 5k split at 26:47.

  I soon realized that one of those ladies were still in the race, but her and four guys took advantage of the grassy field... I think they ran cross country in school dang it. On the levee I began to catch up to two guys (wearing those stupid minimalist vibram thingies) who had passed me just before the 5k finish, I didn't try to get past them on the levee because I figured they would pick up the pace and I might slow down, boy was I wrong.

  As soon as they had hit the single track, they slowed down and I was on top of them. I stayed on top of them, figuring they would notice and let me pass... nope, one looked like he kept moving to the side but he was so close to the other guy who wasn't willing to move over so I couldn't pass. I slowly saw the girl in front of me disappear. I lost a minute, possibly 2 minutes being stuck behind them. My garmin hit mile 4 at a 9:54 pace (yeah I was pretty pissed off) so as soon as I saw mud, I knew they were moving to right to avoid it so I raced past them and just kept moving. 

  I tried to catch her, and I was getting close while getting further away from the two guys who killed my chance at first place female. Had the race been more on single track, at least 90% of it, I would have caught up to her. But just as I was 20 feet behind her, we came back out of the trails and onto the levee and she began to put more distance between us. We got back onto the final .5 of the race, some ATV trail and some slightly wider rather than narrow single track and I soon began catching up to her and some other guy, but it wasn't enough.

  She crossed the finish at 53:39 and I crossed at 54:15, just 36 seconds behind her. My garmin said 5.8 but just to make myself feel better I'll go with the race course of 6.2 miles.

  Crystal Evetts finished 1st in females and I finished 2nd out of 9 women in the 10k. I was the only lady in my age group of 20-29, so yeah I got first place there but really I am not proud of it. I placed 15th out of 32 finishers in the 10k, so I guess that's good. The 2 guys that had killed my good pace and chance of catching Crystal finished 55:41 and 57:17.

  Overall, I did enjoy it and if I go by their distance then I PR'd by 24 seconds or so (the 2013 YMCA 10k was 54:39). I got 2nd out of 9 women, and I pushed myself and I learned a lesson - pass people when I have the chance.

10Ks are tough, my least favorite distance. Good job on the (hopeful) PR.

Nice race. Congrats.

Thanks guys, I'm still working on my confidence/aggressive issue... I really thought those two guys were going to keep a good pace or at least one that would stay ahead of me without slowing me down.... but you know what they say about assumptions  And I guess I was also concerned that if I caught up to Crystal too soon, she would have found some energy left to leave me behind (especially on the levee). She had conserved her energy much better than I had during the first 5k split, and was smart enough to get past those 2 guys before the single track.

I am happy to say I took advantage of every winding turn and rooty section and uphill, giving myself bursts of speed to get as far away from those two guys as I could and as close to the ones in front of me as I could. Straight aways kick my ass....

Yep, and I had a good pace going on the levee too.

Great job! How I would have been pissed at those guys. It's hard enough to run as hard as you can without having to stress about people blocking your path.

LMAO thanks. 

I just envisioned you as a cartoon character runner all red-faced and snort'in and hoppin' mad running behind those two guys who would not let you pass. Congratulations on setting a 10K PR.

Tough lesson but nice job!

How was the light on the trails?  Here in Michigan the moon was bright as hell, not sure I could have race on trails under it though.

Yep, I've now got a few new bags of strategies.

LRB, the trees have all their leaves them so even the full moon couldn't shine light on those trials. Thankfully I had my headlamp with me.

B-Plus, I am beginning to really hate them too lol. There was a race last November that I ran, it had 3 distances (5k, 10k and 15k).