mudder (Read 438 times)

Annapolis's answer to DC's Cherry Blossom festival and race is the Cherry Pit 10-miler. I don't know how long they've been doing it, but I talked to one person this morning at the starting line who said that he had run this race for 30 years, and it's always been the same course. Not this time. The race has been in the works pretty much since last year's race, and maybe earlier. But Friday afternoon, the local running club, the Annapolis Striders www.annapolisstriders.org got a call from the state highway administration saying that they had changed their mind, and the race could not be run on state roads. (This is the second time this has happened in several months.) The race officials scrambled to come up with a revised course. It wasn't a great course, (the usual course is beautiful), but they can hardly be faulted. One interesting part was that it included 0.6 miles of wooded trails out at mile 2 and again back at around 7.5 miles. It included a spot where you have to cross a small stream. The forecast called for rain the day before, but that rain stayed away until 2 AM the morning of the race. (I woke up and thought "s#|+.") It rained through the night, and throughout the race. Heading out was a pain because two miles wasn't enough time for the field to spread out. There was no passing to be done, even when people in front of me were walking, and especially at the stream crossing, which was now closer to a river crossing. Right before the crossing was about a quarter mile of downhill that I knew would be much worse going up on the way back. After 7.5 miles, I headed back into the woods. I nearly lost my shoe in the mud with my first step, but managed to keep it on my foot. A half mile later, I misstepped into the "stream," but with the other foot. I was pretty wet anyway, but now I had one mud-caked shoe and one that was soaked through. Then I began working my way up that hill, and true to my prediction, it was much worse. A steady stream of water flowed where the trail had been. At times it was only nine or so inches wide, but in many spots it was several feet across. The mud was extremely slippery, so that my feet moved perhaps three times more than the progress I made. Seeing people ahead of me slipping no matter how hard the tried to stay to one side, I figured I had nothing to lose, and so I tried running in the stream of water. It wasn't ideal, but it turned out to be the best traction available. After I came out of the woods, with two miles left to run, I felt relieved that it was almost over. This was one of the toughest runs I've done. I didn't come close to my goal of 9 minute miles, but I finished in 1:37:53, more than 7 minutes faster than my best time for 10 miles. And, happily, I have another 10-miler scheduled for later this year, so that 9-minuted-mile target still may fall. And now, my daughter and her emoticons:

Holy crow! What a challenge! And you did it. That sounded sort of fun if folks weren;t clogging the trails/rivers. I'm gonna have to check your log because with a 10-mile race you might be gaining on me! Congratulations on a different race and a great time!

Kathy, You reminded me of the most important part. It was FUN!! And it was really memorable. It's more than a day later, and I'm still cold--I even loft work early because I feel kinda broken today--but once I'm fully recovered, this is one of the races I'll remember. And absolutely, thanks to the volunteers! Running in that stuff is tough, but just standing still in it, I don't think I could do it. Gig PS--Crabby, you don't have much to worry about for a while. I've got a 5K coming up for Earth Day, a 2-miler in May, a 10K in June, and a one-miler in July. It's all about the speedwork until later in the summer. But I plan to come on strong in the second half of the year. You won't know what hit you. (Actually, you will. It'll be me.)