Race Report Penny Lane Trail Race (Read 70 times)

Penny Lane Trail Run 25K, Los Alamos, CA on 2/2/13 

The race was scheduled to start at 8:00.  It was being held on a private property (a working ranch) in Los Alamos.  I got there about 7:40.  There were lots of cars and people milling around.    When I checked in at a little shack, the person giving me information asked me if I was ready to run.  I responded something vague like,  I hope so.  He said, “You’ll be ready when those bulls are chasing you.  There are some honoree bulls on the trail.”  I noticed that they were putting out lots of goodies-dounuts and bread—just the stuff I like.  I went to the porta pottie, adjusted my MP3 player, chatted a minute, and it was time for announcements.

The RD tried to explain all the different streamers.  I was confused, but the people around me helped me understand the loops.  It was really nice, because I would do 3 different loops, all ending at the start point, aka porta potties.  The RD warned us that the route was much hillier than he had originally thought and that we would be out there all day.  He also said that the courses were all a little long.  The 10K was about 7 miles; the 25K was almost 17, and the 50 was long, too.  I didn’t care.  Noone cared.  It was a happy crowd.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  I was cold standing there in shorts and a short sleeve, but it wasn’t really cold—maybe 50 degrees.  The race started with a shotgun fire from the biggest shotgun I’ve every seen.

The terrain was beautiful green rolling hills with narrow dirt and grass paths.  The first loop was about 8 miles.   The peaks were steep.  I walked/ran like everyone.  I took my cues from the other participants, since I hadn’t run anything like this before.   We were told that there would be water every 3 miles, but the volunteers brought fruit, GU’s, homemade cookies, M & M’s, everything you could think of.  I stopped and had fruit and water at the first water stop.  The second stop, I had a GU & water.  Normally, I won’t even drink water until at least 6-8 miles, but I since this was my first trail run, I wanted to try everything.  I was really concerned about getting lost, but the trail was marked much better than most of the road races that I have done.  It was almost impossible to screw up.

I finished the first loop, went to the porta pottie and got directions for the second loop.  The second loop went around a berry patch.  It wasn’t very scenic, but it was flat and short.  As I was getting directions for my third loop, the RD, told me to hustle because, I was only a minute behind the leader.  He should have never said that.  Up until that point, I was running hard, but it was really just all fun, but then, something snapped.  The road race mentality took over before I could reign it in.  I ran as hard as I could and overtook who I thought was in the lead.  I held the woman off for a few miles, but she overtook me, probably with ease.  With defeat, I laid off the throttle.  I couple of other people passed me.  I tried to make it a race, but I knew I was beat, so I wasn’t giving it my absolute all.  It wouldn’t have mattered what I did or where my head was at.  These women were way better conditioned than me, and would beat me.  I knew that going in, but I forgot

At the finish, there was soup, bread and pastries.

It was an awesome race.  I had a great time, but I am SORE.  My calfs and my quads are ridiculously sore.  Two days later, my quads are better, but my calfs are still sore.

Video link:  http://youtu.be/vUMeyt12cW4

Wow - looks like a beautiful course. And what an awesome trail debut for you!

Congratulations!!

Linda, nice report! Love the pics!  Sounds like you did great in your debut trail race.

Congrats. Wow! great course.