A little over a year ago — right after the 2014 race — registration opened for this year’s Paine to Pain Trail Half Marathon.  It was open for a week before closing down again until April, and it was stupidly cheap that week — $30 for a half marathon is a little outrageous.  So you can understand how I might have spontaneously signed up for it.  And then it slipped to the back of my mind.

This race was actually on my bucket list.  But it was more in a “someday I’ll do that” way, not one of those things I really thought I ever would do.  Because I hardly ever run on trails.  (I seem to do a lot of trail races for someone who doesn’t train on them, don’t I?!)

A couple of months ago, I realized that this race was imminent.  Cue the what was I thinking?! mental loop.  That got really loud when Hurricane Joaquin threatened.  I shouldn’t be surprised it rained for days — it’s Sukkos, after all — but this rain was crazy.  So much so, I feared losing a shoe in deep mud puddles, and ordered gaiters from Running Warehouse using overnight shipping.

All that hoopla was kind of for naught.  By race day, it was not raining; it hadn’t really rained much the day before, either, and word was that the trail was in good shape.  It was also cold.  Good running weather — around 50° — but that’s unbearable to me when I’m not running.  And it was windy.  Thankfully, there are trees to shield us from that!

Still, I changed my primary goal from “sub-2:00” to “don’t fall,” because I’m actually not a total idiot, and keeping my fragile bones intact is more important to me.

I drove up to New Rochelle, following behind Oren because even with my GPS (or should I say… especially with my GPS), I don’t trust myself to not get hopelessly lost.  Everything ran very smoothly — bib pickup was a snap, and there weren’t ridiculously long lines at the porta potties.  (If those could be set up somewhere so that they’re not canted backwards down a hill, it would be nice.)  The only complaint I have is that I got all excited when I heard about gender-specific tech shirts… and it turns out that the women’s shirts are more like kids’.  The small fit, but only if I wanted a crop top.  The medium is still kind of short, but all loose and baggy.  Pity, because it’s a cool shirt.  Oh, well.

I was in wave 2, so I got to hear the musket fire twice.  It nearly scared me to death the first time; I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t expect it.

Off we went… up a nice steep hill (road) to get to the trail.  I can see this is going to be a lot of fun.  My calf was really bugging me at first — it’s been giving me trouble for the past week.  I guess I did something to it during the Bronx 10 Mile.  But whatever it is, running makes it feel better, not worse; it was okay after a couple of miles.  My knees, not so much … they were both screaming bloody murder.  And I couldn’t find ice after the race, so I might be paying for that tomorrow.

This does not even come close to doing the course justice.  Maybe it’s because I’m accustomed to road racing, and technical trails make an already challenging route even more so; but this was really freaking hard.

There weren’t many mile markers — the first one appeared at the 10K mark.  Which was mile 6 on my watch.  Every trail race I’ve ever done has measured short on my watch, and that makes for a nice change from a road race… because for once, my official pace will be faster than the pace on my watch!  (I think there were markers at mile 7.5-ish, mile 11-ish, and last mile-ish.  And yes, that’s what the signs said.)

Supposedly, the first half of the race is much more technically difficult.  And yes, it was.  I’m not a big fan of steep downhills, not only because there are usually corresponding steep uphills, but because I feel very out of control on them.  Keeping an eye out for rocks and tree roots made it even more “fun.”  A guy in my wave twisted his ankle about two miles in, so I was really trying to be careful since I did not care to have the same thing happen to me.

Since the second half was allegedly easier than the first, I was not very pleased to encounter a monster hill around mile 9.  I was so done with those at that point, I walked up part of it.  It was probably for all of five seconds, but it’s the only point during the race at which I walked.  Unless you count two stream crossings, but I don’t, because running over slick rocks?  No thanks.

Turns out it was a good thing I didn’t really need the gaiters (I wanted them mostly to keep my shoes on, not to keep detritus out)… because around mile 11, the strap on the left one worked its way back over my heel, leaving the whole contraption around my ankle.  Which was a minor annoyance, but even though I knew by then that I was going to reach my goal, I didn’t want to waste time stopping to fix it.  Considering I didn’t need it, and all.

The finish was on the track of New Rochelle High School.  (Where there were showers available after the race!  And the halls smelled like chlorine because of the pool.  I adore that smell.)  It was nice to be able to run it in fast.  If, you know, my legs had the pep left in them for that, which I’m not sure they did.

Useless on trails, of course.  But here are the splits, anyway.  Unofficially, 13 miles in 1:52:38, 8:40/mi.

Officially, 13.1 miles in 1:52:36, 8:36/mi.  192/699 OA, 26/245 F, and 13/68 F30-39.

Since I don’t do trail races that often, I shouldn’t look at McMillan’s predictions, but I did so anyway out of curiosity… and either Van Cortlandt is a harder course, or I don’t perform as well there for some reason.  (That reason might be all the walking.)  The equivalent 10K is 50:30, and the equivalent 4 mile is 31:36.  My trail PRs in those distances are, respectively, 56:45 and 32:25.  Yikes.

But I’m not unhappy with this race; I did get my sub-2:00, and I did not fall!  (Thank heavens.)  And the medal is pretty cool — that little colonial man in the middle?  He spins.

You are awesome!!

Congrats on meeting your goal!  Too bad the shirt didn't fit, but for $30 maybe they couldn't afford real women's shirts!

Your picture is pretty cute - love the little guys running across the background.  That's a keeper.

Congrats on meeting both your goals. I find women's tech shirts are really hit or miss. One RM company here has really comfortable shirts, but the women's ones are toddler cut or something, because an XL is snug. Usually I get a medium or small.

Excellent job :-)  Good job on not falling!

Sub 2:00 and no fall on the trail is sweet.  And, that is a killer medal.  Nice race!

Always encouraging to hear someone is running a HM over rocks and hills, and doing it a half hour faster than I run a HM on smooth and flat asphalt.

Congrats

ps:  Glad you are not unhappy.

Thanks, guys!!  I kind of like not being unhappy with race results... hoping that stretches on into my half marathon this weekend.

And yes, I can see how trail racing can be addictive.  (But then, apparently I'm addicted to road racing, so...)