I was excited to run this race for the 2nd time this year.  Then at work, a new project popped onto the radar that required me to work 12 hour days for 11 days straight...scheduled to run through the weekend of the race.  I was pretty disappointed to have to scrap it.  As luck would have it, the project got delayed a week, which freed up my schedule...back on!  The only issue was that I had ran 25 miles the previous weekend (before I knew about the project delay) and my recovery runs proved that I was in pretty bad shape...my legs felt shot.  After some deliberating, I signed up for the race yesterday

The Lost Brook Trail Race is a fundraiser for a local nature preserve and is an absolutely 0 frills kind of event.  About 100 people turn up for it to run either the 5 mile (1 loop) or 10 mile (2 loops) option, which share a start.  The course is about 99% single track with plenty of twists, turns, rocks, roots, and puddles, but is relatively flat.  I ran the course a lot last year, but the 5 mile loop got pretty old after a while.  There are not many trail runners in the area, so the crowd is largely made up of road runners who want to support the nature preserve or who want to play on the trails for a day.

The race started at 9:00 sharp.  At the start, I fell in around 10th place, but moved up pretty quickly when we went up a hill.  2 guys went out ahead of everyone and had dropped the rest of us by the 1/2 mile point.  I sat in the back of the chase pack and rested.  The guy I was following seemed to pull distance on me whenever the course was flat, but I was quickly right behind him after anything technical.  I followed him through the chase pack until I was third back.  At the 2.5 mile point we approached the first aid station.  I was carrying a handheld so I didn't bother stopping, but the other 2 did.  The fellow who was leading the pace group tried to stick with me, but I pushed it for about 1/2 mile and dropped him out of sight.

With about 1.5 miles to go in the 1st loop, an official looking guy told me I was about 1:45 out of second place, about 5 mins out of 1st.  1:45 was something I could make up, so I set out to do just that.  I finished the first loop and headed out for my 2nd.  This was a lonely 5 miles.  I kept pushing it, because even if I couldn't catch up to 2nd I could at least improve on my time from last year.  I was kind of bummed out thinking that my #10 fastest time on the course at ultrasignup.com would disappear (It's a small thing but I'm kinda attached to it).

When I got to the official looking guy again (mile 8.5), he told me "Oh, I guess the other guys were 5 milers"..."I'm first?" I asked?  "Oh shit!"  I checked behind me, then took off.  The last 1.5 miles all I could think was "I can't let someone take this from me".  I rounded the last turn and ran over the line.  The RD/scorer confirmed I was 1st place 10 miler!  I think my finish time was about 1:15:00, about 45 seconds slower than last year.  2nd, 3rd, and 4th had a nice race to the finish, but they were a solid 3 minutes behind me.  I spent the whole race chasing after phantoms.

I'm psyched to get the win...I knew the fast guys would all sleep in or get sick at some point!

Nice job.  Chasing phantoms worked for you.

I'll be out of town so will miss the Ironmaster this year (the RD is a bit upset since I usually mark a good part of the course).  I bet you can improve on last year's placement now that you know the course and climbs.

Wow, that's fast! Congrats!

Wow, that's fast! Congrats!

I had to do the math, and you're right- that's fast!  Congrats

1st place, that's great, congratulations!

Super speedy indeed.  Not sure I could run 10 road miles in that time.

GL at Iron Master's.  You will do great.  I had considered entering one of the shorter distances just to get out there but I am not running at all recently so not even worth it right now.

Jamezilla:  great job on the run.  Congratulations.

Side note to the side note side note; sometimes the volunteers don't have a clue.  (Hey don't get me wrong, I'm glad they are there and thank them all the time, but sometimes they are simply doing their own job and don't have info on the "big picture".)

Congratulations, great run and speedy fast! Awesome to win the race!