Notes
Leg 18 of Wawayanda Trail Relay. REALLY slow due to darkness and the light drizzle. This got very, very technical at a couple points. Also didn't help that I was running at 3:35 AM.
Woof. This was a brutal loop. The first three miles were pretty open, not too technical, and a bit rolling. Had the entire loop been at that level, I would have been fine. However, at mile 3, it (a) started drizzling (b) got real technical and (c) tilted upward over rocks. I bonked pretty hard on this loop and should have eaten more. At about mile 5 (?), I wedged my left foot between two rocks hard and thought I had broken the skin through the shoes. Then at about mile 5.7, I rolled my right ankle hard behind someone while going through a big rock garden. And both calves started locking up on longer strides, so everything was starting to come apart. This was my least favorite loop, at least partly because it was so technical. I couldn't get into a reasonable rhythm after mile 3 and the rocks started to have zero grip. I'd guess the first three were at about 9 minute pace, but the second half was way slower. I also didn't see anyone for the first three miles of this loop, which was a bit weird feeling. Also, I couldn't pick the correct lines about half the time and kept going over the rock gardens directly, which was really slow.
Overall, we finished 6th with a time of 20:02. We definitely were dragging on the last 4 legs.