Notes
Spring Thursday Night Trail Races #6
Goals (cascading)
A) Win
B) Beat last fall's time by 2 min
C) Don't Fall Apart
The usual crowd was present, plus notably 1 young and lanky kid wearing Mizzou. No one was eager to be at the start of the corral so I accepted my position there. I got us off nice and easy and no one complained, 1st mile through the prairie in 6:20. Much different than last year when I was 6:03 and trailing the leader by a bit. Micheal had made his way beside me a 1/2 mile in and picked up the pace slightly. I let him take the lead as I was unsure of the first turn (the race organizers gave a confusing direction). Sure enough, Micheal took the wrong turn and I was able to make the right one well enough with just 2 guys from behind getting ahead of me.
I got a little antsy on the downhill and was too eager trying to pass into 2nd. I settled behind Oliver for the long uphill. I wasn't feeling great but also not close to being dropped. On the final part of the hill, Oliver slowed and I pounced. Soon it was just Micheal and I with no one in sight. We had a stretch on a gravel road and Micheal ran up beside me. I could tell his pace was just a bit more than I felt comfortable with. But we were coming up on the trails again and I knew a long rocky downhill was coming up. So I pushed for the lead and took the downhill hard. Not as crazy hard as last year when I got in over my head and twisted my ankle, but still enough to get 10sec or so on Micheal.
Unfortunately, once at the bottom, I wasn't feeling particularly strong, and my stomach wasn't feeling great. Micheal caught up with me and I lead us through the creeks and back uphill. I'm not really sure when he passed me but I lost 10+ seconds to him in the next mile on the prairie. Back on the trails, I tried to be efficient and use my trail skills. I did gain on Micheal on the last long downhill and thought I could keep catching through the creeks. Then I slipped coming out of the 2nd creek and my right calf nearly cramped up. I regained composure and ran strong after that, but I never saw 1st place again. I had cracked but didn't break and my final hill felt surprisingly good.
2nd Place, 48:05 - ~1.5min faster than last fall in slightly worse conditions.
Goal A and B were failures, though 2min fast than last year was probably a bit aggressive. Still, I was a nearly 90sec faster than last fall even though the first 2 miles were slower this spring. I'll say I accomplished Goal C and didn't completely fall apart, though it did feel like it at times. I wonder how recovered from last week I was. 2 all-out races with just a week apart may be too much for me these days. Which doesn't get me wanting to try the whole series in the future.