Blankets 10 Mile Trail Race

 

Blankets was the second race in the Mountain Goat Adventures Trail Run Series. The turnout was light for this event with only 12 women.  Lisa had said that her numbers for the running races have been dwindling over the past few years.   

The weather was great with sunny skies and 46 degrees at the start.  I was coming off the Fried Clay 200k the weekend before, so my expectations were not high, but I was still determined to put forth as strong an effort as my legs would give me.

At 8 am, we were off.  The course did a CCW loop on the Van Michael trail to start.  I ended up just behind Belinda, who was also in my age group.  Adele, who I battled with at Garland, was behind me a few seconds.  After the first mile, I passed  Belinda on an uphill.  I used Sally McCrae's strategy of "pass, gap, and bury" by picking up the pace for the next couple of minutes, so that I had the best opportunity of not letting her latch back on.

Adele caught up to me around mile 2.  I could tell that she was faster on the descents, and told her to let me know if she needed on by.  I could tell my legs were not as sparkly as they had been at Garland.  By the time VMT flattened out and we hit Mosquito Flats, Adele passed me.  I tried to go with her, but the legs said no.  

I was able to keep her in my sights as we hit the South Loop.  I could tell by the 7th mile that I was slowly dying.  And Adele faded off into the distance.  Somewhere in the 9th mile I was descending at a pretty good clip, trying to reel Adele back into sight, when my right foot hit a root and I began to Superman.  I had almost saved it, but then another root grabbed my left foot, and I hit the ground hard.  Fortunately it was a tuck and roll, but I tweaked my right MCL, which I had torn this time last year.

My ego was bruised more than my body, but I cautiously finished out the last 1 1/2 miles. That last bit on Mosquito Flats trail was flat, but the most painful.  Not my knee, but my legs were spent and I could not get them to turn over.

I finished with a time of 1:34:34.  Good enough for 1st A/G and 2nd O/A.  Afterwards, I had an enjoyable visit with Graham, who was out volunteering.  We talked all things bikes, BDR's, jobs, and getting wiser.