Rope Mill 1/2 Marathon

 

This was the last race in the Mountain Goat Adventures Trail Run Series.  I almost did not get to run, as I was sidelined the past 10 days with plantar fasciitis in my right foot. How this happened I do not know, but I seem to play a lot of running injury bingo these days.  Fortunately I had no pain after a 5k run the Wednesday before the race.  Unfortunately, I had not been doing any run training the past 3 weeks.

The forecast was looking iffy; a slight chance of some thunderstorms.  It was a sticky 65 degrees at the start.  I did an extensive warm up, working out all my niggles (low back, right hamstring, right hip joint capsule).  The body felt pretty good considering my issues.  This was the largest of the 4 events, with 29 women in the field and 7 in my age group.

Adele was there and we chit-chatted while waiting for go-time, trying to calm the nerves. At 8 am, the gun went off, and I took off mid-pack towards the Mill Trails.  This section was wide and flowy.  I soon decided to pass a handful of women, as the legs were feeling fresh.  Adele was right on my heels as we made our way around them.

The first 2 miles went by quickly and I saw my heart rate in the high 160/low 170 range.  Settle, I told myself, and backed it off, as I knew this was unsustainable.  Not wanting to hold Adele back, as she was gonna try for a 2 hour goal, I let her around me. I was able to let it go on the descents, allowing the momentum to pull me up some of the climbs. 

I finished up the Mills section (4.3 miles) in 39 minutes.  Continuing onto the Explorer Trails, I stopped briefly at the aid station and downed a cup of Heed. Not long afterwards, I caught sight of a woman not too far behind me.  Over the next mile, she appeared to be gaining.  I expected her to pass me at anytime, especially when I stopped at the aid station again.  But the pass never came.  Towards the end of this loop, I lost sight of her.  Had she blown up?  Or was she gonna catch me in the next section?  I finished this loop (3.3 miles) in 35 minutes.

The Avalanche section saw me slowing down, as I began to feel the fatigue, and the slight twinges of soreness in my quads on the descents.  I tried to block out those feelings by focusing on the "carrots" in front of me.  There was a big, tall muscular fella in front of me, with strides twice as long as mine.  But he must have been carrying 100 more pounds than I.  This jerked me out of my "woe is me and my sore quads" mode.

I had made it to the 3rd loop of Avalanche, when the skies began to darken and I heard thunder off in the distance.  I stopped at the aid station and drank some more Heed.  Once I started onto the remaining portion of the 2nd loop, I had 1 1/2 miles to go.  The rumbles of thunder got louder and now the skies were so dark, it was hard to see the roots in the trail.  The rain started, slowly at first.  With about 1 mile to go, the lightning began cracking close enough to me that I forgot all about my trashed quads.  Adrenalin carried me that final mile.  Coming down the embankment, the skies opened up with a torrential downpour.  I made it across the finish line and immediately ran under the scoring tent. My finishing time was 2:12.  The final loop was 5.4 miles in 58 minutes.

I ended up being a handful of runners that completely finished the course.  Due to safety concerns since this weather cell looked brutal on the weather map, Lisa made the executive decision to short course  a good portion of the runners, cutting them off from doing the 3rd loop on Avalanche.

I ended up 1st AG and 3rd O/A.  Adele came close to her goal with a 2:09.

I was happy with my performance, but without being able to run much leading up to this race, my quads were angry for the next 5 days!  You know, sore enough that the process of sitting down on the toilet was painful.