Year of Races

Yesterday, I was <10 minutes from my house running my first trail race at Boling Park in Canton, GA.  Dirty Spokes does a trail running series of races during the year and this was race #2.  It was a 4.5 mile run that had the following course description:

Start at Kiosk.
Parade lap around field for 1.12 miles
Hard left to single track that parallels field
1.68 follow sewer line
1.70 first hill
1.91 take left fork
1.94 left
1.96 first creek crossing (you will get your feet wet it was at about 18″ today)
2.09 Hill #2
2.24 Top of Hill #2
2.26 Hill #3
2.36 bottom of Hill #3 (very steep)
crossroads stay straight to 2.36 “The Wall” (you´ll know it when you get to it)
2.40 top of “The Wall”, turn right
2.45 right onto Yellow blazed trail
2.71 water station, hard right
2.81 right follow Yellow blazed trail (all down hill and single track from here following the “River Ridge”)
3.14 back at crossroads stay straight (don´t go up “The Wall” again)
3.18 small creek crossing
3.27 log crossing
3.28 small creek crossing
3.40 last small rise
3.65 left
3.68 left to Boy Scout Bridge (White blaze trail)
3.70 over Boy Scout Bridge
3.72 right (back onto single track that follows the parade field)
4.33 End at Kiosk.

Sounds fun, right?  Actually, it was a lot of fun and I’m really wishing I could have made it to the first race in the series.  Dirty Spokes puts on a great race — well organized with timing anklets that you just velcro on, a well-marked course, timely water station, and instant race results as they print out updated results every 5 minutes or so.

The shirt is probably my favorite so far.  It’s a light-weight, technical, short-sleeve shirt.  It fits me well and will be great to run in.

Dirty Spokes - Running the River's Ridge Shirt

I ended up doing pretty well considering the challenges the course presented.  I finished at 44:08 and 7th out of 25 in my age group.  I actually ended up ahead of a couple of serious local runners that typically thrash me on the roads.  They may have just been out for a leisurely stroll through the woods, but it still gives me some confidence that I’m improving.

The first mile+ we start out on an open crushed gravel path.  I really started out fast and clocked my first mile right at 7:00.  From there we hit some single track trails and I felt things were going pretty well.  Nate and I had come out earlier in the week and tried to identify “the wall” and the creek crossing, so I had a good idea what was in store and I didn’t think it was going to be too horrible.

We were wrong.

I ran up and over what we thought to be “the wall” without incident and then took a left which was different than the path we had scoped out on Thursday.  We came to the creek crossing and it was a good 4-5 steps across in mid-calf deep water.  It was a blast running through the creek, but, immediately upon exiting, my shoes were obviously sloshy and heavy.  My Asics didn’t drain nearly as well as I had hoped.  Unfortunately, the ill-placed creek crossing was but a mere .13 mile from the first hill which meant I was going to have to run up the hills with heavy shoes.  As soon as I saw the first hill, I thought “holy cow” this must be “the wall.”  So, I trudge up the first hill in heavy and wet shoes and end up having to walk up the 2nd hill.  My heart was pounding and I can’t imagine how anyone could RUN up those suckers.

Next thing I know, we have a decline that is just as steep.  So, in wet shoes, I go flying down this hill doing everything I can not to lose control and careen off into a tree.  There was so much downforce on the fronts of my shoes that I could feel the insoles sliding (another negative for the new trail shoes).  I safely reach the bottom and look ahead to what is actually “the wall.”  Straight up.  I took as many “running” steps as I could and then walked it.  This was probably the closest I’ve come to throwing up in a race.  I had my hands on my quads helping to push myself up this dang hill.  It was so tough I felt like reaching out for small branches to try to help me up the slope.  Even after cresting, I still had to walk for a good minute to calm myself down.  I actually think this ended up helping me in the remainder of the race.  My heart and legs needed that break.

I worked myself back into a nice pace and passed a couple of folks.  I ended up finishing the remaining 2 miles or so at around a 9 minute pace.  I hooked up with another guy and basically followed on his heels for those last 2 miles.  He was laboring too and, at one point, he yells back to me “How old are you?”.  “36,” I replied.  He threw his arms in the air, let out a big sigh of relief, said he was 44 and that he could let me pass without a fight.  I thought that was pretty funny.  I just told him I was good where I was and that I was using him for his pacing. I followed him all the way home, and he finished a couple seconds ahead of me.

All in all, I had a great time.  Although this was the first time I had to stop and walk in a race this year, my body needed it at the moment, and I was able to finish stronger because of it.  I’m looking forward to some more trail races in the future.  Also, after the race, Nate decided to rename our “wall” as “the curb.”  Very accurate.

• Defiant Photography was out taking some pictures.  (UPDATE: Pic 1, pic 2, pic 3, pic 4)
• Official Results
• Garmin Stats

Running the River's Ridge - Crossing the Boy Scout Bridge

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