Brrr-lingame 10 Mile Race

Sunday, March 29, 2015

The 4th installment of this 5-series race.  Originally scheduled two weeks earlier, it was postponed to the end of March due to deep snow.  We won't have snow on the ground still in late March, right? Well...

Volunteered to help RD Mike G mark the course the prior day, so I had a good feel for the course conditions.  Or so I thought.  Overnight, we received an additional 1-2" of snow.  Arrived an hour early and went out for a 2-mile warm-up with Jonny and we met up with Chris.

Stunning beauty of fresh snowfall
on the trails.

Loop 1 (first 5 miles):  Went out fast following behind Chris Garvin as far as the road crossing a mile in.  First mistake.  Chris Fox followed me closely the entire first lap.  I kept thinking when the course widened Chris F would pass me.  Didn't happen.  Only twice did I put some distance on Chris, and I could only tell because I couldn't hear his breathing anymore.  Once was in a section of deep snow (which is how I beat him at Belleville) and the other was on the bog bridges.  Unfortunately after both times he quickly caught up.  Jackman was saying later that he hated the bog bridges, but I thought they were fun. All 19 of them.  I opted for Yak-Trax, which might have been dead weight for much of the course, but certainly helped me on the slick spots and snow-covered bog bridges.  The campground section went fast, and voila, we were back at the start for the second loop.  36:25

Running through deep puddles
near bog bridges was a blast

Only a few sections of
deep snow remained, much to
my chagrin

Loop 2:  I went way wide of the course at start of loop, as I was focused on drinking the Gatorade I picked up.  Chris went by me here and any thought of staying with him quickly vanished as I lost sight of him.  At the time, I thought he sped up, but looking at results later, I see that he ran pretty evenly, while I slowed way down.  I never looked at my watch, as I find trail mile splits on their own to be pretty meaningless, but now I'm wondering if it might have been helpful to look at splits to see comparatively that I had slowed way down.  The rest of the race I ran as an island and didn't see another runner until I started lapping a few a few back-of-the-packers in the campground.  39:25

Final:  1:15:49.  7th of 28 overall.  1st in age group.  Full results here.

This newly added log and boulder section
was pretty cool.  Three consecutive
jumps ...

... put me on the beach with the ice-covered pond in background.

Not sure if I fell asleep on the second loop, given my three minute differential.  I certainly zoned out, given no one around me.  More importantly, I had a lot of fun out there, with much varied terrain and conditions, including snow, bare ground, beach, deep puddles, and even a log jump.   WTAC did not take the title today, despite having a decent showing of 10 runners overall.  Chris G and Jonny came in 3rd and 4th, and of course trail regular Crutch was out there with a good showing.  On to Big River!