Wahaneeta 5K Trail Race

Westerly, RI

Sunday, October 18, 2020

Fall series:  Our second of three events in our Fall Trail Race Series.  This was the easiest to obtain approval, as the parking and course lie entirely on the private property of Westerly Land Trust.  The other two fall trail races are at least partially on state property, and thus both require state permits, which are much harder to obtain this year with a lot of additional requirements and stipulations due to COVID.  Fortunately, all three have been approved.  (Well, technically on Rhody, the state is waiting for Charlestown Police to approve before they sign off, but we're super close.)

2020 race background:  This was the 5th annual running of the race, and the most successful to date.  We have always billed this is a low-cost "old school" trail race, so with no state fees, no shirt fees, no porta-jons (there are outhouses on site), and only fees to SNERRO for timing and a modest fee to Westerly Land Trust, we have a pretty low break-even point.  We typically get 45-55 participants, so we were beyond thrilled to get a record 78 registrants this year (74 final finishers) and to have a pretty competitive field.  Not sure how much of the increase was due to changing from August (think biting bugs in the woods!) to October this year, versus pent-up demand due to COVID with few races going on.  Either way, a great result for the club and ensures continuity next year.

Thank you to the Westerly Land Trust CCC ("Coffee and Clearing Crew") for dedicating one of their sessions to cleaning up Wahaneeta Preserve specifically for hosting of our race (more at end of post).

My race:  Now to the race itself, as there are three loops (albeit all slightly different), that's how I'll write my own race report.  After some brief (I hope they were brief!) pre-race remarks, it was time to go.  Unlike Pumpkins, where I was seeded in the second wave, this time I made it to the big time in Wave 1.  Barely!

Giving pre-race remarks to a socially distanced field

Loop 1:  (1.8 miles, 40' climb, 60' descent, moderately technical) 

From the gun, the lead pack took off FAST.  We are on double-track for almost 1/2 mile, so there's plenty of room to pass here, but I'm struggling just to keep up at the back-of-the-pack and not get dropped. I know a number of the younger guys ahead of me are predominantly road guys, so I'm curious to see how they fare in the first technical section.

Start of Wave 1 (of 8).  I'm bring up the rear on far right,
and looking pretty creaky.

Sure enough, one we hit a greater than 90° turn that is immediately followed a tight section jumping over rocks and roots, the guy just ahead of me slows down more than I'm comfortable with.  This is no place to pass, but I know more techy sections are coming up quickly, so I've already planned that the first opportunity I'm going by him.  I yell "On your left", and he's fine to let me go by.  We're soon in a rocks and bog bridge section and I can sense I'm putting distance on him.

There's a steady stream of runners just ahead of me, including Dave Goodrich and Steve Brightman.  I'm doing fine on the technical sections, but there are some long straight easy sections as well and those are a real struggle for me not to get dropped.

Finishing up 1st lap

Loop 2:  (1.0 miles, 40' climb, moderately technical)  Runners are still in sight ahead of me, but we're starting to have some separation, and it's only the same technical sections that are keeping me in the game at all.  Just before the left turn headed across the bridget and back to the field, I pass the last of the back-of-the-pack runners on their first lap.

Loop 3:  (0.3 miles, non-technical, shallow stream crossing and re-crossing)  Coming into the field this year, for the first time, we have streamers completely roping off the path and pointing you down to the short out-and-back, so no runners this year inadvertently crossed directly to the finish line.  As I start down the orange trail, the 2nd place overall is just passing me in the opposite direction and finishing.  Dave Goodrich is in sight ahead of me, but not close enough to catch him.  We cross the stream (barely flowing, but it was dry completely for weeks beforehand), and then on the re-cross, I just jump the stream instead of taking the more precarious bridge.  It's a short distance uphill to the field, and we're done.

Stream crossing this year

At least it was flowing this year (it wasn't just a week earlier),
but hopefully one of these years it will be calf-deep.
You hope the same, right?

Final results:  21:33, 9th overall, 2nd in age group.  Full results here.

So how did the race go?  Awesome, overall!  No one to my knowledge got off course, no injuries other than a scrape here and there.  There was some confusion entering the field at the end of 1st lap and end of race itself, so we'll continue to work on that.  And again, super happy with a record field size and most competitive field ever.

So how did my race go?

Pretty happy with a return to the times
I posted the first two years.
I think the fast lead pack pulled me to a faster start
and having competition the whole way helped.

Some of Team WTAC that was here today:
(l-r:  Dave, Heather, Meriden, Nick, me, Schane, Paul, Al, Cliff, April, Erin)

Some interesting snippets from Strava that I read later:

• Very technical trails that were covered in leaves.
• Tbh the hardest 5k I’ve ever run
• Love these trails.

And I'll end this post both thanking our host, the Westerly Land Trust, and pasting a surprise entry from this month's Westerly Land Trust Stewardship Report on their properties, written by the outgoing President of WLT, who ran herself in the race:

Wahaneeta – An extra credit CCC crew met to clean up the trails within Wahaneeta for the Westerly Track Club’s 5k trail race (#4) that was held on October 18^th.  They had over 70 runners who followed COVID protocols and hunting season requirements.  Jeff Walker (CCC member, Board member and President of the WTAC) and his Board did a great job of organizing the race and making sure the preserve was returned to pre-race condition.  Looking forward to #5.