I dunno, I don't feel like I have a lot to say about it, but I bet I will anyway somehow...
In short, it was good, but it did feel like it was a bit harder/more tiring than it should have been... Why? I could guess...
-Not much of a taper. 18 miles the Sunday before and 9 miles on Thursday are a bit more than the 10 and 3 that would be on a good taper...
-Nutrition. I haven't been eating overly well.
Dunno. I still made it in about 2:40 which was about a half hour quicker than the pre-run which was REALLY sluggish. Although that pre run also had a heck of a lot more mud and apparently I took a couple longer sections than the actual course.
So... Let's see...
I guess this was my first time actually racing with my Camelbak. I've had periodic problems with the waistband rubbing on my back when I wear the Camelbak or the weighted backpack, but I put some Glide there thinking that would take care of it. Turns out, it wasn't enough and it rubbed an even larger area. Wondering about just putting a strip of duct tape across there for the Spartan Races coming up...
Sara nicely filled up one of my travel bottles with honey, so I used that for about the first 1.5hrs. Then a pack of caffeinated Sports Beans.
Overall, yeah it was good, a bit tiring. Nowhere near as muddy as the Pre-run, but yeah there were several sections of seriously muddy, I guess more so because so many people had already run through there. One point I was a half second away from falling for sure. And that really sucks the energy out of your legs just for a few seconds of running through!
Also amazing how much just like 5-15 feet of elevation hits those legs as there are quite a few stream crossings and it doesn't look like much, but especially on the return trip you just take like 3 seconds of big steps back up out of the gulley and UGH those legs!
Oh, and I don't quite understand how it was set up, but I did take the wrong turn at the loop. I didn't see anything overly obvious as to which way to go, and I could have sworn it was the way I went on the pre-run which I thought lined up with a previous runner's GPS, and also came back out where I was pretty sure I had seen other people coming back on the loop...
Either way, thankfully about the 4th person behind my said "hey, it's gotta be to the right!" And we only lost maybe 30 seconds going in the wrong direction. SORRY!
I wasn't the only one, I did get passed by one lady who then went straight up the other side of the creek instead of a 90 degree turn to the right. Once over the hill, they kinda went in the same direction so I thought maybe she just was taking an alternate route, but then she said she didn't know where she was going and thought she shouldn't be in the lead. hehe. We traded forward/back spots about 5 times I think. I think she may have been nursing an ankle or something.
But then I finally made it to the end. Well... Actually at that point I wasn't exactly sure WHERE the end was... I exited the woods, but it wasn't overly clear to me as to where/how far I was supposed to go. So I kinda slowed down more than I otherwise would have. Finally found that I was supposed to run across the grass for a while and then there was a line and then they kinda awkwardly gave me a medal. (they were younger kids I think so probably weren't quite as forward as a lot of adults are).
As usual, trail races are WAY better cause they FEED YOU! This time was possibly my favorite. Lots of pizza and desserts! (oh, and some fruit). (:
I hung around for the awards and it was worthwhile. I guess they try to give something back to everyone so they just pick race numbers at random and call your name and you get to pick out a prize. I ended up with a Patagonia Belt. It does look to be quite good quality.
I think that's about it. Now the Spartan Insanity is in full swing!!!!
