(Mis)Adventures in Running at The Rugby Rover

Sunday saw me joining a couple of running club friends for an interesting event that none of us had done before--The Belper Rugby Rover, 30 kilometres of undulating mixed terrain fun. We are going to blame this one on a Tesco car park conversation with a member of a neighbouring running club who claimed she was going to run it slow then went and thrashed all of us!

We started out together but since my training has been so poorly due to the damned allergies plaguing me I told the other 2 that I would just see them at the end and hoped they wouldn't have to wait around too terribly long for me (turned out to be around 16 minutes).  My plan was to walk every uphill because despite taking clarityn nearly every hard effort is resulting in hellacious sinus pressure headaches--better to be a slowpoke rather than having to get a lift back to the finish line due to not being able to focus on the path.

Picture courtesy of SL Images. Cheesy grin and thumbs up courtesy of moi

Anyway enough whingeing, I actually was able to keep my friends in sight with the power hike up the hills and bombing back down them up for the first few miles until I decided to strip down to my crop top (hey, it was actually warm for once!).  That involved having to unpin my bib, take off the hydration pack, pull off the vest, fold the bib to fit onto my shorts, repin said bib, wrestle the pack back over my shoulders, realise I hadn't closed the top of the pack so had to take it back off, decided I wanted to eat something, put the pack back on AND finally back to moving forward. Whew, that was a workout all on its own!

What was good:

*Stiles. Wasn't bothered about the time so enjoyed the slowdowns at the stiles in the beginning and middle.  Towards the end it seemed like the gaps kept getting narrower though and those rocks don't give any!

*Multi-Terrain:  Nice mix of road, trail, footpaths, and fields. Keeps it from getting boring although I know some don't like it because it's impossible to maintain a steadyish pace. There were even some technical bits to 'dance' over.

*The views: Absolutely gorgeous vistas, I'm still oohing over the section where I glanced over and could see the Crich Monument in all its glory on the next hill over.  Shining Cliff Woods also warrants a return trip for a more laid back exploration.

*Chatting with other runners/walkers:  Fell/trail races are far more laid-back generally so there's always laughter and chatter at least amongst those of us towards the back of the pack.

*No litter:  Everybody was VERY good about not throwing their cups down too far from the water stops and I didn't spy any gel packets about

*The water stops/check stations:  Awesome volunteers! I didn't stop for water because I had the hydration pack but the jelly babies, crisps, and encouragement were very welcome.

*Race marking:  This is going to be in the good and not so good.  99% of it was very well marked but there were a few instances towards the end that I questioned if I was going in the correct direction.  Part of that appeared to be other trail users messing about with the signage though.

Not so good:

*Nothing in this section that pertains to how the race was set-up except for there being a couple of spots near the end that should have been marked better for those of us that are directionally challenged--like the section where the path splits 2 ways at the water treatment plant.  Yes, I was the dumbass that went the wrong way here and ended up with bonus mileage and I also couldn't remember the where we turned into the rugby club carpark for the finish.

*Wearing the hydration pack which coincidentally is the amount of weight I need to lose right now! It's a pain in the arse wearing it but I NEED to get used to it before the 30 miler in November.

*Catching a sharp rock with the side of my foot in such a way that the rock went under the big toenail on my left foot.  I was afraid I'd torn the nail off but thankfully it only loosened it, bad thing is it's still extremely tender today.

*Of course there was a fall, only the one though and there was no blood so not sure it even counts.

*I am listed as a male in the results! Still debating on whether to bother contacting them to change it or not.

The aftermath! I look peeved because I was still fuming about going the wrong direction so close to the finish :-) 

Nordic Walking a parkrun and Crich Monument Race

@BritNordicWalk I've become a nordic walking convert! & we would love to see more of your members at @parkrunUK! Can I contact you re this?

— Chrissie Wellington (@chrissiesmiles) July 3, 2015

As most everyone who reads the blog knows I am a huge fan of Nordic Walking, it tends to not get much respect from the running community but that's slowly changing.  Turns out that a triathlete I respect and admire greatly is also a fan of Nordic Walking--Chrissie Wellington!

Our group minus one who had to leave right after finishing, we all got Nordic Walking pbs!

As a result of this several of us decided to NW one of our local parkruns yesterday morning instead of running it as usual, we ended up with 6 altogether at Long Eaton.  We were welcomed quite warmly and when it came go time we gathered up at the very back of the start line because there had been some concern expressed by one person about the poles being in the way on facebook (not by any of the parkrun organisers or volunteers, just a participant of one).  I had two goals for yesterday, to get sub-40 and to demonstrate that Nordic Walking can be quite fast if that's what you want out of it, I think I succeeded at both :-). My official time was 38:23 and my mile splits were progressively faster (12:27, 12:15, 12:10 and 11:13 for the last tenth of a mile).  I am paying for that today though! You activate your glutes and shoulders far more than running and stairs are a bit of a challenge for me to get up and down after pushing that hard.

From the Long Eaton parkrun flickr

As if that wasn't enough for the day a running club mate posted up that she couldn't do the Crich Monument Race and offered up her spot if anyone wanted it.  Totally spur of the moment decision to ask if I could have it but I don't regret it at all, this one has been on my 'that looks interesting, I want to run it someday' list.

Crich Monument on the hill

Since I was already feeling the effects of pushing it hard on the walk earlier my plan was to just go out and enjoy myself, I even briefly considered taking along the camera.  There's a bit of regret that I didn't but I ended up with a much faster race than expected (not saying it was fast, just faster than I thought it would be). In the beginning we have a series of stile crossings in fields which causes bottlenecks to form--one of the perils of not starting close to the front but I kind of like the chance to catch my breath and chat with those around so long as it's not an extended pause.

Crazy hair, don't care :-)

After the fields we hit my favourite part of the course, a technical downhill through the forest, again there were areas of slowing and stopping as people not used to tree roots and rocks navigated this section with caution but I love bombing down those! It's almost like a dance when you get it right but it can go very wrong if you misjudge foot placement.

The slog along the canal almost seems endless after the fun of the forest but I ended up pacing out fairly well there and it was at that point I realised I didn't actually know how far the race was! I considered asking the woman who was running just behind me but figured the question might be better kept to myself. Once we started the uphill climb up to the monument I switched to power hiking because I figured it would be best to conserve my energy rather than trying to run the steep inclines.

I look happy, the others around me not so much!

After we got to the top though there was no more walking! It was a mostly downhill bomb that took us through a few more narrow stile crossings (3 I think), through a graveyard, across a busy road, through another field, and 3 more turns on the streets of Crich back into the Village Green and down a short but wicked steep downhill to the finish line chute.

I can't think of anything bad to say about the Crich Monument Race, it was well-marked, they allowed us to switch numbers, there was a banana AND a bottle of beer in the goody bag, it's very reasonably priced, food and cake is available to purchase before and after, the course is interesting and if you remember to give your email address and pay your £1 they will email the race photos to you (I forgot to do so though).  This one is a definite do again event!

2 thumbs up! 

A few photos from the event are here including the last two I have used in this post.

Adios Juneathon

Hello blog, apologies for having neglected you and missing the end of Juneathon.  Yep, despite good intentions I yet again didn't complete the move/blog every day challenge.  I have quite enjoyed catching up on with the blogs and reports of the other participants but I have fallen into the habit of reading them on my tablet using the feedly app at bedtime and it doesn't lend to easy commenting sometimes.  Oh sure I will think to myself I need to go back and comment but 99% of the time I fail to do so, my memory is like a sieve nowadays.  On the upside I have finally started familiarising myself with google calendar and actually USING it!

Activity wise I have dialled back the running slightly in order to get back into the habit of cross training because I have been neglecting the weights and they are oh so important for women of a certain age to help prevent osteoporosis...Not saying they aren't important for everyone but once you hit the point when you are closer to 50 than 40 then it does become a bit more of an issue with the bone density loss (this loss generally starts around age 35).  Of course you also have the added benefits of preventing injuries and keeping the weight at a healthy level, so yeah pumping some iron is kind of important.  I know I certainly run better if I do a full body weight workout at least twice a week.

Last week's running had some interesting twists.  Tuesday's club run was on a gorgeously hot evening that I think I enjoyed more than most of the others but then again I was out for a laid back trot and stayed at the back of the group and I think some took off at a balls to the wall pace for the temp so there was some suffering happening.

My new friend 

Thursday most of the club was doing one race or another so a handful of us went out on a bit of an offroad adventure recce run.  Parts of it was absolutely gorgeous but there were some mishaps of the sort I usually find myself on when I'm exploring by myself.  There was a two mile detour to avoid a pasture of cows and a machete wouldn't have gone amiss in order to cut our way through the nettles, thistles, and brambles!  Some awesome views though and I don't regret a moment of it --well there might have been a WTF have we gotten ourselves into a couple of times, lol. The pics above and below were taken on the run by a club mate (Hi Richard!).

Looks more like a jungle path rather than an English one!

Saturday I made a last minute decision to make the drive over for parkrun despite it being unbearably humid and experiencing some hellacious DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) from Friday's weight session. It's not a good sign when you are covered in sweat from your 1 mile warmup slog!  This time around I seeded myself closer to the front of the pack despite knowing it would cause me to run my first mile too fast (no discipline!).  Of course I jackrabbited and it felt hard from the very first step...what I didn't expect to see was 7:10 flash up for the first mile.

I did my best to push on but miles 2 and 3 were both 7:40 and I ended up having 2 women pass me in the last mile.  The first went on to finish in 22:54 and was running so strong that I had absolutely no chance of reeling her back in, the 2nd I managed to sprint by in the last .10 of a mile and finished ONE second ahead of her. That's why you always run through to the finish, no celebrating or relaxing as the guy in the Peachtree 10k found out over the weekend!

Despite the pacing mishap, I managed to get a pb (UK times) of 23:10, Still need to get those splits into a more even keel though. Let's see if I can match that time at tonight's club handicap!

Start of 2nd lap, don't let the smile fool you, I was suffering

I jinxed the weather and Juneathon Days 17-20

Going that way

The warmth was gorgeous while it lasted but it's been back to almost needing my gloves again, hard to believe that tomorrow is the summer solstice! I've also lapsed on the move and blog every day but I think I've made it further along than I usually do with Juneathon/Janathon.

Maps at the ready!

Wednesday was a road trip up to Riber/Matlock to recce routes with a couple of mates for the upcoming Footpath Relays and while I have a fairly straightforward section I am glad we ran it because there were a couple of places that might have been tricky on the navigation (Read I would have gotten my ass lost!).  It is a beautiful area of the country and some of it was technical enough to remind me of trail running back in Arkansas.  Afterwards we sat and ate a delicious picnic lunch they had prepared (I wasn't near that organised!) while enjoying the views.

Watch your head!

Today's parkrun marked the second Long Eaton event and the kids with the cowbells were even more enthusiastic than last weekend! Of course that might have had a little bit to do with me whooping and hollering along with them on the first lap then yelling 'More cowbell please!!!!' on the second. As far as the run I certainly wasn't expecting to do much better but somehow managed to eke out a 3 second personal best for my UK times.  I do seem to be stuck in the 23ish minute range again, but it is dropping and hopefully I will be able to whittle that down to sub-23 soon. The splits were not a pretty picture though! 7:17 (waaaaaaaay too fast), 7:26, 7:33, and 1:06.6 (6:22 pace) for the last .18 mile.  The club had another good result with one of ours being 4th place overall and we also had the first and third females. Well done all!

How can you not love running somewhere that has a castle in the background?

Wednesday: 3.71 miles

Thursday: Club run 7.77 miles

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 5 miles including parkrun

parkrun stats:

23:23

50/211 overall

8/94 female

1/24 VW45-49

I couldn't find a decent quality vid of the skit so this one will have to suffice

An adventure at the ashmei ambassadors day

Nicked from the ashmei twitter feed

Still on a bit of a runner's high at the moment after spending a few hours meeting up and then running with the other athletes shortlisted for the ashmei ambassador programme.  Such a fun day out getting to admire the beautiful kit (I'm loving the skort!) while finding out about the who, what, when, where, and whys of how it all came about.  The run reinforced how much I've been missing running on some proper trails--it's almost like a dance over the tree roots and around the rocks and my body and mind are craving more of it.  The company was excellent as well, no egos, just other like-minded crazy runners/cyclists/triathletes out for an adventure and the words just flowed in time with our footsteps.

Happy but not stinky feet

We did get Merino + Carbon socks today to test out and I must say so far I'm impressed.  I could have done with these for the Belvoir Challenge and I think they may have jumped to the front of the queue for most favoured status and I'm notoriously picky about the socks I wear for running--can't be too thick or too thin, can't come too far up the leg, and they should never slip down.  Of course it will take more than one wearing to decide but I didn't take these off until five hours post run and I usually can't wait to peel the socks off.  Bonus points in that they match my fell running trainers!  The only thing I would caution people about is to wash the socks before the first wearing, the pair I received left my feet covered in a thin layer of black--it was very reminiscent of when I used to haul carbon black for Goodyear tire/tyre plants in my trucking days and the trailer would always have to be washed out afterwards because of the black dust EVERYWHERE.

How my partner entertained himself while I was oohing and ahhing over the ashmei kit, running, chatting, and eating cake

There's so much more I want to write about but I'm so sleepy I can barely keep my eyes open. Good luck to everyone and I can't wait to find out who the next #ashmeiambassadors will be!  Thank you Stuart and the ashmei team for providing us with such an amazing opportunity, it was a fantastic day!

Update: I didn't get chosen as one of the four for the ashmei Ambassadors programme but I was chuffed and surprised to have even been shortlisted in the first place! I think I was probably amongst the oldest there (but not quite old enough to be in the inspirational category!), I certainly am not the most photogenic and my athletic feats are firmly in the middle of the pack category so to be included was a huge honour.  Good luck to all and I am looking forward to finding out who the ambassadors are!

 It was great fun and this vid by @jimmymacke summed up the day perfectly. 

See if you can spot me in my Runner's Booty shirt!

Craving

Is it weird to be craving a run? To be specific, a lung-bursting, quad-burning, heart pounding trail run. The kind where you are dancing around the rocks and praying for the climb to end yet you are feeling so fully alive and in the moment. A run where you are not concerned about speed, simply taking in what's around and in front of you. Best of all, a run where once you reach the top of a hill it's not just the effort that has taken your breath away but the spectacular view laid out in front of you.

Besides I think it's time my Dirty Girl bombshell gaiters came out to play in the UK, I don't think I've worn them since the Sylamore 25k back in 2012. And folks, that is entirely too long.

Obviously pre-race

5th and 6th

Hmmm, looks like my Janathon blogging pattern is a post covering 2 days in a row.  Yesterday was a 7 mile muddy trail run--without Elsie the mutt this time. She was having no part in leaving the warm bed, can't say I blame her, I was wishing I'd stayed there myself in the beginning.  Parts of the path once I ventured away from the canal trails was pretty much a quagmire, there was no running through it and even walking was treacherous a time or three. I even slipped and fell once and it was on a section parallel to the M1 so yes there were witnesses.  All in all it was a good run though, my two slowest miles were on the endless uphill sections that also included the swampy bits (10:43 and 10:05, miles 3 and 4) and I kept a 9:33 pace overall.

The aftermath

Mud bath anyone? A shave wouldn't hurt either 

Today I skipped the run since our club handicap run is tomorrow night. Not sure that what I opted for will leave my legs anymore rested though.  5 minute warmup outside with the jump rope then did a full body workout with the kettlebells. Definitely time to move up past an 8kg bell for the swings and for giggles I threw in 5 burpees with every set. Yes, I am not bright at times ;-).  

Books, races, and shoes

I'm adding "Running Like a Girl" by Alexandra Heminsley to my reading list after watching 3 youtube vids featuring her.  Seems like it would be a fun read and she comes across as quite charming.  

I started to sign up for the Stafford Half Marathon again since it's almost full (I ran it last March) but found this one instead, Newton's Fraction Half Marathon. Love the name, hopefully it will have a cool t-shirt and medal to match.  More importantly I hope it won't be near as miserable temperature wise in the UK as it was this year, so many people showed up to the Stafford race, collected their tee and medal (still seems odd they handed it out BEFORE the race), decided it was too cold to run and went back home.  Another tidbit that tilted me towards the Grantham race is that Brooks Running UK is sponsoring it, gotta love the #runhappy.

The bling--March 2013

Speaking of Brooks, I'm wondering when they will produce a shoe for the UK/Euro market specifically for fell running since the sport is huge over here. They do a shoe called the Aduro that's market specific but it's made for road running, not trail. I love my PureGrit 2 trail shoes but they are better suited for drier trails, the super-slick mud here in wet conditions leaves me sliding about a little too much for comfort.  In the meantime I've gone back to the Cascadia for the muckier stuff, I've even found some of the older 7s in stock online that my partner has bought me as part of my Crimble present.  

My old Cascadia 7s from 2012 along with a KT Tape sweat and mud fail (go with the pro version!)

Just for fun pic, trail runner "ice bath"

Also upcoming are the cross country Christmas Relays where I seem to have mistakenly been placed on the "fast" team. No pressure there then, lol.  This will be interesting because the only relay race I've done before was a road race, will have to see how this goes.  At least there won't be a long tunnel as part of the course......or there isn't as far as I know, I'm now having flashbacks from the Hogeye Half relay and my claustrophobia induced panic attack.  

Still Running

I'm at a bit of a loss about what direction to take the blog in since I'm no longer driving a truck, I seem to be kind of drifting in that regard so any suggestions about what you would like to see (or read) please feel free to let me know.

Gratuitous self-pic because I'm pleased that I'm starting to get ab definition

My running is going quite well though and I'm even adding in an occasional cycle trainer session and now in the routine of doing 2 major weight/core sessions per week which is resulting in some nice changes in my body. The trail running is something I always look forward to doing especially when we can get out and hit some hills. Today however turned into a major suffer and sweat fest about halfway through and our entire group was feeling it.  Like most of the country we are under a severe heat wave (100F plus days that started last month) and NO rain.  Well at least until yesterday when small showers and a major wind storm hit the central Arkansas area.  One of those small showers popped up this morning midway through our run, immediately after the sun came out and turned the area into a sauna.  I was so sweat-soaked that I could wring the moisture out of my shorts and my shoes were sopping from sweat dripping down my legs into them. Gross, eh?

One of the many large trees that had been blown down yesterday

Looks like fall rather than early July

Forcing smiles because our legs HURT! Notice the lack of sunshine--that's about to change

Yep, this is when it started feeling like we were running in a sauna.

playing catch up yet again

I have such good intentions of writing a blog post at least once a week but I'm so easily distracted that those intentions pave the way to.......well, not getting blog posts done for sure.  So what have I managed to be distracted by?

The Chase Race 2 miler, my all time favorite short distance race.  This year I didn't get a personal record but still managed to snag 3rd in my age group--mostly due to everyone being sore and tired from having ran the Little Rock half or full marathons the weekend prior.  Due to extenuating circumstances I wasn't able to run with Elsie in the one mile pet race afterwards.

I also had a last-minute but VERY welcome house-guest from the UK in the form of Dr. Sue Black who had unfortunately gotten stranded by Delta Airlines in Atlanta (there were approximately 15 people that missed the connecting flight to Austin for SXSW)--after some searching by TWBrit for alternative ways to get her where she needed to be that didn't involve a greyhound bus trip out of Houston in the middle of the night, I asked him if she was ok with a road trip from Little Rock to Austin. Yes, there were flights from Atlanta to Houston, Dallas, and Little Rock that night but no more to Austin until Sunday (this was Friday night!).  I managed to help get her where she needed to be and hopefully didn't terrify her too much with my driving.   

The next weekend was the Big Rock Mystery Run, the awesome blog Arkansas Outside has a great write-up explaining what it is and also provided fantastic photos of the event for FREE!  I ran this with Brenda and Maria, had no intentions of racing it from the beginning, this was a fun run for us to get out and play on some trails with other like-minded (read: insane!) people.  Saw some gorgeous parts of the trail that I didn't know existed and a tunnel with knee-deep, icky water that I never hope to see again, lol.  Some parts were so steep we had to use our hands to clamber up.  Brenda ended up falling on her butt twice in the same spot on a creek crossing (sorry Bren! It was funny after we figured out you were all right).  I demonstrated some of my cursing skills on a climb that was killing my calves.  All in all, great fun, can't wait to do something like that again!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's a link to an Arkansas Outside photo of me, yes I'm the one with the crazy hair and dorky grin :D.  

Finally this past weekend was the Spring Fling 5k, again no personal records or even course records set but I did manage to shave a minute off from the Valentine's Day 5k so there's some progress being made to being somewhat faster(ish).  Felt like I was gonna puke from mile 2 all the way to the finish line so that means I gave it my all, which on this day was a 24:14 (chip time), enough for 15th female overall and first in my age group.  Afterwards, way afterwards--too much stuffing my face with homemade goodies kind of afterwards--7 of us went out to run another 10 miles.  Yes, we ARE insane.

My medal was being held by Julie for this pic, her hands are much prettier than mine!

There's a lot more to talk about but it's mostly centered around the women can run clinic that I'm attending and that's gonna be very long-winded so I want to write about that in its own post (just not tonight). 

Oh and there's been a lot of this going on! Puppy cuddles and naps rock :-)

back 2 back races

Doing back 2 back races/events is not anything new for me, not that I'm saying I do it several times a year or anything but it is something I've been known to do occasionally. However it has always been a shorter race combined with an endurance event, ie running a 5k or 10k on a Saturday then a sprint duathlon, a century ride, or a half marathon on a Sunday.  This past weekend I ended up running 2 longer distance races--the Sylamore 25k trail race followed by the Run the Line Half Marathon on Sunday in Texarkana.  Yes, I know the true distance runners are scoffing at my classifying these as distance events but let's not forget that even a 5k can be a daunting amount of miles for those starting out.  Heck, a 5k still scares me and that's my favorite distance to race.  

KT Tape and my new Brooks Running Launch trainers

I had no plans/illusions/goal times for the Run the Line half marathon, all I wanted to do was get there, get the distance done, collect my Arkansas RRCA Grand Prix point, and hopefully still be able to walk afterwards.  I told Julie and Luke (who I car-pooled down with) that I would be much slower than them (btw, I'm slower than those two in ideal conditions) and apologized in advance for the longer than usual wait time they were going to have because of me.  It was so hard waking up at 0345, feeling my left ankle throb and knowing that I was going to have to run 13.1 miles after a long drive--which I was just a passenger for thanks to Julie!!!!--but I had my goal and with KT Tape snugged around the cranky ankle I was all set (sorta) to get it done.

ummm, is that a bullet hole?

This was the first time for the three of us to run this race so we had no clue of where it was, what the course was like, the parking situation, etc but everyone I knew who had run it last year said it was great and we had no problems locating the place and everything went quite smooth with finding a primo parking spot close to the start line and the packet pickup.  The only complaint I could make was that there were 3 porta-potties outside and 2 of them appeared to be locked judging from the constant line of runners walking up and trying the doors and not being able to open them.  Thankfully there are facilities available inside the building where packet pickup was--yay for flushing toilets and hot water to wash your hands with!! Yes, that's a recurring theme for me, lol.  

Lots of hugs, lots of talking about my previous day's adventures, and lots of good lucks later we were off and running.  The first mile was all about getting my ankle un-stiffened up but once I did I was able to settle into a nice, steady pace, the good thing about the ankle was that I did NOT jack-rabbit this race like I have a bad habit of doing.  Also since I had no time goal pressure I was able to chat with other runners, the cyclists who were riding back and forth checking on everyone, and the volunteers at intersections and aid stations.  I generally make it a policy to say thanks to those directing traffic anyways but on Sunday they got smiles and "how ya doing's?" too, lol.  What I didn't have to do thanks to me carrying my Amphipod water bottle of Heed mix was walk the aid stations in order to get fluid (unfortunately I don't get any money/endorsement from those links, it's just what works really well for me) so I was able to keep my steady pace going.  Even the long-arsed incline on the busy roadway at mile 5-6 didn't slow me down an extreme amount.  Not saying I didn't slow down quite a bit, it just didn't hit me near as hard as I expected it to. Was very glad to see it end though, whew.  

That steadiness and feeling surprisingly decent lasted right through to around mile 8 then we turned into a headwind that sapped the energy right out of me. I still hadn't walked a single step and didn't have to until just before mile 10 where I took a piece of candy from a kid to try and boost my flagging energy.  Could only get down a couple of bites of the twizzler though.  After that I played the game of I'll run to the next intersection, mile marker, person, etc then take a walk break if I need to.  I WANTED to take walk breaks but was able to convince my brain to keep going.  Yes, brain.  While my legs were fatigued and it was getting very warm, it's more a matter of my brain wanting to quit rather than my body saying it had enough. Surprisingly during those last 2 miles of sluggery I was still able to keep catching and passing people and no, there were not any further walk breaks.  

I knew that I was keeping a decent pace thanks to the teenagers volunteering who called out the time and sometimes pace at every mile marker.  Yes, EVERY mile marker! That's something a bit different than any other race I've done and I kind of like it.  However I was still surprised to see the finish line clock and realize that I was going to come in under 2:05.  Don't ask me how I managed to put in a somewhat decent half marathon time on a bum ankle and the day after a 25k trail race because I have absolutely no clue myself.  A good bit of it was probably due to the not putting any pressure on myself to "race" on either day.  

Click to enlarge--mileage splits

My garmin mileage splits were quite interesting to me.  While it's not a negative split race, they are fairly consistent and much better than I expected.  The mile 14 data is skewed because I forgot to turn it off and there is some walking about time on there.  Needless to say, I'm happy with the result and it shows me that if I hadn't have ran 25k the day prior I would probably have gone sub 2 hours and might have even come close to pr'ing. Final stats: Gun time 2:03:17, chip time 2:02:58, 231/447, 13/44 female 40-44 age group, and 75/213 gender.

I thoroughly enjoyed this race especially the portions that were on the trail, crowd support was great, fantastic volunteers, intersections were well policed, and a gorgeous medal with an interesting tech shirt.  There was ample food afterwards, fresh grilled hamburgers and chicken with lots of condiments available and free beer from Hopkins Ice House.  I didn't receive one of course but the age group awards were cool-looking too.  A nice touch was posting the results immediately and they had a monitor scrolling through the results, showing overall finishers and where you placed in your age category.  

Such a cute moment

Finish Line disassembly

If you know Julie be sure and give her a huge congrats on her sub 2 hour half marathon finish.  She killed it Sunday!!! And this is all before her first year anniversary of running!!!!! She's also a cancer survivor and quit smoking approximately four years ago so there's an inspiration to get out and move if there ever was one.  My only whinge? She's in my age group, lol!!!!!!!!!  All kidding aside, I feel very privileged to have gotten to know her this year and look forward to seeing her ahead of me in many more races.

]\

Seen during a bathroom pitstop

Quick ankle update, I took Monday thru Wednesday off from running. Monday there wasn't much choice since I was limping and hobbling about but by Wednesday there was only a little stiffness left so all is good.

Race bling

Sylamore 25k report

Wearing my Dirty Girl gaiters

The late, more thorough recap of Sylamore..........I absolutely love this race and I put in a respectable time considering I didn't go in to do it for a certain time goal, my only plan was to have fun and finish it uninjured. Well, I succeeded on the fun part, lol.  And  really the injury part was fairly minor considering what I could have  ended up doing, this is NOT an easy trail to navigate.  For some reason my left ankle kept turning out on me, I counted 6 times that it occurred. The first time was fairly bad and that just set it up to happen again. And again. And again.  I was literally counting the occurrences out loud to Brenda but it was never bad enough to put me out of the race thank goodness.

Despite the ankle business, I adored this race. It's a gorgeous trail with lots of climbs, rocks, views that make you sigh at the beauty of nature.  Seriously cannot come up with the words to describe the awesomeness of it all.  This was basically a play day for me, I was there to finish but it was FUN.  The event pictures reflect this--all of mine show me with a goofy grin (we'll not discuss anything from the neck down though, grrrr).  The knee-deep creek crossing was as leg and foot-numbing cold as promised (which worked out great on the return crossing!) and slowed us down quite a bit on the way out........I'm gonna estimate that Brenda and I lost a good 5-10 minutes on the bottleneck here.  Robert & Michael on the other hand crossed over on a deeper section and got way ahead of us.

Once we finally got back on the trail and moving, Bren and I had 3 women in between us that were walking all the way up which brings me to my grumble about trail etiquette in the previous post.  If you're significantly slower than the person behind you or you have a faster runner flying down the hill towards you on his/her return section, step aside please.  It won't take but a moment, I promise it's not going to slow you down significantly and it's just good trail etiquette to do so on the single track stuff.  Oh and say thank you when someone does move over for you.  If the lead runners can say thanks, us slower runners have no excuse for not being equally as polite.  Another thing, mp3 players have no place out on the trails, you most definitely need to hear what's going on around you.  What if you go off the main trail (which happened to us more than once) and you can't hear people trying to tell you? There's also the not being able to hear runners coming up behind you and guess what, we are out in the woods, there IS a bear population in Arkansas especially in that area.  Ok, so the last is not a likely scenario but we do have bears.

The aid station rocked!  Great volunteers and yummy food, I've discovered that a small homemade brownie with a few salty chips (crisps for the UK crowd) makes an EXCELLENT snack for me.  No way could I do that on a road race but bring it on for the trails!!!!!!!!!  However, it does take a mile or 2 for me to get my breathing and pacing back on track after eating, feel and sound like I'm pushing it on a hard sprint but I'm lucky to be doing 15 minute miles, lol.  I gotta have the food though in order to keep my blood sugar from bottoming out.

Did I mention the scenery? It was almost enough to keep you distracted from all the climbing.  We were eventually rewarded with this fantastic, long, WIDE, albeit very muddy downhill, I felt like I was flying down that baby to get to the turnaround point.  Oh yeah, the turnaround.........it's this piece of pipe hanging from a tree with a plastic stapler thingamajig that you use to stamp/perforate your bib with. Only problem was that I didn't know what to do and I had to wait for the next couple of runners to get there and explain it to me.  I wasn't complaining though about waiting, we were right next to the creek again and there was a gorgeous waterfall to ogle just beyond.  I want to do the 50k just to see what it looks like, apparently the trail only gets more spectacular.  What I will complain about is the rushing water of the rapids made me have to pee like crazy and it was a couple of miles back to the aid station.  Yes I could have peed out in the woods but I really try to avoid having to do that if possible.  Besides there were REAL bathrooms available and hot water to wash my hands with after so I was determined to make it back, lol.

It was almost scary how great I was feeling at this point, I kept catching and passing people and was not showing any signs of fatiguing yet.  Yes, my lungs and legs were screaming with the uphill climbs but that was normal, I wasn't hit with the ohmygosh I'm not going to be able to go a step further feeling. I will say I was extremely happy to get back to the park where the aid station and bathrooms were though..........any further and I was going to have to drop my drawers out amongst the trees.  Bathroom business done, another small brownie square and some more chips, chat with Brenda and we were off again.  I do really enjoy running with her but especially so on the trails :-).

I did start to flag a bit on the extremely rocky areas before the creek crossing, it takes a lot out of you having to pay that much attention to your footing and to make sure that you haven't wandered off the trail but again I was passing people, mostly those who didn't stay as long at the aid station as I did.  The lead guys from the 50k were also catching up to us 25kers so there was a fair bit of stepping aside to let them by.  Extremely inspirational, they were working hard but still looked like they were enjoying themselves.  Surprisingly I caught up to Michael during this section just before the creek, he was suffering from some calf cramping unfortunately :-(.

Ahhhh, that creek crossing. I was actually looking forward to it in order to numb my left ankle somewhat before the last push to the finish and boy did it do it's work.  It had also risen to be mid-thigh deep so I got more wet than what I'd planned for, eek.  I wasn't the only one who'd been anticipating the numbing effect, there was a guy just standing there when I entered the water who said he'd been needing that for the past mile or so because his knee was giving him trouble.

Out of the water, through the field past a group of teenagers who were all loaded up with packs for an overnight hike and I get to the parking lot and have no clue which way to go!!!!!!!!!!! One of my bad habits when I run with a group is that I don't really pay much attention to the route.  I had to wait for the next runner to catch up and ask, so embarrassing!  The route by the way was straight up a dirt road, with a near vertical climb, a level spot, then a climb again.  There was a Camaro and a Dodge Charger--parents of some of the teenagers who were camping overnight-- and they were having to crawl up that hill.  I walked part of the first climb then ran the remainder up but it was a struggle.  I think I impressed the guy driving the Camaro though, he waited at the top of the dirt road for me to reach the pavement, rolled down his window, and told me "good job!".  Even if he was taking the piss, it is still awesome to hear something like that at a hard part in a run.  Made my day anyways.

I thought I would hate the pavement section, I certainly did on the way out to the trail but once I got on it I knew it was the home stretch and I just let my legs do their thing.  It felt so good to be on an area where I didn't have to worry about where my feet were gonna land and just go on auto-pilot.  Even cooler than the guy in the Camaro was kicking it in and over-hearing a couple of people talk about how strong I looked headed for the finish line and actually feeling THAT strong.  Huge kudos to Robert who had an amazing race & time, he looked like he could have ran another 25k easily and he beat me in by over 20 minutes.

Final stats: 3:54:10 total time, 3:30:26 moving time. 123/202 finishers, 27/64 female, 9/19 female 40-49 age group.

The ice bath aftermath

Sylamore 25k

I adore trails. What more can be said? Not sure I'm up to a full-blown race report tonight but I am a very happy albeit very sore runner tonight.  Oh and I get to get up even earlier in the morning and head for Texarkana to run a half marathon on the road. Don't think I'm gonna enjoy it near as much because I'm nursing some achy muscles tonight.

So in the interest of trying to go to bed early, I'm only putting up a few pics & stats tonight.

Out and back course

My garmin charts 

The splits

Watching the 50k runners head out

Amazing house on the hill

I'm a finisher :-)

There will be a longer post tomorrow night or on Monday with waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more details and a bit of a brag and nag about trail etiquette.  My tired arse is off to bed. Hope everyone's weekend runs/workouts have rocked.