First race of the season was last Sunday with the Backyard Burn 5 Miler at Hemlock Overlook Regional Park. I have been involved with this particular series of trail runs for maybe 8 years now and have had the privilege of doing each race quite a few times. With three long (long!) hills, 2 long rocky sections, and a very narrow bit that never fails to remind me of a terrifying and hairy trail that we hiked on our honeymoon in Hawai'i .....
(not my image - from the Internet)
.....I am certain this is the hardest race in the series.
Also, the weather is somehow always somewhere on the spectrum of Pretty Awful to just Very Cold. This year we got Quite Cold But Warm Enough To Start To Thaw The Wet Muddy Trail.
So the good news is that the hardest race of the series is over! And the other good news is that I managed a 2nd in my age group and a 3rd overall.
Race starts with a significant downhill on pavement and then gravel road before ducking into the woods for the first time. As always I went too fast on this section, but you really have to if you want to go into the woods in good position. This was all a part of my plan, though, so I knew I would have to dial it back after the prologue.
We went back through the starting area after the prologue loop and I saw my cheering crew but couldn't get over to slap any hands. At this point you duck into the woods and there is about 2 miles of narrow single track ahead. I am pretty confident running downhill on the trails and this has served me well in the past, as it did on Sunday. I made several passes on a steep early downhill that might have saved me some time in the long run.
I also had previewed this section as part of my warm-up, so when we got to the logs crossing the stream, I knew which one wobbled and might drop you into the cold water and which was sturdy. I ended up glad that I had extended my warm-up all the way down there.
There really are three hard hills on the course, so I knew I couldn't red line it early on, but I pushed right up to the limit of uncomfortable. At the bottom of another hill the technical rocky part starts. I know from running this course before that I have a propensity to start getting stressed out at this point if I feel like the people in front of me are being to cautious and slow but that there are very few places to pass. My strategy this time was to pass as much as I could in the flat section leading up to the rocks, to use the rocky part as a little bit of recovery if I was caught behind people, to not stress, and to keep my eyes open for a pass.
In the end this worked out great, as I had positioned myself pretty well and the pace through the rocks mostly suited me. I was able to make one pass by taking a better line but other than that didn't worry.
The other part of the course that I like to go into with a strategy is the second big hill, which continues up through two sharp turns that you can't gauge from below. That is you go up the first section and right where you think it is going to flatten out, it goes up again and then, yeah, one more time. On top of this, the ground was starting to soften up and get muddy, making the uphills feel a little like climbing scree: two steps up, one step back. I decided to steal my dear husband's strategy on that one, which is to run up the bottom until the suffering stops then settle into a fast walk. The worst part of this for me is when it is time to start running again, but this time I know it worked for me. How?
(1) No women passed me on the hill. That's very important.
(2) A few guys passed me, but one of them powered right by near the bottom but by the top I was right with him again. Coming out of the hill right on his tail made me feel like I hadn't lost any time in the long run by walking.
Those were the 2 parts of the race that stood out, except that the last mile of this one is a treacherous one. It starts with narrow windy downhill that feels about 8 inches wide and plunges down about 20 feet on the right to a stream. And this year it was slick and muddy. There is no making up any time when you can't even take full steps. The second half of the last mile is back up that hill and you are feeling it by then. I kept reminding myself that I could push for 800 meters at the track, so I could certainly do it on the race course. By this point I noticed a woman who I had passed early on close behind but took a second to glance at her race number. When I saw the number was red (meaning she was running the 10 mile race), I let her go by with a little relief. I probably should have wanted to beat her too, but I guess I didn't have the will.
I did have the will to sprint the last hill to the finish (just in case), but when I turned around after crossing the line and saw no women in sight, I kind of wondered why...
But it was a good race and I was glad to get on the podium. I would love to finish well in this series this year after a kind of mediocre showing last spring, so I guess I better keep the focus on. This week's race is at Wakefield, which is much flatter, but I think it is going to be very wet, which might make things interesting...
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