BYB Prince William Forest Park Race Report

BYB # 3

The Highlights:
(1) Ow
(2) After entering the single track (where I was already behind a few of the fast 10 miler women) I got passed by 4 women: 1 at the base of the ascending fire road, going so light and quick - she finished about 3 minutes in front of me, 2 near the bottom of the descending fire road, about .5 mile before you go back to single track - 1 went on to the 10 mile course and the other took second overall, and, heartbreakingly, 1 about .2 miles from the finish, who went on to snag the last place on the OA podium and win our age group 10 seconds in front of me. And who said, "The finish is right up here around the corner, right?" as she went by. Frustrating!
(3) Relearned that lesson about not taking a Gu 12 minutes before starting a race that is going to begin at a breakneck pace down a hill. I cannot digest Gu at 5:40 pace. Actually, I am not sure if I ever learned that exact lesson before, but I should have known better.

Longer Version:
I was going to write  a longer version, but now I am a week after the race and I haven't written it yet, so I better just cut my losses and publish. Basically the thing I was going to add was how strangely nervous I was going into this one. I try to prepare myself by visualizing in the nights before the race, particularly as I know these courses quite well, but the knowledge of how hard the first .5 mile of this course is--and how my race strategy was going to make it very very painful--kind of freaked me out. I am thinking I was probably better off for having done it anyway, but it did make me kind of dread the start of race morning.

Also, about the guy on the ascending fireroad who passed me as I started to fade around mile 2 and urged me on: "Stay with me! Stay with me!" Not sure why he felt the need to encourage me, but it worked. I can imagine it could have come off badly depending on the state of mind of the person receiving, and I don't know why he chose to cheer me on, but I was grateful.

It was a really fun race, though, even if it could have ended better. Another perfect morning for a race. And the kids both napped 3 hours in the afternoon when we got home. Amazing!