The week has been busy,
messy, and I just had few hours for training and a short friday night....buttoday was the Race#5 of the
winter trail series at Caesar Creek Park.
I already ran this 12 miles
course (6 miles back and fork) last year, in a fresh snow and it had been the
toughest run of 2014. As last year, we got some snow during the week and the
trails were still covered by a thin layer of white powder but nothing compare
to the previous year.
Bunch of runners were here,
probably because of the warmer temperature!! It was really great to not freeze
waiting the start. The temperature has something of spring today and it’s
really nice to be outside with sunshine.After a short warm-up, we
all align for the start and begin the race at 10pm... Runners are up for 6 miles
or 12 miles course.
Due to the last year
experience, the strategy was to get a decent 1st km to escape and not be stuck
once on the trail and then going for a comfortable pace checking the damage of
the crappy week. A quick look in front of me, a group of 10 runners are taking
the lead, with 6 and 12 milers and a quick look over my shoulder confirmed that
we already made a gap we the main group and I then got into my pace focusing on not
twisting my ankle.
After the first mile, the
leader of the long distance series was walking back and told me that he twisted
his ankle...end of the race for him.
Approaching Miles 3, I met
the leaders of the 6 miles on the way back to the finish line, 4 guys, meaning
that I should be behind 4 or 5 guys still racing for the 12 miles.
After Miles 5, I keep on
looking in front of me as the leaders should now shortly cross my way after turning
back on miles 6 and I will soon know my position. The leader appears, looking
easy and confident. A good 30 seconds after him, a group of 3 runners cross also my
way shortly followed by another guy....well I'm 6th , not
too bad with the too short sleep from last night.
Miles 6, time to turn back
and run to the finish line. I check the time to know the gap between me and the
7th runner...40 seconds and as expected it's the guy who passed me in the last
km in the previous race and with whom we are fighting since the beginning of the
series...but today he looks tired and my strategy is working pretty
well as my legs are still fine!! Let's try to speed up a bit the pace to
increase the gap as I know this guy is a good finisher. I'm crossing now lot of 12
milers, some jump aside the trails with a "good job man", others
look pretty tired and I am running most of the time off the trail to not
make their run more difficult.
Miles 10, here I have a
great view of what's going on behind as the trail is running on the lower part of
a hill from where I can see the trail on the top. No sign of other 12 milers , which gives me a good 2 minutes gap. After 2 last miles, trying to
keep a decent pace, the finish line is there with Brian from Topo Trail
recording the time of finisher
18.3km on the Garmin - 1h36min - 6th, 23min less than the crazy snowy run last year!!! Finally better than anticipated.
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