Trail Grudge Match – Mission Accomplished!
Minutes after finishing the White Tail Deer Trail Half
As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I had a rematch with the trail course of the White Tail Deer Half Marathon. Last year I ran it with a broken back. This year I ran it with my newly constructed spine. Huge difference.
My goal was to hopefully do better than last year but mostly I just wanted to have a good race. Did I ever! Okay, so my time was not VASTLY improved. I shaved 7 minutes off of last year’s time, but my race experience was as close to perfect as I have come in a trail half. This was my fifth trail half marathon, I believe my 12th half marathon (road or trail). So I’m confident going in that I am going to at least finish.
What made me happiest was not my time. I was actually a little bit disappointed I didn’t do better with the time. The best part of yesterday was feeling that blissed out feeling of feeling good physically, running through some of the most beautiful trail in near perfect weather conditions, meeting friendly people, having great support at the aid stations and race organizers. It all came together in just a great package.
When the race began, I went straight to the back of the pack. My strategy was to do my best, to run a consistent race, no wimping where wimping wasn’t called for. The overall priority was to take care of my back. No stupid risks would be taken. I’d go at the pace I was comfortable with, pushing myself but conserving enough energy to finish the darn thing.
Well, that’s exactly what I did. I ran until about 10 miles, which surprised me since my longest actual run in the past month has been only about 4 miles. I stopped at every aid station to drink water – this is the first time I didn’t carry water with me on my person – the great aid station support allowed me to not worry about that. I stopped to use the women’s restroom at a camp site which slowed down my time a bit but was worth it. Around 6.5 miles my minutes per mile lengthened, I just wasn’t keeping the same pace and that was fine, I was still running and on steep and especially technical (rocky, unstable) segments, hiking, walking fast. By the end though, last couple miles, predictably I slowed quite a bit. I just wasn’t trained up to run the entire half – my bad. But at this point I just gutted it through and I passed 3 people! My biggest fear the last 3 miles was that one of the 12 or so people I passed during the last miles of the race might become a “comeback kid” and catch up and pass me. That would suck and psychologically sap me. I felt kind of bad for everyone I passed, but…well, maybe they were struggling with an injury or something, having a bad day.
Water! Water! Someone put this in my hand at the finish line and I chugged it down while getting my timing chip removed.
The difference between last year’s race and this race at the finish line was profound. Last year I was broken in half at the finish, barely eking out that last mile and a half with the help of some new found trail buddies. This year I ran in with reasonably good form, back straight and feeling tired and sore but overall pretty decent. My only weakness this time around seemed to be under training. So don’t do that. đŸ˜€ This race was unplanned. My husband was doing it. I was going to go support him. But at the last minute, I signed up, trained or not trained for a half marathon. I knew I could make it but I figured I’d be hiking half of it. North Country in August (which I blogged about earlier) was encouraging and I knew White Tail Deer would be somewhat easier than North Country’s relentless hills of sand!
I repeat, TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN people…even if you stick to only 90% of your training schedule, you will have a more successful race. But mine was good because I have been hiking on hilly wooded trails consistently, even if I haven’t been running, I had some decent leg strength going in.
And at the end, to make a perfect day even better, there was SUNSHINE and a beach…a kind of sketchy beach as cleanliness goes, but a beach all the same! That after coming through a great run through gorgeous natural forest beauty taking in colorful leaves, sparkling lake views and wildflowers. I wished over and over again I had a camera but that would have been difficult while running anyway.
Beach at the end of the race.
Morning Warm Up 