Winter Series Race 1 Report

Was a bit of a mixed bag.  We got there w/ time to spare and had some nice warm up on the trails.  Decided against YakTracks.  Due to fantastic weather we went shorts and T-Shirts. 

We started fairly easy on the pace, making our way along 1/3 mile of paved road before jumping on the trails.  As we hit the trails we were doing okay, averaging a little slower than 8 min per mile pace, gradually started climbing and were soon on the slick stuff.  1st mile was 8:05 and #12 said he was feeling good.  I was right behind him and everyone was slowed I think by a combination of the crowd and the slickness.

But we were passing people, in fact we both kind of kept a mental note and think less than 5 people passed us for the whole time we were on trails, all the while we kept clicking off people, in one case actually jumping over someone who in a split second fell in front of us.  We had nowhere to go but over him. 

Mile 2 was slower, more uphill, more effort and fell back to an 8:30 average.

In hindsight - we probably should have had put on better traction especially for downhill spots.  I was looking for a handrail at times, feet sliding out and almost wiping myself and others out.

Mile 3 we were laboring a bit as we traversed across the trails back to the parking lot.  We managed to pick up speed and were cruising.  The whole way around I was able to keep up with him, never more than 10 feet behind and at times when I could I came up along beside him.

Finally, we saw the finish line and picked up the pace even more - after 3.3 miles we crossed in just over 26 minutes.  We were spent, was definitely more slick than we expected, but still a good run.   Checking the results his time was about 1 1/2 minutes slower than last year - much more slick spots this time around.   Don't know if it slowed us down too much, but he was happy with his effort, so am I.  2nd in his age group.  Surprisingly  - I'm 6th in mine.  Not sure what that is all about - some of the speedy guys in my age group must have run the longer race.

So, we will mark this down as a good run together.  It was nice to keep up with him - but better to run with him and be able to throw a little encouragement his way during the journey. 

2 weeks till race #2 - the 4 miler.