South County Trails: Li'l Rhody Week! 11-9-15 to 11-15-15 w/ RACE RECAP

It's here! The biggest race of the year for me. A month or so ago, I figured there was no way I could duplicate my finish time from last year, but now with a good hard trail race and speedwork under my belt, I'm feeling much more confident. Here's a breakdown of my results:

2000    1:07:13 104th
2001      DNS
2002    1:03:32   91st
2003    1:01:29   69th
2004      DNS
2005    1:01:39   51st
2006    1:04:31   83rd
2007    1:05:05   78th
2008    1:00:00   44th
2009     58:19     40th
2010     54:02     19th    recap
2011     52:38      9th     recap
2012     50:04      7th     recap
2013     48:59      7th     recap
2014     47:10      5th     recap

That was fun putting together. The first year was the last year the course ran in the opposite direction and was only 7.9 miles. Looks like I began to get my running addiction around 2008.

Monday: 9 miles - Ryan Park trails alone. Busy day at the office and no energy to run. Luckily the weather was spectacular and running in the woods cheered me right up. Total time: 1:06:53.

Tuesday: 11 miles - 3 x 1 mile (sprint-float-sprint) on the Quonset Bike Path. Rainy conditions. I wanted to do speedwork this week, but I wanted plenty of rest between it and the race. Today was the day. I ran around Calf Pasture Point for a warm up and then ran the full length of the bike path west using the measured miles as my guide. I actually followed through with my plan, although bailing after 2 was extremely appealing. Just like last week, my plan was to keep the floats spicy. A really challenging workout. Results: 5:30/5:30/5:33 with 1/2 mile rest between miles. Very happy with this. My cooldown was a bit of a sufferfest mostly into the wind and rain. My hands got really cold. I survived and treated myself to a large coffee. Total time: 1:18:16.

Wednesday: 7 miles - Burlingame trails alone. Day off from work and school. I had a chance to run after the chimney sweepers came to our house. It was really windy, so I decided to hit up some nearby sheltered trails. My legs feel pretty terrible with a combination of fatigue and nerves. The run cleared my mind however. Someone (I'm assuming mtn bikers as this seems to be an issue in other places they ride) has used a leaf blower on parts of the Vin Gormley Trail. Pretty lame. The leaves are a nice challenge, but more importantly, healthy for the trails. No leaves encourages erosion, and the trail certainly doesn't need to get any more rooty. Whatever. I'm sure the wind will blow plenty of leaves back onto the trail by Sunday. Total time: 1:00:00.

Thursday: 7 miles - Rome Point trails alone. More rain, but not too raw out. I just did some mindless zigzagging in the park. It's amazing that people were still in there walking their dogs in this weather. I bushwhacked up the hill from the new blue blazed trail until I hit brier hell. Total time: 58:14.

Friday: 5 miles - local roads in the early morning. Beautiful morning and with a busy day planned, I was happy to run early. Clear skies and windy. Legs feeling good. Spent most of the run thinking about 47 minutes of pain on Sunday. Just kidding, I was thinking 46 minutes. I can dream at least. Total time: 37:41.

Saturday: 1.5 miles - Burlingame trail run with my kids. Busy day, but I talked the kids into a late afternoon romp in the woods. I wanted to check out the course conditions and shake out my legs. We had a lot of fun, especially going off trail to explore rocks and even climb a tree. Vin Gormley was freshly leaf blown which did anger me. When we returned, we ran into Crutch and Paul who were out marking the race course.

Sunday: 10.5 miles - Li'l Rhody Runaround 8M Trail Race.

Let's get the pleasantries out of the way: favorite race, local, family, friends, party, pressure

Everything about the day was awesome including my race. My time was just slower than I anticipated. I went out hard, somehow was leading the race for the first mile (NOT PLANNED), held on through the trails to a tough pace, blasted the road home to the best of my ability. Finished up 6th overall, 48:10 - exactly 1 minute slower than last year. I wasn't surprised to not match last year's incredible time, but I thought that I had run (based on effort) pretty close. Unfortunately I can't even compare my GPS mile splits because my new watch measured it .4 miles shorter than last year. I don't think I was in noticeably better shape last year, the weather was good, the course was in excellent shape, and I ran in a similar fashion (fast start). Muddy was nipping at my heals most of the race keeping my pace honest. I'm not the only one, most people ran slower today (except for the Walkers!). Curious, but I'm still pleased. I still beat plently of fast dudes today. I was top Master. I got to build and stoke the fires at registration and cross names off the pre-registration list (more fun to me than I should admit).