On Saturday, I participated in my first race of the year, the Frozen Sasquatch 25k, in the Kanawha State Forest, near Charleston WV.
I had signed up for the 50k in September, back when I was feeling fit, the sun was shining, and I was unreasonably optimistic. As the semester wore on, my schoolwork piled up, and my wife got more and more pregnant, I modified my agenda, and started planning on running the 25k.
That was a very good idea.
While I was reasonably active through the past 3 months, my longest run was about 10 miles, and that was on flat roads in November. I’ve been doing some Crossfit WOD’s over at the House of PAIN (aka Pumphouse Industries), running here and there, and riding my bicycles occasionally.
I woke up at 4:00 am on race day feeling very unprepared, despite my pre-game carb loading. (3.5 slices of pizza and chicken fingers. Very Paleo.)
The drive down was fairly uneventful, aside from crushing redneck monster-truck egos in my little purple-blue Mazda 3. As I got closer to Charleston, the snow got deeper. I was one of the first cars in the parking lot at around 7 am.
As I picked up my race packet, my spirits lifted considerably at the sight of two dudes in Five Fingers. While I’m a fan of the toe-shoes, they suck in the snow. And they’re really, really cold. Plus, one of the barefoot brothers was wearing a kids hat with ears. I felt pretty darn good about my trail-slippers (New Balance MT 100’s) and girlie hat with a pony-tail hole.
After an encouraging PRP (pre-race-poop) I sat through a boring, standard pre-race meeting, while chatting with Michael Owen, a total stud runner who got 9th place at TNF 50 miler in San Francisco in December.
The race started, and I was near the front of the pack. The first climb/hike was uneventful, and I honestly don’t remember too much from the race itself. All trails look pretty much the same when covered with snow.
After the first hour, my faux-fitness started to dissolve. The downhills hurt more and more, and my fast hiking kept getting slower.
I got chicked at least 3 times. I only avoided the 4th by a furious kick in the last 400m. I call it the ego-sprint.
My finishing time was 3:00:34. Not exactly world-beating, but fast enough for a big dude with minimal running experience. At the Mohican 100 (2009 edition) Jeremiah Bishop beat me by about 3 hours. It’s good to know I’m at least 50% slower than both top ultra-runners and ultra mountain bike guys.
The race was fun, and I’m looking forward to a summer of trail running adventures. Next up: Big Bear Lake 20k.
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