About 90% single-track trail less than two feet wide, this race is perfect for a small group. However, in the last year, the recent running boom has nearly doubled attendance at all the local races. The start was crowded with more people than I have ever seen at a club race before. The gun went off and I sped off with many other runners. The beginning of the race has about .25 mi of wide pavement. I let myself go out a little faster than I normally do, just because it was the easiest footing area. Then the runner bottleneck began as we filtered onto the narrow trail. It was a mass chaos of some people passing others too closely through thickets of Himalayan Blackberry. If you’ve ever seen these plants, you know they mean business as they have thorns more gnarly than rose bushes. One runner was particularly pushy in her passing and nearly knocked her and others over as she moved along. If she fell, there would definitely have been a twenty person pileup in just a few seconds.
Eventually the course opened up a little bit and I could pass a string of people that went out too fast. Mile two was great. We raced alongside the mudflats of Arcata Bay. Low tide produced a muddy landscape as far as I could see. Shore birds dug through the mud to find their breakfast. The Arcata Marsh has a lot of wonderful wildlife and is beautiful with the ponds and lakes nearby, but the ponds are still vegetated sewage treatment ponds. The warmer ponds attract many types of coastal bird, but can smell horrible. It has been two weeks since I have smelled anything, so nothing bothered me today at all. I even found myself wondering why I don’t run here more often, momentarily forgetting about how it usually is.
About mile 2.5, we ran back toward the start. This was the same portion of trail as we ran at about 1.5 miles. Walkers were very considerate on the narrow trail and moved aside wonderfully as we tried to sneak by. But I got stuck behind one girl going at an 8:00/mi (I was averaging about a 7:20/mi the rest of the way), so it was frustratingly slow for how much I wanted to finish strong and kick. I was stuck behind her and another person for about a minute. When the trail finally opened up to a truck road, I had about .25 mi left. I hit the gas. I passed about 20 people in the last portion, but it wasn’t enough to recover my pace.
SRRC photo, That girl right behind me? The very same one that been
less than five
seconds behind me in the last couple races and she’s in
my AG. Whew, sorry Sequoya.
Overall 57/265
Female 18/163
F25-29: 3/16
That is a single second PR from my road 5K, and 30 seconds faster than this race last year. I admit that I’m a little angry about how crowded it was and affected my time. I know I’m not one for crowded races, but I hope they re-route the course next year so there is no overlap. Had it not been so crowded, I could have done a sub-23:00 with this trail race. Next year, I’ll try to start out too fast and be the one that holds up traffic, or I’ll just run it for fun, otherwise it is far too frustrating.
5 comments:
Still sounds like a beautiful run. I guess just go into it expecting a slower time if you run it again, but 23 min isn't really slow!
Bummer about the crowded start, I don't really like big races or congested courses either. But still a great time!
I would be frustrated too if I got stuck behind someone who was slower than myself. Congrats on the PR though!
Great race, Karen! Too bad about the crowded trail. Hate when that happens. Mt. Marathon is like that in the lower part and you end up staring at the legs of the woman in front of you until you know every scar and scratch.
Also, I'd vote on the Redwoods Marathon as a training run for the CIM, if you can hold back and run it easy, hee, hee. If not, fly through the half.
Cheers,
Wow, 30 seconds faster from last year is fantastic, especially in a crowded race. I like crowded races for marathons but much prefer smaller crowds for shorter races.
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