Goal C: To finish my first trail race healthy and enjoying a run in the forest
Goal B: To finish in less than 2 hours
Goal A: To compare with my time in the 2014 Atlanta 10-Miler (street race, 1:31:13)
Shortly after I completed my first 5K in fall 2013, I read that one can improve one's speed by doing trail runs. I've done a little slow running at Yellow River park between Stone Mountain and Snellville, but always get lost and after running for a couple of miles, I slow down so that I can figure out how to get back to the parking lot. I had passed on a trail run at Yellow River earlier in the year because I was focused on training for the Publix Georgia half-marathon and didn't want to risk twisting an ankle. But a few weeks ago I saw this race advertised, at Red Top Mountain State Park on Lake Allatoona, and decided to run it. There was a 3.1 mile option, but my finger slipped when I was registering and found myself going for the 9.9 mile race. Honestly I was thinking that it would hardly be worth driving an hour each way just to run a 5K, but as soon as I had registered, I wondered if I shouldn't have done my first trail run at an easier distance.
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| This should be easy. |
Bonnie had asked a couple of days ago about signing up for the 5K, but in the pre-race e-mail on Wednesday morning, the organizers had announced that the race had sold out, 325 participants maximum. On the day of the race, we arrived more than an hour before the start, lucky to get one of the last few remaining parking spots. But when I checked in to pick up my bib, I asked if Bonnie could sign up on-site. They were happy to do so when I had the cash for the registration fee - and Bonnie was dressed to run, as she was hoping to do a workout while waiting for me to finish - so a moment later, she was pinning on a bib!
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| Always prepared! |
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| While waiting for the start, we were rewarded with this beautiful sunrise view of Lake Allatoona. |
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| A few other Tucker Running Club members were there! with Tanisha Grimes, Mary Beth and George Hemenway |
The time passed quickly and the race organizer counted down to the 8:00:00 am start. The weather was pleasant, about 70 deg F with light clouds. I took a spot in the middle of the pack, and we started out slowly across a grass field, then onto the parking lot to spread us out. The 5K and 9.9 mile runners were together for the first 0.45 miles, following the organizer on his mountain bike. We entered the Lodge Trail, which could handle only two abreast, so I was running only an 11-minute mile pace. I figured that was OK, I tend to start too quickly, and could make up the time. But we all slowed down as we reached the first uphill section. Before we had even gone half a mile, I had slightly twisted my left ankle! It wasn't too painful but I hoped that it wouldn't cause me trouble later in the race. And I hoped that Bonnie would be able to enjoy the race. I was expecting that the first part would be level and smooth, but that wasn't the case!
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| Race route: Grass field to Lodge trail to Homestead Trail (clockwise), then to Sweet Gum trail + Visitor Center loop (counter-clockwise), then another loop of the Homestead Trail, finally back on the Lodge trail concluding with the asphalt Lakeside trail to the finish line. |
We split after 0.45 miles, as the 5K runners turned left (south) to run the Sweet Gum trail, whereas the 9.9 mile runners turned right (north) onto the Homestead trail, heading clockwise. I knew that there would be a substantial uphill section in the first mile of the Homestead trail, but the grade was more than I had expected from road racing. Of course! It would be difficult for a car to make it up the grade, but hikers, horses, probably mountain bikes should be able to manage it. I passed a few people who were taking walk breaks up the hill, hoping that I didn't regret my faster pace later in the race. I did know that I would have to repeat this loop for miles 7, 8, and 9. Finally we reached the top of the hill, where a couple of volunteers were loudly cheering us on. The path leveled out and I picked up a bit of speed, trying to get back to a 10 minute / mile pace. I had to take it easy on downhill sections, and stubbed my toes on several occasions on roots, but thank goodness I never fell and didn't really come that close to an accident, taking care to watch where I was stepping. Normally I wear sunglasses when running, but I was glad that I left them behind today, so I could see the ground clearly. And the great thing about running in the forest was the shade, which also kept the temperature comfortable.
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| I really like the shirt. It feels like it will be comfortable so I expect that it will be one of my favorite running shirts in the coming months. |
Around the two-mile mark, I saw Lake Allatoona for the first time on the race route. I was going to say that this was the most beautiful part of the route, but really most of it was quite nice, and I particularly enjoyed looking down on the lake from the trail. The left ankle wasn't bothering me, except when I made a sharp left turn pivoting on the left foot, which was easily avoided when I realized that it made much more sense to push off the right foot when turning left, and vice versa. So far so good. I finished the first loop of the Homestead trail at about 39 minutes elapsed, took a walk break through the water stop, and then resumed running on the Sweet Gum trail. This part was not as hilly, but we had heard that a big storm had come through a few weeks ago and knocked down quite a few trees. We could see that the trail was cleared quite well, except for one section where the workers deliberately left a two-log obstacle, only about 2 feet high but I was careful to hurdle it cleanly. At times we were running on the same track with the returning group, but the route was clearly marked with arrows both way and as long as we stayed single file to the right, there was plenty of room. I later discovered that they were about 1-1/2 miles ahead of us, so moving pretty quickly. The south end of this loop had some uphill sections and now more people were passing me than I was passing myself. I passed the five-mile sign at 56 minutes - normally I'm finishing a 10K by this time. Although we were halfway done, I wasn't sure that I would be able to run the next 4.9 miles in 56 minutes, but still on track to finish in less than two hours. I took a gel shortly after passing the 6 mile marker - probably should have done so a bit sooner given the slower pace - and I felt a bit stronger after taking in few calories.
As we finished the Sweet Gum trail and crossed the road, some of the 5K finishers were walking to their cars! The volunteers were waving me forward to the second loop of the Homestead trail. I joked with a volunteer as I jogged past "Maybe I should have done the 5K!" but was sure to smile so that she knew that I wasn't in distress. As I began the Homestead trail, heading uphill, the faster runners were passing in the other direction, racing downhill and knowing that they had less than one mile to go. For me, about 3-1/2 more miles! The uphill section was much more difficult this time around, and I regretted having run the first loop at too fast of a pace. I took quite a few walk breaks heading uphill, trying to keep my heart rate below 170 bpm. At this stage there weren't too many runners around me. I caught up to a woman around the 7-mile marker on a walk break where I shared my suspicion that trail-running for 10 miles was harder than running a half-marathon on streets. She seemed to have experience and agreed that was the case. She asked what was my next half marathon, which is the Hotlanta Half in just 3 weeks. I hoped that the Hotlanta race might seem easy after this trail race. We started running again and I pulled well ahead of her. But only for a few minutes! She caught up to me and passed when I took my next walk break. I laughed and said "I had a feeling that you were going to catch up to me!"
As we made the turn to look over Lake Allatoona (by now after 9:30 am), there were a couple of motorboats out on the water. I was mostly running by myself, but one other runner caught up to and passed me in the ninth mile. I congratulated him on pacing himself better in the first loop, as I was struggling to maintain speed with every little uphill section. He pulled well ahead, before long more than a couple of hundred feet ahead. On a couple of turns, I looked behind me, and saw nothing but forest. No brightly colored runner shirts to be seen! Surely I couldn't be in last place, but I definitely slowed down a bit without seeing anyone behind me. Right before we finished the Homestead trail, around the 9-mile mark, I spotted a man in a blue shirt a couple of hundred feet behind. So I'm not last! But I took a rather long walk break in advance of the water stop, and he came through just a few seconds after I left the water station.
That break was helpful, however. I recognized the Lodge trail, although going in the opposite direction. I wasn't going to let Mr. Blue Shirt pass me without making him work for it, so I kept a steady pace on the trail. Then we reached a parking lot and I picked up more speed on the asphalt. The volunteers were cheering "Less than a mile to go!" and I was hoping it was more like a kilometer. I could hear sounds from the finish line and the announcer although I couldn't make out what he was saying, I was still too far away. But then there was a nice surprise: the Lakeside trail was a nice soft asphalt surface, similar to the path at Lucky Shoals park near my home! I was still ahead of Mr. Blue Shirt although I think he was hoping to catch me. But I managed to speed up a bit more - at least it felt like it! I stole a few glimpses at my Garmin watch in this section and saw that I was running between 8:30 and 9:00 minute / mile pace, which made me very happy that I still had a little gas in the tank, even though my heart rate monitor was steadily beeping that my pulse was too high (>170 bpm). I could see the lake up ahead, but didn't recognize the area where we had walked before the race. My watch was reading 1:58:15 and I felt that I was more than 1:45 away from the finish. It seemed to take forever to reach a familiar area where we had walked to the lake three hours earlier, and then I saw the finish line to my left. Mr. Blue Shirt had been overtaken by someone wearing an Orange Shirt, who seemed to be gaining on me quite quickly. My watch read 1:59:45, and was pretty sure that I was more than 15 seconds away from the finish line. But with every last bit of effort, I sped up some more. When I could first read the clock at the finish line, I saw 1:59:59 and then 2:00:00. I didn't see the time as I crossed because I had spotted Bonnie on the other side of the finish line taking my photo as I approached. I estimated that I finished around 2:00:10, but the official result recorded was 2:00:19.
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| Not DFL! |
When I checked the results in the afternoon, I saw that the man who had passed me early in the ninth mile had finished in 1:57:18, three minutes faster than me. So I basically missed the 2-hour goal when I was struggling through mile nine and the first part of the last 0.9 mile. The Garmin data revealed that I ran the first loop of the Homestead trail in 33 minutes, but I needed 41 minutes for the second loop, so I obviously used up too much energy in the first half of the race. But it was a good learning experience for my first trail race. Within a few minutes of recovering, I realized that I definitely want to run this race again next year, now that I have a baseline time that I can work on improving.
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| Age group winners in my division, Male 50 - 54. The man in first place on the podium regularly wins my division at Atlanta Track Club events; he finished today's race in 1:12:50! |
Overall results: 2:00:19 elapsed time, 12:09 minute / mile average pace; 10th out of 12 in my age group, 154th out of 190 finishers. The overall winner, a 27-year-old man from Decatur, finished in 1:02:03 - amazing!
Goal C: To finish my first trail race healthy and enjoying a run in the forest; Achieved! Remarkably the ankle bothered me less in the second half of the race, although that may have been because I was running more slowly. I think that it was not quite as difficult as a half-marathon, or perhaps I am a little stronger than when I ran my first half-marathon last December.
Goal B: To finish in less than 2 hours; I missed that goal by just 19 seconds! Next time I will more rigorously follow the "Galloway method" in the first miles of the race, because in the end that's probably where I lost it, using up too much energy in the first loop.
Goal A: To compare with my time in the 2014 Atlanta 10-Miler (street race, 1:31:13); Now I know that the two races are hardly comparable, at least for me.
Comments on the race: This event was very well organized. The course was well-marked throughout, with volunteers at crucial crossings. Although I carried my own water, I took advantage of most of the water stops to hydrate and fuel with a little Gatorade. A volunteer at the top of the hill on the Homestead trail enthusiastically cheered us as we ran uphill both times - and was probably also there to assist if someone had suffered a serious fall or had become ill. The other runners were pleasant, encouraging and friendly, stepping to the side if someone was passing them, and running behind until there was a safe place to pass. Parking was probably a problem for late-comers, but the organizers had warned us to arrive early and to carpool. At 6:50 am we were able to park in the main lot near the lodge. The park is lovely and I hope to visit again just to enjoy the lake and perhaps do some easy hiking with family or visitors.
I had heard that I didn't really need trail running shoes for this course, but I purchased a pair a couple of weeks ago, and was glad to have them. They provided valuable protection when I stubbed my toes on roots - about a half dozen times - and my feet came through the race intact, without blisters, bruises, or bleeds. The rubber tread, with deeper grooves than my usual running shoes, gave me more traction on the dirt surfaces. Although the race was tougher than I had expected, it was a great experience and one that I hope to repeat on occasion.
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