What are the differences between street runners and trail runners? You can test by the answers to the following questions:
1) What does the abbreviation DNF mean?
a) Did Not Finish 😞
b) Did Not Fall 😄
2) Which photographed runner has the best body art?
My last trail race, the Thrill in the Hills 21K, wasn't a great experience. I actually went to Urgent Care the next day to get X-rays, and was relieved to learn that I only had bruised and not broken ribs. But I also knew that I was going to try at least one more trail race. My first trail race was the Red Top Roaster in 2015, and while it was physically the toughest race that I had run to that point, I had also enjoyed the experience of running in the forest, and appreciated the excellent organization of the Dirty Spokes Productions. Tim Schroer takes great care of all the details, from grooming the trails to greeting virtually every runner as they arrive for his events, and I highly recommend his events.
As before, the race was held at a state park overlooking Lake Allatoona, near Cartersville, about 1 hour drive from our home (without any traffic at 6 am on Saturday). I arrived early enough to thoroughly stretch, jog easily to warm up the legs, and take a few photos of the lake at sunrise. While waiting for the race to start, I ended up eating the protein bar that the organizers had given us with our bibs at the check-in, even though I had eaten a good breakfast at home, and also had a banana with me to eat a few minutes before the start of the race.
My only goal for this race was: DO NOT FALL! I was hoping to finish in less than 2 hours, improving on my time from 2015, but the time wouldn't matter if I failed to stay on my feet for the entire race. So with the mantra DO NOT FALL! firmly in my mind, I joined the other runners at the starting area. When I ran this race two years ago, the 9.9 mi and 3.1 mi racers began together, with a volunteer directing us at a split point about 1/2 mile into the race. Today the 9.9 mi runners got a 5 minute headstart - a nice change that made the start a little less crowded, and undoubtably also avoided confusion between courses. The course would have essentially three loops of similar length: a loop on the Homestead Trail near the summit of Red Top Mountain, a loop on the Sweet Gum Trail to the south (which was the 3.1 mi route), and another loop on the Homestead Trail, before a short dash to the finish line.
Tim started our race at 8:00 on the dot, and we took off across the field toward the lake, then made a right turn onto an asphalt trail, through the parking lot, and onto the Homestead Trail. DO NOT FALL! I remembered that I had run the first loop of the Homestead Trail much too quickly in 2015, and so I took it fairly easy today, taking plenty of walk breaks as we went uphill, not worrying about anyone passing me. DO NOT FALL! It had rained the night before, and so the humidity was relatively high, but the path was relatively dry, no standing water anywhere, and I felt I was off to a decent start, finishing the first mile in 11:40. DO NOT FALL! I was determined to finish the first loop of the Homestead Trail without feeling tired. I had settled into a good rhythm, looking out over the forest
all of a sudden my toe caught on a root and i began to stumble trying to keep my feet under my body just as i was thinking i was going to have to take a roll i saw nice big pine tree ahead of me slightly to my right and i managed to gently bounce my hands on the tree trunk to brake and regain balance oh thank goodness i didnt fall heart racing catch a few breaths start up again dont look around the forest look straight ahead DO NOT FALL!
I was lucky that I didn't blow it in the second mile. I resolved to pick up my feet continuously for the rest of the race, taking short staccato steps when I was running uphill, very cautious short side steps heading downhill, not letting my guard down again on more level ground. DO NOT FALL!
Unfortunately I began to develop another problem that I had never before experienced in a race: some lower gastrointestinal discomfort. Then the protein bar that I had foolishly eaten before the race started to bother my upper gastrointestinal. I was carrying a bottle of Nuun that was still ice cold and was accepting water at every aid station, so it wasn't a problem with hydration, in fact that probably helped to keep the protein bar and any other undigested breakfast safely in my stomach. But I was uncomfortable for the rest of the race. I knew that the discomfort would only distract me if I tried to run faster DO NOT FALL! and so I just took it easy for the rest of the run. From the Homestead Trail, we crossed a road and were immediately onto the Sweet Gum Trail. This was not quite as hilly as the Homestead Trail, but not as scenic, as we couldn't see the lake, not that I was looking around DO NOT FALL!
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| Homestead Trail until about 39 minutes in, Sweet Gum Trail until 1:12, then Homestead Trail again. Since the graph is elevation vs. time, you can see from the breadth of the tallest peaks that it took me nearly twice as long to get to the top on the last loop. |
As we came off the Sweet Gum Trail, we passed through the parking lot. We ran right past my car - there was an empty spot next to my car, the truck that had been parked next to me before the race had already left, I guess they were 3.1 mile runners. I could hear the awards ceremony to my right, then realized that was for the 3.1 mi race. As we approached the beginning of the Homestead Trail, a young woman was dashing downhill toward me. I realized that she was going to be the first female finisher, I clapped my hands and said "Great job!" as she raced to the finish line. She was followed a minute later by another woman, and then several men also quickly moving downhill. I was careful to stay to the right side of the trail - and was congratulating the faster runners as they passed, until we reached a water station where our trail crossed to the left. Looking carefully to ensure that I would not be run down by a speedster, I started heading up the mountain again. Despite my plan to save energy from the first two loops to run the third loop strongly, my GI problems were still with me DO NOT FALL! and I decided that I wouldn't worry at all about my time. I did recognize many parts of the trail on the second loop, but felt that I had much of the forest to myself. On occasion other runners would catch up to me and pass me, no worries today, let them go. At one point, I heard my Garmin signal and saw "run paused" on the watch, even though I was still moving my feet, I think. That forced me to speed up a bit more than any concern about other runners passing me, strangely enough. Around the 8 mile mark, I caught up with a man around my age who was walking - I was still doing walk/run DO NOT FALL! and we chatted for a moment about how tough today's race was. It turns out he had suffered the flu in June and had not yet recovered his strength. He asked if he could pace off me, not that he needed to ask permission, I wasn't even sure of what he was asking or how I would help, but I said "Sure." I doubt that he got any benefit if he was trying to draft off of me, as slowly as I was moving! He caught up with me a few times, I didn't mind and wouldn't have cared if he had moved ahead of me, but he seemed content to stay with or just behind me.
As we passed the 9 mile marker at 1:58, I knew that I would be much slower than last year's time, but DO NOT FALL! was still my focus and was still realistic. I decided that I would probably have enough energy to speed up a bit at the very end, when the trail would be smooth and would then turn into the road to the finish line. As we passed the last water station, about 0.2 mile from the end, a woman in just front of me stubbed her toe on a tree root but managed to catch herself. I said "it would be a shame to fall so close to the end" and was careful myself as I reached the same point, but the same root did not try to catch me as I passed. Remarkably the woman in front of me sped up and was soon out of sight. I simply stayed with my plan, running slowly and steadily, and then began to speed up as I could hear Tim announcing that the awards ceremony was about to begin. I emerged from the forest, sped up a bit more - hearing my heart rate monitor sound for the first time - and made a good finish, although I think I was only running about a 9:30 minute/mile pace in the last few steps. I could have been disappointed to see 2:10 on the clock (official finish time, 2:10:32) but I allowed a little fist pump of victory, because I DID NOT FALL! and acquired NO NEW BODY ART!
The other runner who had paced off of me finished just after me. He introduced himself as Chuck and thanked me for letting him pace me into the finish. Frankly I didn't think that I was able to help but if he felt that it was beneficial for him, I'm glad that worked out. It turns out that we were in the same age group, men 55 - 59; ages were based on October 2017 as this race was part of a series. We were the last two in our age group to finish. 165th out of 197 finishers was pretty slow outcome for me, but given my GI problems, it was the best that I could do. I just wish that I had saved that protein bar until l had finished the race!
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