Sunday, May 10, 2009

The Bear Trail race

Yesterday I ran the first annual Bear 3m trail race in Carlisle. I hadn't planned on racing and was thinking of doing a Sunday race. Late in the week I changed my mind and figured I'd give it a shot.

I met up with RD-Petey at 5:45 AM and we set up a couple of water stops before going out for a 3m run. Then we hiked the course putting out over 200 flags and a couple of mile markers. The course was a bit muddy and had some rolling hills but was in decent shape otherwise. After setting up registration there wasn't much that needed doing so I headed out with Grey Wolves teammate Scott Spence for about 2.5 miles of the course. I changed into racing flats and did another half-mile of strides before hitting the line.

Petey's command of "ready, set, cayuga" sent 88 runners off. I went to the front and pushed. At approximately the mile (5:43) I glanced back and noted that I still had company (Andrew Wedlake). I tried to run as hard as possible for the next mile, but didn't gain much ground. I didn't want to leave it to a kick as I don't have much of a kick. I hit 2 (ish) at 11:45 and almost fell in the biggest of mud puddles. The final uphill half-mile (same as the Chamberas XC race) was tough. I was very happy to take the victory in 17:09 a good effort for me. I'm looking forward to hitting the roads next week in the 12km road champs.

Top five
Place Time Pace Name Team
1 17:09 05:43 Dave Dunham M 45 Grey Wolves
2 17:38 05:53 Andrew Wedlake M 37 BAA
3 18:33 06:11 Scott Spence M 44 Grey Wolves
4 18:57 06:19 Ian Finlayson M 34
5 20:10 06:43 Rebecca Mayer F 24

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