double d mountain runner: Coe Brown XC race

The Coe Brown XC race (Run to fall) was postponed due to an outbreak in Northwood. Scott Clark sent out an email asking the "gang" who was up for meeting for a run. I suggested that we meet up and race the course with whoever from our little group might be interested. Race director Tim Cox (who has done a couple of my little pop-up races this year) suggested we meet at his house a mile from the course and it was "game on"! Tim even went out on Saturday and cleared the course of leaves.

I met up with Scott at 6:30am at Tim's house and was happy to see Senior runners Jay Smith and Mike Barry turn up as well. We did an easy mile jog over to the course start and dumped our race flats before continuing on for a 2 mile course preview that covered the basics of the multi-loop course. For the most part the trail was as wide as a road, it really only got narrow around 2.5 miles for the single-track section. The footing was very good, but WOW the course was tough with 250' of climb/descent. Nothing super-steep but a bunch of grinding tough stretches.

We gathered up at 7am with temps in the mid-20s as the sun was just starting to get above the horizon. It felt pretty fast as we zipped across the field and headed into the woods. Tim went to the front and Scott and I hung on. By 1/2 mile Tim started to break away. At the mile he had put 10 seconds on me and I had a few seconds on Scott. I was tempted to peek back at 1.5 when we went back through the starting field but didn't want Scott to know I was worried (I was wheezing badly on the uphill). Tim was moving well and although in sight for the most part, I knew he had the win. It was good to have him out front as the carrot and that helped me gap Scott. I struggled up the hill before the single-track section and again thought about looking back but didn't need to as I could hear Scott breathing on the uphill (as I came down the hill on the single-track). It wasn't easy to hear him as I was also wheezing loudly. I managed to keep it together and hit the 3 mile mark as Tim was crossing the finish line. I managed to hold on with a 19:29. Scott came in about 30 seconds later and I got some finish pictures of the guys before we headed off for another 2 miles for a warm-down.

I'd seeded myself for the actual race with an 18:55 without having seen the course. I'm hopeful I can get a little closer to that next month.