January 2020 Monthly Running Challenge

Storms here yesterday were pretty bad. Power was out for about six hours, and lightning struck a building downtown. Fortunately, they got everyone out and put out the fire before it spread too far.

It is storming again now, but I did manage to get out earlier today to complete my 17 mile run. I felt good at the end, so that is all I care about. Chilling with some tv and my dogs tonight and hoping we don’t have another power outage.

Race report! MRTC Winter Off-Road 3k at Overton Park!

Last year, this short race was my first ever trail race. It’s the first race of the Memphis Runners Track Club winter off-road series, which consists of a 3k, 5k, 8k, and 10k on trails at various parks in the Memphis area. Last year I placed 5th in AG at the 3k and ended up 2nd in AG in the series, partly because several ladies who are faster than I am weren’t able to make it to all the races. Then immediately after the series I hurt my Achilles’ tendon and had to take several months off rehabbing. As a result, my husband and I aren’t in nearly as good shape as we were this time last year. So we went into this race planning to run it as well as we could, but keep our expectations low.

The Memphis area got some crazy weather the past couple of days, going from mid 70s to below freezing overnight, with storms, high winds, and even a couple of tornado touchdowns. In particular the part of Memphis near Overton park lost some big trees and got pounded by torrential rain. According to the MRTC Facebook page, race volunteers were up at the crack of dawn with chainsaws clearing paths inside the park and even a road outside the park. They did a great job - despite debris everywhere else, the race route was clear. They couldn’t clear away water, though, and as we drove in, we passed several places where water backing up out of the drainage system made it look like there was a broken water main under the street. So we knew it would be muddy. It was also overcast and cold!

After the fiasco of the missing packet pickup yesterday, we got our chip, bib, and shirt in a timely fashion, went to pee, and... the lights in the coed bathroom had been commandeered by some sort of evil force. The lights would come on when the door was opened, then automatically shut off when the door shut, leaving the occupant locked inside, in near-total darkness, with a button they had to press to get out. It was hilarious listening to people squeal and then laugh as the door swung shut. I think everybody simultaneously decided not to spoil the surprise for the next sucker in line. There was a perfectly fine sink but I don’t think a single runner stood in darkness and washed his or her hands. A short distance from the line was sort of a debriefing area where survivors gathered to discuss their trauma. “I think this bathroom was designed by Satan,” a young man said, and I said, “Believe it or not this is better than last year. Last year the toilet kept randomly flushing and it’s so loud it sounded like an airplane was taking off inside the loo. Little children were screaming for their mommies.” “I think this bathroom is possessed,” he said.

Next we decided to take a warm up walk. It was too cold to walk comfortably so we ended up trotting up and down the road listening to the race announcements. It all worked out for the best, though - we got maybe a half mile in, wearing our heavy jackets, then ditched the jackets at the car at the last possible minute and went straight to the start line feeling much warmer. There were corrals and a staggered start, and we lined up near the front of the second corral, which was for 8 - 10 minute miles. Last year we did 9:45 on this course but we also noticed that many people in this particular race are new to trail racing and line up well forward of their pace, so we put ourselves near the front. At the last moment the guy in front of me backed up and ran into me with total unawareness of his surroundings, and I went, uh oh, this guy has zero situational awareness, he’s going to be a problem to run next to. I didn’t have time to move to another spot before we started.

I wasn’t wrong, the guy was all over the place in front of us the whole first third of a mile and impossible to pass, with everyone else packed in like sardines. Slow moving sardines stuck in rush hour traffic. In retrospect knowing what I know about the newbies in this race I should have put us at the very front of the corral. We had planned to start fast, since the first half mile is on turf and is safe to sprint over, but that wasn’t possible. I finally ended up going off the trail for a few steps to get around everyone, and then it was a little better. There’s a short stretch of broad road where people spread out and we gained a bit there. Our strategy for this race was just to run like hell - it’s less than 2 miles - just sprint as hard as we were able when conditions allowed and be safe on the tricky bits.

After the road the path turns up a hill and into the woods. This is the part of the course we have nicknamed “the slip and slide.” When it has rained recently it’s like racing down a water slide! Except with extra roots! And places where you have to jump up and down stepped roots and bank off narrow paths! It’s true single track, no passing unless someone in front moves to the side or someone behind takes a crazy risk. It’s fast and fun! Honestly, it wasn’t as muddy as last year, and since we still hadn’t managed to navigate around all the slower people, we were limited to a steady pace. There was one woman who somehow managed to squeeze between my husband and me. I think this must have been her first trail race, she was breathing very unsteadily and kept cursing and shouting out every time the trail got tricky. I was torn between wanting to laugh and telling her to just take a deep breath and relax! My husband eventually whipped around the outside of a tree and got past her and we were together again. We were passed by a very daring small boy whose dad was behind us shouting for him to keep going, and as we emerged from the woods we passed a zig zagging woman who tried hard to keep us from passing her. The photographer got this bit of crazy maneuvering on film, can’t wait to see it. He yelled, “It’s like you three meant to do that!” as we went past.

Once out of the woods, you have to cross several small roads and then back onto grass for the finish line. I had told my husband we were sprinting as soon as we cleared the woods, but then discovered I can’t really sprint while leaping up and down curbs, so he was getting in front of me. Because he thought I was running out of steam he kept shouting encouragement and I was like Geez gimme a minute... cleared the last curb and turned it on.

Overall we expected to be much slower than last year, what with the jockeying for position and getting bottlenecked, plus our pace just felt easier. So we were shocked when our time turned out to be 17:39.9 which was a 9:28 pace. Good for 4th out of 25 for me in AG! Last year I was 5th with 18:08 and 9:43. Slightly different course, and after checking against my run data from last year I think this one was shorter, but I’m taking it! My husband ended up about midway in his AG which is not surprising since he’s running with me and men are faster than women. 4th is high enough to get points on the board for the series so that’s also good. When I told my husband where I placed he said, “Well *kitten*, now I guess we have to really try in the longer races!” We were sort of looking forward to being lazy!

So, random observations: I wore my black light jacket over a long sleeved shirt and was just the right temperature after we started running. Decided against wearing my favorite white jacket because really wearing a white jacket to a muddy trail run is just begging to faceplant. Jacket has thumb holes and covers my palms, wore glove liners underneath. Fingers starting to go a little numb at the beginning of the race, warmed up enough to hurt by the time we finished. I got a pair of zipper front snow boots for Christmas, with this race series in mind. They are fluffy on the inside, mid calf height, comfortable without socks, and match my running tights. OFF go the filthy trail shoes, into the plastic liner in the back of the suv, and ON go the ploofy boots! And I drive home in a nice clean car with clean dry feet! The boots were an unqualified success.

16k /10 miles done which is a new distance record, doing a comfortable 15mins run/1 min walk interval.

During the last 1km I suddenly remembered that 16k isnt exactly 10miles so I slowed to a virtual standstill whilst I googled it. It did mean i got to celebrate twice though.

Anyway this is more than a 10% increase for a long run and 50% of my total mileage last week. So the rest of Jan will involve a cutback.

Jan Goal:

1. Ttl 130km...............................56km
2. Long run10 miles...................16k ✔
3. 17 runs....................................7
4. Help someone C25K.....run 3 - 1.30-2/1 (3.1k)
5. Strength training x14.............5

@mbaker566 I wasn't sure if I'd use it that much, but I love my headlamp for early morning winter runs. I feel so much more secure being able to clearly see what's in front of me, as well as being more confident that drivers can see me.