A Tumbling Pace

Today I ran this small but really awesome race for the 4th time.  Adam Feerst of the Denver Trail Runners puts on this race and to me it has a special flavor I haven’t found at many other trail races, although I am probably not looking hard enough (next year I want to run more small trail races).  It’s small, it’s has a scenic and challenging course, it has a community feel as everybody is perched around a few picnic benches by the pond at the start. 

Renee and I drove out this morning and got to the race an hour early.  Renee helped Adam and the other volunteers setup for the race while I waited in the car and kept warm.  Renee is a very good volunteer, I have always seen her work from start to finish really hard.   All the runners huddled around waiting for the sun to arrive and the race to start.  At 8:30 I said goodbye to Renee and headed out onto the course with the other runners.  

I started fast but I felt fine so didn’t think it was a big deal.  At the top of the first climb I was in about 6th place.  About 55 minutes into the race I still felt solid, having endured 2 climbs and with a good downhill ahead, and on schedule for a sub 2 hour finish like last year.  I had lost about 6 or 7 places but figured that was just because I started a bit fast.  My stomach felt slightly funny but I didn’t worry about it much and kept on going.  About this time I was passed by the first female and couldn’t stay with her.  She was a former college runner at Syracuse who I met before the race and she went on to become the first female.  In the next 1/2 hour I was passed by about 3 or 4 runners who were better downhillers.   On the way down to Bootleg Bottom my stomach really started to yell at me, I felt like I was about to come apart.  The final climb up from Bootleg Bottom is steep and I slowed way down here, getting passed by 2 more females (one was Kristen Moureau who ended up having a great day and was the second top female I think) and a few other males.  I knew I was struggling.  At the top of climb, I started running and my stomach just knotted up.  I could barely keep a 10 minute pace.  I knew my race was shot if I couldn’t turn it around soon.  I tried resting for 20 seconds to see if my stomach would snap out of it but it wouldn’t.  I was forced to jog into the finish line for time of 2:08, losing another 1/2 dozen or so more places, finishing around 28th and 10 minutes slower than last year.

Perhaps I went out too fast or perhaps I just had some sort of stomach imbalance, or both.  I probably should of gone out slower because it’s almost always good racing strategy.  I did think I had good turnover, my legs felt fine, and my lungs felt fine, but a bad stomach can kill all of those things fast and in a race as short as this you don’t get a chance to come back around with a good time.

The post-race activities of soaking tired legs in the pond, awards, chili, cheering on other finishers, meeting other racers (including 2 guys who were in my cyclocross race yesterday!) cheered me up.   Renee worked the finish line until the last finisher (a 72 year old man) and then we helped Adam clean up and went home, both fairly tired.  It was another great racing day with Renee, and this race is a fine local start of fall tradition.   Soon will be another one of Adam’s fun races, the gnarly and very spectator friendly Bear Creek 10 Spot on October 30th, a great chance to try my hand, or rather legs, lungs, and stomach, at racing again.