Slipping and sliding
The Race
Well, I survived the race. I managed a fairly respectable time too, all things considered. Came in first of 4 on my team, and second overall of all the club members that raced. Of course, the really fast guy wasn't racing. There were just over 1,000 finishers, so it was a bigger field than I was expecting.
I ended up finding a thin enough pair of wool socks to fit into my running shoes, and then fashioned some makeshift gaiters out of duct tape to keep snow from getting in at the ankle. Decided that there wasn't anything I could do about the shoe getting wet, other than finish fast, and change. That strategy worked pretty well.
Overall time was 42:36 for the 8k. About 8:30 pace. Considering the terrain, that is pretty good. There were some gnarly hills that were slow going. The pack really jammed up and it was hard to go at the pace I wanted to, there was no way to pass. Not to mention that normal running shoes + a couple inches of fresh powder on top of leaves = slippery! There were some fun obstacles, including a fence, marsh, frozen stream, several fallen trees, another marsh, and a couple steep hills. Definitely a lot more difficult than your average road race.
There were some real crazy people. A few girls wearing running shorts and sports bras. A couple guys just in running shorts. It wasn't *that* cold, but it wasn't exactly that warm either. It was about 20F maybe, with a couple mile an hour wind. I don't really have anything to prove, so I stayed warm in my multiple layer system.
I'm definitely going to invest in some good trail/winter running shoes, as my coach has informed me I'm going to be doing some more xc/winter races. I think that'll go on my wishlist for xmas.
Weekly Wrap
Well, I survived the race. I managed a fairly respectable time too, all things considered. Came in first of 4 on my team, and second overall of all the club members that raced. Of course, the really fast guy wasn't racing. There were just over 1,000 finishers, so it was a bigger field than I was expecting.
I ended up finding a thin enough pair of wool socks to fit into my running shoes, and then fashioned some makeshift gaiters out of duct tape to keep snow from getting in at the ankle. Decided that there wasn't anything I could do about the shoe getting wet, other than finish fast, and change. That strategy worked pretty well.
Overall time was 42:36 for the 8k. About 8:30 pace. Considering the terrain, that is pretty good. There were some gnarly hills that were slow going. The pack really jammed up and it was hard to go at the pace I wanted to, there was no way to pass. Not to mention that normal running shoes + a couple inches of fresh powder on top of leaves = slippery! There were some fun obstacles, including a fence, marsh, frozen stream, several fallen trees, another marsh, and a couple steep hills. Definitely a lot more difficult than your average road race.
There were some real crazy people. A few girls wearing running shorts and sports bras. A couple guys just in running shorts. It wasn't *that* cold, but it wasn't exactly that warm either. It was about 20F maybe, with a couple mile an hour wind. I don't really have anything to prove, so I stayed warm in my multiple layer system.
I'm definitely going to invest in some good trail/winter running shoes, as my coach has informed me I'm going to be doing some more xc/winter races. I think that'll go on my wishlist for xmas.
Weekly Wrap
- Mon - 28
- Rest
- Tue - 29
- AM Run 1h10
- PM Massage ( ahhhhhh! )
- Wed - 30
- PM Swim 1h20
- Thu - 1
- AM Run 1h
- PM Swim 45m
- Fri - 2
- Rest
- Sat - 3
- AM Run 35m
- Sun - 4
- AM Run XC Race
posted by Chris Parker at
11:26 AM
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