I survived Rattlesnake Point 12.7
Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:53 pm
5 Peaks Rattlesnake Point trail race, 12.7 K. This is essentially a race on the Bruce Trail, and I like the Bruce Trail. Its not the toughest, or the easiest section, but is definitely "interesting" terrain. We start up on the Milton outlier, run down into Nassagaweya Canyon, along the canyon floor, a rock scramble up the main escarpment, do a loop up there, come back down, and back up a killer climb. Then the fun begins; they route you onto a side trail, very technical, nearer the cliff edge. The last 2 Ks have a warning sign about the difficult terrain.
I met up with Tony, Tracy and Sherry before the race. It was a nice day for a race, medium cool and overcast. A bit humid though. They do a wave start this year, for better or worse. Less crowded heading out, I was 20 seconds faster first K split than last year. My splits ranged from 4:44 to 7:24, but that's trail races. Felt good, best I have in a trail race this year. Where's my nemesis today?
Up on the escarpment, Crawford Lake side, we saw 4 people heading back towards us. I mentioned that they were going the wrong way, they assured me that there was a turnaround. There's not. Later in that loop, there were 20 people (including an unnamed Maniac) doing the loop backwards. At least they knew by then that they were going the wrong way. They could have used a few more course marshals I think.
After big climb, on to the last third. I had some legs left, and I love that technical stuff. I passed several people along here, and was happy. One guy took forever to catch, then he pulled away again on a big hill. Finally caught him on the last grassy home stretch, but he surged last 5 feet and I don't know who crossed first. Of course we could have started 2 minutes apart.
Hung out and watched the maniac ladies come in, then we stuck around for the draw prizes. I got a Salomon hat.
My time was 1:10:57.7, 5:35 pace, over a minute faster than last year. They changed the course a bit, I measured .2 K farther this year, but the downhill bypass was faster going if farther in distance; and the wave start helped.
Here's some pictures of the trail that I took last week, try running flat out on that:
I met up with Tony, Tracy and Sherry before the race. It was a nice day for a race, medium cool and overcast. A bit humid though. They do a wave start this year, for better or worse. Less crowded heading out, I was 20 seconds faster first K split than last year. My splits ranged from 4:44 to 7:24, but that's trail races. Felt good, best I have in a trail race this year. Where's my nemesis today?
Up on the escarpment, Crawford Lake side, we saw 4 people heading back towards us. I mentioned that they were going the wrong way, they assured me that there was a turnaround. There's not. Later in that loop, there were 20 people (including an unnamed Maniac) doing the loop backwards. At least they knew by then that they were going the wrong way. They could have used a few more course marshals I think.
After big climb, on to the last third. I had some legs left, and I love that technical stuff. I passed several people along here, and was happy. One guy took forever to catch, then he pulled away again on a big hill. Finally caught him on the last grassy home stretch, but he surged last 5 feet and I don't know who crossed first. Of course we could have started 2 minutes apart.
Hung out and watched the maniac ladies come in, then we stuck around for the draw prizes. I got a Salomon hat.
My time was 1:10:57.7, 5:35 pace, over a minute faster than last year. They changed the course a bit, I measured .2 K farther this year, but the downhill bypass was faster going if farther in distance; and the wave start helped.
Here's some pictures of the trail that I took last week, try running flat out on that:
Way to go Doonst, another one in the books !!
