My training went pretty well for this race, I got in plenty of hills, some trails and longish runs to be able to run hard and finish strong. My goal was 2:45 with hopes of 2:40 maybe.
I got to the race feeling good, lots of time to warm up and prep for the trails that were to come. I said "Hi" to most maniacs that were there. Lined up for the race and we are off, I think every fast trail racer in this area showed up this year. I started somewhat easy no pushing too hard and not trying to take on the leaders. (4:01 through the first km) Got in to the trails in 10th place, with 2-3 guys pretty close then I had to stop to retie my shoe, bad luck, I always double knot. No one passed me while I had to retie so we already had a good lead on the crowd. Through some winding trails, skip through the creek, and before I hit the creek the second time I've caught back up to a couple guys. Out of that first loop of trail and I've made up a couple positions and will catch a couple more before we are back to the school. 8k in 38:00, and still feeling very good, I catch and follow 5th or 6th place into the trails and then my day gets very bad. I rolled my ankle bad, crunch sounds and all, I have a history of bad ankles but haven't rolled one in a couple years. I tried to keep going on it, but couldn't, I stopped to try and walk it off and clearly this was not going to just go away. I was angry, thought about my options, walk the race, Stop... I continued on walking, I was just going to make the best of it. Trying to run a bit once in a while to see if I could, slowly I was able to figure out a gait that I could do with out it hurting too much. I was mostly running on my toe, my pace went from 4:30-5:00 to 7:00-8:00, the crowd was catching me and I just stepped aside and let them go on. Eventually Fizz caught me, by this time I had starting to run a bit more steady and seeing him gave me some motivation to test it and try to stick with him. The downhills where the worse, the up hills I was fine because I was on my toes mostly.
It was tough when I started seeing the leaders coming back and thinking about where I was not so long ago. After about 10k of running with a bad ankle I was able to start pushing harder, I was getting use to my new gait, and started catching guys again. I hit the turn around point and headed back. I was doing not too bad, however my achilles and calf on the bad ankle was starting to get sore due to running on my toes on that same foot too much and over compensating.
I was happy to finally see the finish, and with all that happened, I was very surprised with my time.
It was 3:02, that is my worst time at ITT in 3 goes, prior times were 2:49 and 2:53.
After I finished running my ankle started getting very sore, and many other leg muscles were very sore too likely to overcompensation in other areas for so long. Anyway, still happy to run and finish a tough race, I know trail racing is risky and trying to keep up a fast pace just adds to the risk. I still had fun, I'll heal, no biggie.
Overall 17th
Finishing Time 3:02:52
SM40-49 7/45
Gender 17th
at the turn around MrsStrider took some great pictures!!! Thanks!!
One day later....
