We made it to Camp Rockmount with a little time to spare and my prerace jitters were running high. Bike races are easy as I know what to expect but this was a whole new world and the start couldn't come fast enough.
I figured my best bet was to go hard at the start and try and get out front to avoid being stuck in traffic once the trail kicked up. There were some fast looking runners up at the front so I lined up as far away from them as possible.
Toby was there and we chatted some about the need to go hard at the start and he wished my luck at my first trail run. Toby runs a lot and has been doing it for awhile so I figured after the start I wouldn't see him again until the finish. Without too much ado the race director said go and away we went.
I took off at a sprint and was in the top 25 or so as we hit the first switchback and started climbing. There was no flat stretch of trail at the start to get warmed up - the course immediately started going up some old road beds. I was running hard and knew that I had to tone it down a little if I wanted to survive at all so I slowed my pace a little and settled in for a long climb. The climb just got worse and worse and within minutes I was searching for any excuse possible to walk but couldn't come up with anything. The road just kept going up and up and by the 15 minute mark my lungs were begging for mercy. I saw a guy walking who looked a lot like the Sultan whose blog I recently
discovered and figured if he was walking I might as well too.
I walked a few steps and then continued running on. I knew Sultan and anyone else I was passing would be going by me on the downhill but I might as well keep going up as fast as I could. When the trail hit the single track it got very steep and I looked up to see a line of 30 or so people in front of me all walking up the trail. It was very steep but I still had some legs and passed a few people early before falling into place and walking up with everyone else. The trail hit a switchback and Toby yelled down at me. He was only 10 or so people in front of me so I dug in and took off running to catch him. Passing people took an amazing amount of work but I got by everyone and was quickly right on Toby's heels. We chatted some and then the trail leveled out enough for me to push our pace up a little. We hit the top of the first peak and then dropped a quick saddle before heading straight back up for the final climb. This was the steepest pitch yet and was also my chance to pass Toby so that's what I did. I blew through the water stop promising myself that I would recover on the downhill. I gained a little time on Toby but knew he would be coming down fast so if I wanted to hold him back I would have to let it all hang out on the downhill.
The downhill was very, very steep and a good chance to get hurt. I passed a couple of women who were moving a little slow and hoped that Toby would have a hard time getting by them in the tight Rhodo thicket. There were downed trees everywhere that required hurdling and enough loose rocks to keep your eyes on the trail. As soon as the trail let up a little Toby and Sultan both blew by me at an amazing clip. Then more and more runners started passing me. The downhill went on forever and forever and was unrelenting. I'd focused my training on going up not down and paid for it. Once we saw the camp I was told there was only a quarter mile to go so I dug deep and sprinted my way to the finish two minutes behind Toby.
Only an hour but it sure hurt!
Some clean clothes, a pair of shades and a cold beer and I was a new man.
Nothing but flowers:
cool, nice work!
ReplyDeletetoday I passed you leaving N. Mills River area as I was just getting there. I honked... anyway that was me who was honking at you.