Location
Spott’s Park
What Is It?
5-8k trail run
Team Name: Steve Mertz
Team Mates
None
Category
Male
Placing
58th out of ?
Official results Haven’t been found yet.
Time: 31:50
Experience
They told us at the start of the race that it was a 2.7 mile course. And it was a lot of up and downs as Scott’s Park is a bowl shaped park, and we ran up and down the edges.
When I got there initially I figured it was going to be painful as I saw the flags marking the course. But I was kind of excited and ready to go. I had drank an XXL Monster Kaos earlier in the day and was just buzzing with energy from it.
I started talking with other folks who were there and forgot to do two things. The first was to turn on my foot pod to measure my speed/distance to know exactly what I was doing. The second, and more important one was taking my Asthma medication. That one came back to haunt me a quarter of the way through the race.
We start off at the start, they ring the bell and we start off with an up hill run. Keep in mind these hills aren’t very long, maybe fifty feet. But they are very steep. So we get up and there and run along the top and go back down again. We run along the bottom of the bowl a bit, and go back up hill. At this point I’m feeling very heavy legs attached to me, and note that the rest of the race will be very painful from this point on and it’s only about an eighth done.
We run along the top a bit and head back down. They had us run through some puddles, which was amazing that there were only puddles and the whole place wasn’t flooded since yesterday the bowl had six feet of water in it. It was fun to watch the road runners freak a bit and try to go around the water while the rest of us just went straight through it. I was glad to be wearing my Gore Tex shoes today!
After that puddle we ran up the wall again for a short distance and back down along the bottom for the final run up the side. At which point we were to turn around and go back the way we came. It was also at this point I realized I hadn’t taken my Asthma medication and my lungs were exploding and burning. So I slow down to a walk so I can take my meds and continue to walk to get my breathing back to normal. But at this point I was screwed for the rest of the race, as the humidity wouldn’t let me breath normal at all, except while walking, and as it was a running race, I wanted to keep that to a minimal!
I don’t really remember too much more of the race as I concentrated on finishing. I do know I wasn’t last and I did finish, so that was good. And it took a while for me to get the burning in my lungs to stop. Yet another lesson/reminder for me to take my medicine before racing! You would think after all these years I would remember!
Multimedia
None.
Final Thoughts
It was a good race, definitely showed that I need to work hills a lot more. I also need to work on running in general more.
I think I will start slacking on the biking and add more running to my schedule just so I can get the practice in. I also need to find a place close to home that has hills I can run so practice that more.
Days Later… (2006/10/19)
Not really feeling any effects from the race on Tuesday. Legs are a little tired but last night we had a pretty intense bike practice which I think is the cause of the tiredness.
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