This week had gone great. The conditions were stellar and the "feel" is back. I'm feeling again and it feel good.
Tuesday - the 3 hour run was a huge success and I took Monday to rest. It would have been insanely stressful to try and run Monday so I relaxed on relaxing. Today, however, I banged out the white dot trail and finished down the switchbacks. For all you finger painters wondering if I run other runs: yea, I do, but this run is cussing sweet! So cuss it!
Wednesday - Voltroned with the best rapper in the Tribe, Fyffe and we hit the Pinnacle Trails in Westminster West. Fyffe is making a re-debut, hell yea! We had an awesome view of the ski mountains and ended right before it got too dark to see.
Thursday - Shagged the White Dot trail but hustled the sap lines as well. I started the run figuring on 9 but felt so good and sporting a headlamp optioned for the Sap Lines trail, which makes the run 12-14. I made it 12 by connecting to the White Dot and locking down the switchbacks in epic wild conditions: crystal clear and star strewn...
Friday - Completley decided on traveling to Pittsfield MA for the Curly's snow shoe race. This is supposed to be a hard 5 miler in the Berkshire's with switchbacks comparable to my own. So in preparation, I ran my switchbacks (without snow shoes)
Saturday - easy villian 5 (chillin'). Prerace shuffle to loosen up. Legs don't feel great but there is another feeling, one that I'm sensing that is a great sign for tomorrow. I think I'm going to feel cussing great!
Sunday - Curly's Snow Shoe Race, 5 miler in Pittsfield MA.
Holy long ride! Cuss, it took forever, but it was an awesome ride for views and country sides, so at least it was a pleasant ride. I got to the race site with plenty of time. I've been training without snow shoes all week bc the snow is packed and perfect for trail shoes. The whole ride down there was zero snow, so I wondered, "will this be a trail race?" Cuss, I hoped so, but once I rolled into the park, I realized there was plenty of snow.
There was a good group of dudes there. Some I've raced before this year and a couple of new faces. On the start line they were explaining the course and said it was well marked, that was also te time I stopped listening to the course description, I already knew it was going to be tough, I didn't want to hear it again.
The race started and as soon as I go into my flow, I knew I was going to have a great day, which meant someone was going to have to have an unreal day.
I was locked in and feeling good when idealized I hadn't seen any markers? CUSS!!! I went the wrong way, and a good deal the wrong way. This sucked bc the top four other guys followed me. This was also good, bc they were my main race.
Dunham, the vet, assured us that there was a lot of race left and not to panic. Not being rude to DD (he was completely right and I listened) but cuss, I felt too good to give it away. I took us off trail at the bottom of a very long switchback climb. So, I sped to the front of the lost group and started to power my way through the field. I must have passed 90+ people before getting to the top and seeing the bizarro-leaders. I was getting very tired, and was putting a lot of stock I to finishing on a long down hill. I just needed to get there.
Once I locked in on them, I caught them very fast, and also found out very fast that they went the wrong cussing way!!! So again, (marked really well huh? Not at race speeds), instead of following the trail back I cut through the woods to the front again and kept pushing. Dave Dunham was in the lead at this point and instead of passing him when I caught him I just tried to hang with him for a bit. I was very fatigued from the the climb and going the wrong way. I had to regroup before I pushed again.
This race plan was the same as last weeks, push and make it uncomfortable. DD could sense that I was re-revving and let me pull for a bit. At this point we had climbed the last incline, the rest if the race was downhill. I tried with everything I had again to pull away as far as I could in the single track before the wide road trail to the finish. I didn't open up a big lead at all on the single track, but once we hit the road I committed myself to all I had.
I really wanted this, I really needed this and I really went for it. My gps logged my last mile as 4:57, and then the last .5 at 5:16 pace. The road was at packed as a real road and the downhill grade was perfect to run in control and fast, which is what I tried to do.
Getting lost twice was taxing, and we ended up running minutes longer than we would have. I finished in 43:06 and felt great with how my day went. DD was right behind me. I went through some pics (included) and you'll notice that DD looks calm, while I look like I'm leaving the farmers daughter. I wish I knew there was a camera man there, I wouldn't have lost my composure like Frank Ricard.
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