This was my first trail race and boy was it a good one. Training for the Rocket City Marathon has really helped with increasing my range, but I knew going in that running on the sidewalks of Auburn was not going to be anything like this.
The race started later than most as we got under way at 8:30. Cody Moore and John Ashcraft came down from Huntsville and joined me and Derek at the starting line. Turned out I was the only one wearing a shirt (go figure). Positioning is key at the start of a trail race if you don't want to be held back as the trail bottles up and you get stuck behind people, so I shot towards the front and was in the lead pack for the first mile of the race. The first 4 miles of the race were really tough as it was almost purely ascents and descents. Imagine trying to accelerate your car up a steep hill in freezing temperatures before it was a chance to warm-up; that's what I was trying to do to my legs.
I had a hard time keeping my breathing regulated at first as I was struggling to find a groove. Around mile 2, I was coming fast down a descent and stepped on a rock funny rolling my ankle really bad. I had to stop for several minutes until the pain ebbed down to a dull roar and then hit it again. I was going to have to be very careful through the rest of the race if I wanted to not do anything that would further injure my ankle and cause me to be unable to run my marathon.
The first aid station was a little over 3 miles into the race and came up very quickly. I thought to myself, "There's no way I've already run 3 miles" but sure enough there it was. I passed the first aid station at 31:10, not bad considering I lost 2 or 3 minutes with the ankle. After mile 4 the trail flattened out considerable and I started to catch my breath. Around mile 5 trio of older runners came up behind me and started chatting about other trail races behind me. Two of the three ran past but one of them stayed back and paced me to the second aid station. I'm always surprised by how friendly runners are, even in the middle of races. Silas turned out to be an orthopedic surgeon from Huntsville and worked out at the Spine Care center. We talked about everything from trail races in Huntsville to the Auburn football game. It seems I make a new friend at every race I go to.
Talking to Silas was a good distraction from the pain that was starting to shoot through my left quad. We ran into the second aid station (mile 8.5) together. It was here I stopped to take a gel and take stock of my body. Silas finished before me and continued on with me falling in behind a group of 4 runners less than a minute layer. While at the aid station my ankle started to stiffen up on me. It took about another half mile to get it loose again. The last 4.5 miles went by very fast. It never ceases to amaze me how much quicker a trail race seems to go than a road race. I averaged close to 8:20 minutes per mile the rest of the way as the trails were sloped downhill. The trail ended into the parking lot where the finish line was and I sprinted the last 100m to the finish line. After finishing I collapsed on the ground and stayed there, what a great way to finish!
Unofficial results:
Time - 1:54:40.8
Avg. Pace - 8:45 m/m
4th place in the Male 20-24 age group (Derek placed 2nd in the same age group)
