So me and workout buddy had a trail run in Alafia River state park this past Sunday and decided to turn it into a weekend event. We got to the park Saturday around midday with the mountain bikes and camping gear. Got everything set up and went off to the trails. The race was going to include some of the mtb trails and there may have been a bit of scouting the course going on...
campsite
I forgot to get pics, but crashed twice and got a couple nice new scars to tell stories about! The mtb trails there are pretty dang scarry to an amateur like me. Made it over all but 2 down hill sections where I couldn't see the bottom half of the hill! One of those I walked my bike down and it bit me on the left calf with the front big ring gear! Guess it was trying to tell me something...
Race day was nice! I've only done 5k's before, only a little over 3 miles) and this would be my first 5mile race. There was an option for a 10mile course but I wanted to be at least competitive! 10 miles would have included some near walking speed trotting for me.
Finally got the official results. I'm pretty happy with them. Finished 12th out of 181 contestants on the 5 mile race and 11th out of 81 men. I was being passed on a long stretch of power lines by someone with a pace I felt like I could keep. So I did. Followed him the last ~2 miles. At the end of the course was a killer section of switch backs that covered at least 3/4 miles. He began to put a bit of a gap on me there! Those hurt!
Finish line photo courtesy of my wife!
I just felt compelled by Triathlete's thread to post my own. I'm no where near as fast has him, but getting there! Maybe a Moab trail run could happen in a few years...
The best part of all this is that I kicked workout buddies BUTT! Beat him by over 2min! All of last summers races he won, so far this year I've been the one getting faster, beat him at the last trail run as well, but not by this much.
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I love trail running (trails around here are a bit differant...less green stuff, more thorns, rocks, sand...).
Originally Posted by tom4bren
That's a HUGE gap to keep up!
