2012 Trail Dawgs Triple Crown
Just like all of my RR's, this is long winded, sorry. This is such a great exercise. It's fun to share with guys that know and understand all of the little intricacies of this sport. This race all started for me a year ago. I was 2 weeks out from my first marathon, so I watched my wife run their 5K. When I saw the triple crown format, I just had to do it. It just sounded so bad ###. 3 races in 1? And on trails? Hell yeah sign me up.
I slept like crap Friday night. Just a lot of broken sleep with me waking up thinking it was 5:00 only to see it was 2:something. When I finally got out of bed at 5, the morning routine was very routine. I was a bundle of nerves, but not running around the house like a spaz quadruple checking stuff. It was a controlled nervousness. We got to the state park at 7 and the traffic was lined up all the way out of the entrance and backed up on the main road. Whoa. This thing is getting big.
It was a crisp 34 degrees with frost on the grassy areas. With the super warm weather we've had, how in the world did we get this lucky? This was grade A prime conditions. Just with every other race, my HR was up. Way up. 120-125 the entire time. I just have to learn to deal with this as best as I can. No form of meditation significantly calms me down, so I'll just embrace it.
Race #1 - Half Marathon
We were starting 10 minutes before the marathon. After a quick rundown of how the course was arrowed, we were off. The course was running in a clockwise motion thru the big state park. First up was the Carpenter section which I knew like the back of my hands thanks to many HS cross country meets and starting all of my training runs here. Its a moderately hilly area with some flat spots. I went BnB and sanded the first mile. And the 2nd. And the 3rd. Aside from a good hill at around 0.8, it was easy trail. Granted the GPS data is unreliable at best in the woods, but my splits thru the first section were 9:35/168, 9:24/173, 8:56/171. The HR was a touch higher than I had wanted, but it was coming to me very easy. Trusting my feel (2Y2BB), I was happy.
Section 2 was the Great Good Place loop. It started with the first of 2 creek crossings at the 5K mark. The creek was nice and full thanks to the rain we got last week. It was ICE COLD. It was 3-4" above my knees. Just close enough to the family jewels to slow you down to avoid splashing too high. The creek bed is lined with big boulders and sand, which made it fun to cross. You were either stepping up on a boulder and dropping into the sand. Lots of carnage. I was happy to get across without falling in. Running right after crossing was a bit painful. The cold water really shocked my calves and feet. The remainder of this section was littered with log crossings, rollers, and one big climb. The big climb came right after the creek crossing. It was a tight single track where there was zero room to pass. A few runners up ahead decided to walk the hill, forcing the rest of us to walk too. I was irritated at first, but took it as a chance to calm down and conserve some precious energy. This section was so much fun with the technical trail and log crossings. By far my favorite piece of the course. Splits thru 6 (or so): 12:11/177, 9:43/173, 9:28/175.
After hitting the trail junction to section 3, the David English loop, I started to feel tired. I thought "oh crap. Did I screw this up?". I listened to my body and slowed it down to start this section. I needed to remember I was running 22.4mi today, not 13. Let the people running just the HM go. I knew this section well and wanted to regain my composure before hitting the next section of technical trail/rollers. After a mile or so, I felt much better. We were working through all of the rollers and I noticed a lot of breathing behind me. I looked over my shoulder on a 90 degree turn and saw I was pacing a group of 10 or so. That gave me a big jolt of adrenaline. It was so friggin' cool leading a pack of runners through this gorgeous trail. I think this section was only 2 miles, but I can't remember to be certain. Splits thru 8: 10:05/174, 9:02/170 (that HR drop was huge)
Section 4 was a mix of Possum Park and then back thru the backside of the previous 3 loops to get back to the finish. At mile 10 we were crossing the creek again. I had caught the group in front of us that I previously let go in section 3. I decided to flank them on the right in the creek and passed a bunch of them. There was 1 guy that face planted right in front of me. Talk about a wake up call to slow it down. Poor guy went completely under in that ice cold water. At this point, I was in a total zone. I thought 'today is my day'. I was feeding off of pure adrenaline and clipping off runners left and right. Saying 'on your left' never felt so good. :chills: It was nice and flat thru 11+ (GPS way off at this point). I caught myself thinking that I didn't like the flat trail. It just felt weird. We connected back into the Carpenter section and I knew what was coming at the finish. A nasty hill about 0.1 from the finish. It's always been the talk between me and my wife when we talk about running at that park, so I wasn't surprised to see her and our boys at the top of it. Everyone in front of me got to the bottom and immediately started walking. There was no way I was going to try and explain to my boys why I walked the hill, so I plowed ahead saying 'on your left' every 3rd person. I was so pumped up I could feel my scalp moving back and forth (weird but amazing feeling). I ran past them, got a
from our oldest and threw it into cruise control to the finish. Splits 9-finish: 9:36/173, 10:39/177, 9:01/176 (flat easy), 10:00/179, 10:52 avg/182. Total time was 2:05:44. 5 minutes faster than I was expecting. I felt so good at the finish. This is MY DAY!
Race #2 - 10K
The break between the HM and the 10K was now 25 minutes. I took some Gatorade, ate half of a PBJ sandwich, and kept loose. I did some jogging/striders in between to keep fresh. My legs felt awesome. I did end up changing socks/shoes and reapplying more body glide. I am really glad I did as it felt amazing to have warm and dry feet again.
The 10K course was a backwards loop thru sections 1/2/3 that we ran in the HM with a few cutoffs. I expected this to be the easiest of the 3, which it was. But it was a lot harder than I thought too. I took off at the start and was flying. My legs felt invincible. At one point during the first mile I looked down and saw a pace of 8:2x. Woooops. Slow down tiger. A few hills got us out to the creek where we ran parallel to for a few miles. There was a guy with a smart phone in his pocket with the running ap telling him his splits out loud at every 0.5mi. I instantly thought of 2Y2BB and just laughed out loud. My god that is super annoying.
Then back into the Carpenter section where the hills really took their toll at mile 5. This was the first time of the day where I really felt exhausted. Again, they threw a good hill at us just before the finish and there stood my wife, kids, mom, sister, and her son (they showed up for the 5K). I picked off more people on the hill feeding off my family's presence. I got my first cramps of the day on this hill. From the top of my calves up to the bottom of my hamstrings cramped on every other step. After I got to the top of the hill I was ok and pushed to the finish for a 1:01:18 finish. Splits: 10:08/172, 9:39/175, 9:22/176, 10:18/177, 11:48/177, 9:58/177
Race #3 - 5K
The wait for the 5K was about 15 minutes. My wife and sister were running this race. My sister had never run a trail run in her life, so she was in for a treat. This had the potential to be the hardest course of the day and it didn't disappoint. Just a lot of technical trails and not a single flat spot aside from the field where the start/finish was at. It was finally time to unclip the leash and just let the legs go. Unfortunately, the cramps were here to stay and I had to fight them the entire way through. My cardio was well ahead of my legs at this point. I wanted to go faster, but my legs said no. I'd start to push the pace and my hips, calves, hammies would lock up forcing me to slow down. In a sadistic way, this was a good distraction from the sheer exhaustion. I focused on testing that cramping threshold the entire time. Before I knew it one of the 5K'ers said 'half way there' to his buddy. I couldn't believe how fast it was going by. We had to tackle the same hill before the finish that we had for the HM. Damn that thing to hell. I couldn't run it. I had to walk. My legs had absolutely nothing left. After hitting the 2nd tier, I started to run but it was more like a fast walk. Just in time to see my mom and the boys. That charged me up for one final push to the finish. Splits: 11:20/167, 11:35/172, 11:44/175
My wife ended up beating my sister up the big hill before the finished and came in at 37:18. This was a big deal for my wife as my sister is usually the faster one. I was cheering them on as I was cooling down and my sister was walking the top of the hill and said she felt like she was gonna puke. This was her first trail experience on top of her first real struggle with running. I was proud of both of them for fighting through the tough course. Sis noted that this was harder than any of her long runs by a long shot. I just chuckled and welcomed her to the world of trail running.
I cannot believe I just did this. Emotion overwhelmed me. I almost fell over after getting my last tag pulled from my bib. I was toast. Nearly 5 months of work for this moment. So intense. This was the hilliest run I've ever run at 1,891 feet of climbing (1,116, 447, 328). During my trail training, I tried to hit as many hills as I could find here and they still somehow managed to make it hillier than either of my 20 milers (~1500).
As I reflected back on this today, I remembered something I said here when I ran my first HM in 2010. I am so proud of where I came from and where I am now. I will never forget this.
This race was so much more than just a race for me. It was a major milestone in a bigger journey to getting really fit. I don't ever want to go back to that day at the Aquarium!!!
That would be pretty damn cool, actually. You know it won't stick and will be basically a cold rain. Get some!38 with partly sunny skies at the start here tomorrow. 
NNTAWWT, of course.
you learn a lot about yourself on day's like today. Don't forget where you came from. 2:08 is still a great job with all the odds stacked against you.
I must be becoming a trail snob because people really annoyed me today. Trail running has a cool etiquette that makes it fun. Using on your left to pass, pointing out major ups, down and obstacles and no iPods. More than not didn't just know the etiquette, they were just rude. At one point, a woman laboring behind me got pissed at the 4 ladies running ahead of me who were having a conversation. She yelled at them something to the effect "you all are acting like sorority sisters, shutup, this is a race". They ignored her the first time and she #####ed again. This time one of the ladies let her know "all you gotta do is run faster and you won'thave to listen to us". There were a ton of rookies out there and it was a grub-fest like I have never seen. I've seen quite a few spills over the years, but there were way more this year and some injuries that looked darn serious. 
This could not havebeen planned better with the draft to half follow through my eye lids. I have a date with a Bleu Cheese Bacon Burger for dinner and caught a Facebook special for a massage and booked a deep tissuefor tomorrow. Life is very good.
Insane results in all three!!!!!!
