Anne Springs Close Greenway Trail 1/2 Marathon
What a great day, so much to post but not sure if I'll get it all in. As close to perfect weatherwise as you could get, 45 at the start 61 at finish, bright blue sky's after a few days of rain & overcast. Sadly the race was not well attended but there was probably 50 of us or so in the half and close to that for the 8k that followed our start. A small local running club that has welcomed me the last few weeks put it on and what made it so awesome was all of these folks are accomplished runners so they know where & when to set up water stops, how to set up a challenging course and how to take care of everyone afterwards. That's what really made the day special, the people just made it great.
On to the race, since I have about zero trail experience the plan was to start int eh back of the pack, run hard but not stupid and try to finish up around 2:30 for the run. Within the first 1/2 mile or so the small pack spread out and there was little passing afterward. Everyone had their own pace, stuck with it and if yours mirrored someone elses you had a running partner for the day. It just so happened after I settled in that I fell in behind two guys following a woman. The four of us ran the the first 3 miles or so together being paced by the woman. She pulled up and let us all pass (the whole course is essentially single track except for a very few areas wide enough to actually pass) by and then faded dramatically. Not sure what she was anticipating but we hadn't even got to the difficult part of the course yet so it was good she let us pass.
The next couple of miles where pretty uneventful, we all passed a woman who ended up being 1st in her age group at some point but other than that it was uneventful with just some ups & downs. The two guys I was pacing with got ahead of me by a decent distance but never out of sight so I figured as long as I could still see them I was good.
We all stopped to grab water and I caught up to them as they refilled their carry bottles (I opted to go without carrying just to see how I would fair, I'm not carrying anymore during a race under a 1/2). I joked that they couldn't stop because I was following them but we all kinda started back up together with me in the lead. Went that way until probably mile 7 or 8 when I decided to biff on some roots. Pride hurt more than anything else, got up dusted off and essentially just let them pass as I fell back in right behind them.
That's about when it really started getting fun. I had run the hills through this portion of the trail before but backwards. We started going up about mile 9 and didn't stop until I sat down in my truck. Absolutely brutal uphills that had me walking three times. I was running the downhills as best I could but I didn't have a lot left in the tank for the uphills. This is the part of the course I really relied on my brother to get me through. That's a whole different story I mentioned in a different post so I won't rehash it here but I kept reminding myself when I felt like throwing in the towel. It's tough when you walk a steep uphill to start chugging again, the temptation to walk a few extra steps is a great one but luckily my pacers kept me honest. As soon as they started running again, I did so I kept with them and for a good portion of mile 11 & 12 I was right on their heels. It was around now when we all got chicked by some smarmy youngen that we just couldn't keep up with. She ended up being 1st in her age group as well. The last mile was sorta flat around the lake but the final .2 sprint to the finish was a nasty uphill that was like a kick in the crotch but it was cool because of all the support from the other runners and volunteers.
As I rounded the corner to the finish and saw the clock I was happily relieved to see it flip to 2:25 as I passed. My GPS program was way off in the woods so I really didn't know where I was timewise. Shook hands with the pacers and the smarmy chick and sat around for awards. At this time I didn't have a clue what my finish time was as I forgot to hit the stop button when I crossed. As awards were being handed out and they got to my age group I learned it was the deepest in the field and looking at results I finished 9th out of 10
I've come to find out that my age group is one of the most competitive in the area. Official time 2:25:30
I think I'm happy with it because it's the first goal I've it since I started running.
Trail running is such a different animal. There are parts of me that hurt that I didn't know I had. I'm the proud owner of two new blisters, my ankles and arches are sore as hell from all the roots & rocks. Running through mud above your ankles makes sense when you are being chased by an animal that wants to eat you, only humans pay money to do it of their own free will. All that said I had a great time, really challenging course (a few folks told me the course we ran today was one of the toughest in Charlotte) and the group of folks involved just made it fantastic. Runners are such cool people, thank you guys
has to go to sanding the first 50 freakin miles of this thing for BNB.
Finish was uphill for the final 0.1 and I had zilch. Finished that out at 6:42 pace also for a finish of 20:57. 
