Tuesday, - 11/13 - 0
Wednesday, 11/14 - 8 (Trail/Road) - Ran the Li'l Rhody course with Jeff this morning. Enough with the zeroes, too. Met at the start at 7:15, and started from the official line up the hill. Great to have Jeff with me - great to run with, knew where the Heck we were going, got to "talk shop," and got some valuable advice about race day strategy, especially handling the finishing 3/4 mile, as it ends on a road and is unique to a trail race. Thanks for the heads-up on that one! We did an easy 8 miles in 1:16, stopping to clear branches here and there as necessary, and I got a very good idea of what I'm shooting for timewise on Sunday.
Karate class after I went home to change up - the kicking was painful, but a great class anyway.
After all of the trail maintenance this past week, we did find one more tree down at mile 6 or so (100 yards from where we'd turned around...), but quickly cleared a detour trail around it that'll do nicely.
I heard back from the CFPA about my interest in becoming a Trail Director for one of the Blue Blazed trails in my town, the Narragansett Trail. Possibly my favorite trail for the views, distance and technicality. There's an application protocol, but they definitely want me to pursue it. Cool!
Thursday, 11/15 - 4 (Trail) - Took my friend Jim H., who I recently introduced to trail running, to the Narragansett Trail portion that starts below the dam at Green Falls, runs along the stream up to the top of the dam, and then follows the pond around to the camping area. My favorite trail - very technical at first, and with enough rain recently, we couldn't cross at the usual place and had to bushwack to the top of the ridge to get there. Once we got near the camping area, we split off and followed the trail toward the Rhode Island border. Very cool streams and waterfalls out there, and a great time of year to be on the trails. Except for the hunters...first time I've come around a turn and encountered guys in orange vests with shotguns. A bit unnerving, but we gave them a nod, they gave us a nod and we continued on our way. Stayed on the other side of the stream and blazed our own trail on the last 1/4 mile. Couple pictures from today:
Coming up to the dam at Green Falls Pond
Jim at one of the waterfalls we encountered
The stream at the start/end of the run
Friday, 11/16 - 0
Saturday, 11/17 - 0
Sunday, 11/18 - 8 - 21st Annual Li'l Rhody Runaround, 144th @ 1:12. If I line up too far back again, one of you guys seriously needs to smack me, 'cause I should know better by now. And it's worse on single track trudging along behind everyone, waiting for a chance to pass. There, I said it and I feel better.
This was my first chance to really help out at a race, and I had a blast with it. From the clearing we did on the course, to the recon runs with Jeff and Muddy, to checking people in at the registration table and finally putting some names to faces, I had a great time. I heard a lot of positive comments out on the course from other runners about how good the trail looked, in spite of the recent storms and all the damage. Very cool. Jeff had it correct when he said that we never could have run the event in the condition the course was in two weeks ago. Proud of the work we did out there! Over 300 runners, and a new attendance record was set, I believe? For my part, I came in below my goal but I had such a good time with the whole thing, and everybody seemed to appreciate the effort the WTAC put into it. Great soup and cider afterward, and not one but two fires going! And dare I say perfect weather?
Great time.
p.s. I just missed the minimum trail marathon threshold for the Cayuga Trail 50 Mile race, but I messaged the race director and I'm on the waiting list...hmmm...if I get the call, it's a long weekend in Ithaca, and a race where my family had a cottage and where I spent some of the best times of my life. Would love to run this...
r5t/
Mike, glad you had a good time at Li'l Rhody and thanks so much again for all your help in making the event possible!
ReplyDeleteCayuga 50 miler?!! I just went on the website - did you see the elevation chart - looks like 7 climbs of ~700' each time. Would like to run a trail ultra sometime; this one scares me!