1st and last place at the NJ Trail Series 15K. Springettsbury 10K

Hey Kids,

It's been a couple of months since my last post, but since my last post, I hadn't raced any until a couple of weeks ago.

NJ Trail Series "15K"

I put the distance in quotes because it wasn't one of the distances offered. There was a 5K, 10K, and half marathon. I got free entry into this race because I won the half  in November. I was going to run on January 23rd, but Winter Storm Jonas put a stop to those plans both for me and the race organizers. As such, the January race was rescheduled to February 6th. On a positive note, during the snow storm, I got to go on a 20-mile run, where I acquired possibly my most epic ice beard to date.

It was weird to feel my face just get heavier over the course of the run.

Then when I finally got to run the race, it had snowed a couple of days before, and the trails were entirely covered with snow. They did their best to mark the snow with orange spray paint to indicate which direction runners from each distance were supposed to take, but it turns out that people interact with said snow with their feet, and sometimes the paint markings don't survive. My legs felt good, and I got out to a solid early lead. Then, after I thought I was getting near the end of the first 10K loop, I ended up approaching some spay painted arrows from the wrong direction. Shortly thereafter, I started running into other runners, presumably running the 10K, which started a half-hour after the half marathon. At that point, I knew my race was shot. I basically then just followed the other runners, and since I wasn't the first runner anymore, the path I was supposed to take was becoming pretty well trodden. I had my phone with me and used the Strava app's GPS function. By the time, I got back to the start/finish area, I had covered 9.1 miles.

"I'm prepared to hold this pace for anywhere from 40 minutes to six hours."

 I decided that since Jeannine, along with our friends Peter and Jena, was waiting for me, I didn't want to run another 40-700 minutes in the woods while they waited. I was also just really annoyed. So at that point I decided I was just going to be the first and last place finisher in the 15K. I ran another six miles after we got back to Jena's house, and then we all got to just hang out and have beer and pizza, so it ended up being a good day. 

Then this past weekend, Jeannine and I made our way to York, PA, the hometown of Valerie, a repeat offender on this blog. Val and I had both signed up for the Springettsbury 10K, which is part of a winter road race series put on by the York Road Runners Club. Since Val and I work together, we rode to York together Friday evening, along with Jeannine and Dr. Peter Venkman. We were greeted with tortellini and homemade bread. We stayed at Val's mom's house, which was 15 minutes from the race. Between our proximity to the start line and the fact that the race started at 9:00am, we ended getting a full night's sleep before a race, which was AMAZING. We got there at around 8:20, picked up our packets, and I got a good warmup in. Dr. Peter Venkman was adorned in his finest hoodie.

Having not performed any research on the course, I was surprised to find that the first half of the race was almost entirely uphill. This ended up being what I felt was good prep for the Blue Ridge Marathon, and we were duly rewarded during the second half of the race, which included a lot of downhill and flat. To put it in perspective, I ran my second mile in around 5:40 and my fourth mile in around 4:55. I ended up finishing first overall in 33:14, which I was fine with given the difficulty of the course and the fact that I ran this race amidst a 100+ mile week. 

Val finished in a respectable 53 minutes, especially given that she claims to currently be in "mermaid shape," having mostly swam rather than run for the last few months. Afterward, we went out to Mudhook Brewing in York, where we had a pint and a sandwich.

Also, General Lafeyette was in fine form, bringing all of the sass we have come to love and expect.

Anyway, I have the Naked Bavarian 20 Mile in two weeks, and I'm feeling good about my training. I just finished up my seventh consecutive 100+ mile week, and I'm hoping to keep it up until the first week of April, at which point I will start my taper for BRM. For now, I gotta get ready to watch the Walking Dead. 

Have fun,

Jeff