A Very Trail-y Weekend

Saturday, the plan was for me to head to the Wolf Neck Farm 5K to hang with Sam while Snowman tore up the course. I figured I'd stop at Bradbury to get an easy 4 miles in before heading over. The only part of the plan that actually happened was Ryan's performance; driving to Bradbury, I got a call saying that Sam had a cold and hanging out in the wind and cold wasn't going to work. I figured I'd do a couple extra miles and head over to watch the race anyway.

At Bradbury, I found Nate, Lily with Echo, and Steve (one of the people I didn't know from last Saturday's run). Hmmmm....all fast, but I was the only one that knew the trails. The consensus seemed to be to get in 8-10 miles at whatever pace. I'm sure if the others had blog, they'd say we went at a leisurely pace. It was faster than I would have done on my own, but, I felt good (only a bit overdressed). I ran just the right amount to make it over to Wolf Neck in time to watch Ryan take 3rd overall!

Stone Cat Loop:

Today, I headed down to Danvers, MA to run lap of the Stone Cat course with TMs George, Ann, Kate, and Linda. Linda and I met the others at the Biddeford Park and Ride where we piled our junk into George and Ann's car. George drove and even bought our coffee AND put up with all the girl talk on the way down : )

GAC, the running group hosting Stone Cat, leads some runs over the course. This day they only had one runner there who knew the way which meant the diverse group of runners had to stay together somewhat. I'm really glad I went down. Not only did I have a great time, but I learned a lot about the race. I think I would have been really frustrated with the single track (even after reading Mindy's blog and talking to her). You have to realize there will be more than enough very fast double track to make up (I hope) for the bottlenecks on the single track. And there will be bottlenecks; with our small group I was walking up a lot of places not because it wasn't very runnable, but because I was stuck behind.

The marathoners and 50 milers start together. Because the loop is 12.5 miles, the marathoners need to do a mile more. Unfortunately, the race has us do this loop in the beginning which puts us all behind the 50 milers (a good portion of who will be going slower than the marathoners). I'm not sure why they don't do this at the end; it would also make it better for those who decide to drop down in distance during the event. Oh well, that's the way it is soo.... I'll plan on being patient (ugh!).

For this day, I decided that I would run back to the slower runners when I couldn't go forward. It kept me moving. After a while, the front group put some distance between themselves and the guide and would need to wait at the intersections to find out where to go. After waiting a few times, I decided that I would run back and get the directions. It was fun and kept me going pretty fast. I ran with George for a good amount. He's such a great cheerleader; He had me feeling like I was ready to win the race! He was running with the front group and then dropping back to check on Ann, Linda, and Kate.

Linda had decided to come along and planned to do some miles and then head back when she'd had enough. Well, she never did! Have enough that is; she finished the entire loop. That was the farthest she'd run since Pineland! I think this may have given her the confidence to think Stone Cat for next year.

Ann finished up looking as fresh as when she started. I'm betting she'll PR the course. Of course Kate will PR (a nice thing about a first marathon)! She finished up strong, too. In the last mile, I tweaked something and my IT band got grumpy fast. Lots of rollering is in my future. I'm hoping to get it under control. I don't want to be making any excuses after the race.

My total mileage ended up being 13.86: