So I did my first trail race since my back surgery on June 18th. Boy was it nice to have all those feelings of anxiety back. Butterflies in my stomach, that feeling of having to pee every five minutes. You know what I'm talking about!
I woke up this morning at around 6:00 AM. I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted to last night but when the alarm went off I was up. I gathered my stuff, found some socks put on my running clothes. Even had to get a hat and a hoodie cause it was a tad chilly this morning. I headed out the door and drove over to pickup my uncle Steve who's in town for work and is staying over the weekend. After the carpool was complete we headed over to Starbucks and got a giant traveler box full of coffee. I had all the intention of the world to drink coffee this morning but I just forgot...plain ole forgot (though I did make up for it afterwards at breakfast).
When we arrived at the race pretty much the volunteers were there, getting things setup, gearing up for the onslaught of runners who were gonna show up sign up and run! All the volunteers did a fantastic job of keeping the race fun and exciting.
I had my goals lined up today. After my performance on Wednesday(24:26), I was thinking I could probably finish pretty close to 23 min if I tried hard. I was gonna be happy with under 24 min.
Soon people started showing up. The photographer was there (Brad Trimble) and I started talking to lots of people. Lots of new trail runners lots of old trail runners it was a great group of people! I was extremely happy to see some of the new guys who just started running with the Hawks there (Jeff Triplett and Jacob Kaplan-Moss). We talked about how awesome it would be if someone could create powdered whiskey. That way when you go camping you don't have to pack both water and whiskey, you just need water, and powdered whiskey. Mix, stir, drunk. Scientists I'm looking forward to seeing this invention in my lifetime!
Soon it was time to start. My nervousness was getting pretty high. Normally I'd sit and chat with people at the starting line but this morning I was a tad more nervous than general and ended up being quite and attentive to Gary as he strolled through his monolouge of thanking various people, recognizing our sponsors (Garry Gribbles, Francis Sporting Goods and RunningWarehouse.com), and announcing our next race, the Sanders Saunter, of which yours truly is the race director for.
Sarah Henning did the countdown, shouted go, and we were off! Justin Montgomery took off like a speed demon on crack laced with Redbull and sprinkled with speed! Holy cow, I looked at my watch and we were off at a pace under 6min/mile. After the first quarter mile I decided I needed to slow down and go my pace for my race. I did that and a guy jumped out in front of me real quick. I figured I'd tail him for a bit and then take off once the trail got technical, and boy did it! I used my knowledge of the course and my love of technical trail running to my advantage and passed this guy and continued on the trail. Once I made it past the red trail it was up the connecter trail to the white trail. This hill really hit me hard. I was winded. My legs hurt. My head was out of this race. I was feeling under prepared. I took off to fast. I wanted a do over. I told myself to stop being a giant San Diego suck it up and keep trucking. You can get your wind back on the down hill, it's only a 35 yards away.
Once I made it over the hill and started down I felt Keith on my back, and let him pass. Then I noticed my shoe kept getting looser. "What's going on I asked myself?" I look down and sure enough my lace came untied. Stupid Nick, you forgot to double knot your laces before the race started. Now not only am I out of it mentally I have to contend with an untied shoe on a trail race. Lucky for me the technical section was over and I felt I could finish the race with my shoe untied, no mater how much it bothered me.
Next landmark was the turn around/connecter trail back to the blue trail. I made that turn did the rocky decent, and now I'm on the final stretch. It's about 1 mile of flat rooty trail. Should be fast. I tried to ignore my tired legs and my fast breathing. I wanted to relax so I could focus on moving quickly. I couldn't make myself run any faster. I was getting angry at myself now. Feeling like I'm gonna finish in over 24 min. Not a bad time but I want to be faster! I pass the first set of stairs, starting to feel a little better at least I know the race is coming to an end. Next the second set of stairs I dig deep push a little hard. Finally there's the last set of stairs, and a nice volunteer hanging out down there letting people know it's time to go up. Up the "Stairway to Heaven", as Gary so politely called it this morning. I can hear everyone yelling. Laurie yells "NICKS HERE!! NUMBER 33". I push up the stairs two at a time. Make the leap over the broken stair, reach the top make the turn and it's a 20 yard dash to the finish line. I run as hard as I can hit stop on my watch. 22:26 (or something like that). HOLY CRAP!! OMGWTFBBQ!! How did I do that. There must be some mistake. I didn't run that fast. I felt horrible. Low and behold that was my time.
After the race, I hung out chatted a few of the guys who finished before me (Tim Hibbard who broke his previous course record of 19:58 with a new blazing time of 19:00). We talked drank water, cheered on the finishers. Then Gary comes over and asks if we will run sweep. Apparently he wanted us to cut the course and actually find the last runners and tail em to the finish. What we actually did was ran the whole corse again and cleaned up all the pink tape and flags.
After our second run of the course we had a second awards ceremony cause Tim and Justin both won awards (Tim First and Justin 3rd).
After awards we headed to the Mirth for some tasty tasty breakfast. Ran into some fellow racers Amanda and her sister (who did her first trail run today) and we all enjoyed great food together.