This is a first of a series of race updates that I've particpated in over the past couple of weekends. My first race of the year was at the Scout Trail Run on Jan. 26th. This was followed by River Trail 15k on Feb 2nd, and finally the Cadron Trail Run which will take place this weekend (Feb 9th).
The Scout Trail run took place on Jan 26th at Burns Park Park in North Little Rock. The distance for the race was 3.75 miles. The weather for the race was looking really good for a run. The temperatures were supposed to be in the low 50s to mid 40s at race time (10am)! It was nice to not worry about getting up early for a race. Going into this race, I've had more run training over the past couple of months than I've ever completed before. I wasn't sure how this race would turn out. I took it easy during the week because I felt a cold or some other sickness coming on, so the 4 days previous I had no workouts.
The race started off by the Log Cabin next to the BMX track. The first part of the run takes you on pavement for about 500 yards before entering the Scout Trail. I started off wanting to pace myself. I know the trail decently from mountain biking out there on a few occassions recently. I know the terrian is rolling with a shorter climb about 2 miles into the run. After getting on the trail, the crowd thinned out pretty quickly. I made a couple of passes, but my mile 2 I didn't have any behind really and just one other person in front of me. I was able to get right up to him and was following him for the next 3/4 of mile. The pace I was running was feeling pretty good and wanted to wait until about mile 3 before I made the pass and picked up the pace. However, what I would come to find out that the race was about to end a little sooner than expected. The race was supposed to come off the trail and onto pavement. I was thinking that we would get back onto the trail for final 3/4 of mile. As, we got on the pavement near the campgrounds, the guy in front of me starts to pick up the pace more. I was thinking still got 3/4 of mile left, so I'm good. As we get pack onto trail, I start to hear the annoucer and people cheering and I look at my watch and only see 2.88 miles, no way this coming to an end! Sure enough, just up ahead was the finish. I make my short final push to the finish and finish the race in 22:38 and a final distance of 2.98 miles.
The finish was good enough for 13 Overall out of 55 racers. I finished third in my age group. A couple of takeaways for this race would be since the race was only supposed to be 3.75 miles. I should have pushed the pace a little harder in the beginning. Also, you should always know the course. Had I realized that we were coming into the finish, I wouldn't have let the guy in front go. I talked to him after the race and he asked, "you didn't know that the finish was up ahead did you?" Nope!
DLT events still put on a great event here and I am looking forward to the Cadron Trail Run on Feb. 9th.
For the first race of the year, I was happy with the results especially since I didn't know how it would go after feeling under the weather the previoius few days. With the River Trail 15k coming up the next weekend, I was preparing for a PR if possible!
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