First off, let me say, I really think that I headed to this race completely undertrained! Zach and I made it to Wichita Falls and the Hotter'n Hell Hundred Clubhouse yesterday afternoon about 45 minutes before packet pickup started. It gave us a chance to look around the area and check out the race start/finish. It was a beautiful park with a small river flowing through it. Very nice. I got my packet with no problem and we headed to Stanton's house after he got his packet. I met Stanton last year at Cross Timbers as you may remember and he stayed with us during the Buffalo Springs 70.3. It was great to get to meet his wife, Amy, and his two beautiful little girls. Amy made a Spaghetti with Zucchini carb load that was really delicious! Complete with garlic bread and a good beer! Good night!
The next morning, Zach and I were up by 0600 and noticed that..........IT WAS RAINING! Dammit!!
We headed to the race with Stanton driving (they have really weird traffic lights/stops in Wichita Falls).
So just a little after 0800, we took off! And even though it stopped raining prior to race start, the trails were incredibly muddy! Not the "deep, gloppy, soul-sucking type mud," but the "slippery as Hell, make ya look like Wile E. Coyote trying to take off running when the road is covered with ball bearings type mud!" And on the inclines you had to make very sure that you had enough momentum to make it up...........or you were going back down! FUN STUFF!! The course itself was absolutely phenomenal! Everything you look for in a trail run! Beautiful scenery, lots of wooded areas, inclines, declines, stream crossings, switchbacks, and jumping fallen logs. Just awesome! At one really steep short downhill to a stream crossing, and then up a steep uphill, there were two guys directing "traffic." I stopped to assess the situation and figure out how best to traverse it and they hollered, "Just bomb through it! It's just shit water!!" Oh.........good! Thanks guys! HAHA
The course was one loop for us half marathoners, and two loops for the full. I was really happy that I didn't go ahead and register for the full, because after I finished slipping and slogging my way around the course and crossed the finish line......I was done! I felt pretty decent afterwards too which really gave me back my thunder. I finished in 2:15, exactly the time that I told Zach to expect me in. They had a water hose at the finish for us to spray off our legs and shoes which was nice too. I got that done, and Zach and I hit the road back to Lubbock. Stanton called me a little later and said that he'd finished the full in 5 hours, a very good time considering those conditions. I'm just really glad the temps were great and that it had stopped raining. I would very much like to run this course again in better trail conditions but this was, overall, a very fun and very well run race and I will definitely do it again!
4 comments:
Hate I missed you and Zach...Underwood won it for the womens...sounds like good times....dang it...I freaking missed it!
Yeah, man, it was a great time! Nice and sloppy!! I even sat in the mud on one slippery downhill! ha
Fun report. I enjoyed your description of the trail conditions. :) The trail and race sounds like one I need to check out.
It looks like you are heading out to Rocky? If so good luck, see ya out there!
Race Director Sandy and the rest of the crew best in the business. Ran a road half marathon 3 weeks prior and felt not really fully trained.. threw out that excuse and drove up anyway. One of those must do runs if one is a never quit runner. it was muddy fun, bridges great, volunteers awesome, through attrition of 2 loopers to one finished 4th in 4:18 for full. after slip sliding away with 5 lbs mud on each shoe, bagged up LL Bean trail shoes and mailed to brother in NJ in plastic bag. He did not open until August for the Timberman Ironman! Homeland security wanted to know what the smell was. Climbed NH mountain with them and hung in a tree till next year! Seriously, this run is a must if you love to hug a tree and breathe. Thank the guy "gator" who asked if it helped to wipe mud off every 10 steps, duh, not at all, then we slid to the finish and I think I won the masters by the grace of God......tri4God ...long sleeve shirts make great gifts for east coast brothers who run and climb in them often. God bless WFRunning club..
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