The 2014 race season has started and my legs are feeling it. I decided to start this season in the woods. Or to be more accurate, in the local forest park here in Sammamish: Soaring Eagle Park. The Seattle area has a lot of low key trail running competition so I signed up for the 5 mile race.
The last interval workout before the race was awful so I was not sure about my shape.
As a member of the Fearless Racing Team I made sure my race gear was correct. Well, the new kit is in the mail so I went old school with a cotton t-shirt. I raced like everybody else in cotton t-shirts back when I was young and fast, so this most be the slowest race I have done in a regular t-shirt.
The trails at Soaring Eagle Park are full of elevations changes and have a lot of twists and turns. On Saturday I ran through the course but could hardly remember 10% of the terrain, and I have done a lot of running in that park before. The course was challenging and a real trail run course.
Race morning I could feel that I had a race. I always get more nervous for running races than triathlons. But luckily this was a positive nervousness.
The start of the race was a small parking lot, but the organizers had everything us runner needed. I have to say this was a really positive race.
Some last minute reading before start.
Then it was time to get to the start line. And since this is Seattle, no one wanted to stand in the first line. It was kind of funny.
The race organizer counted us down and said go, the 2014 race season had officially started.
I was in the lead after 10 meters. That said a lot about the field of the 5 mile race and not so much about my running abilities. But no matter what, leading a race is really cool. The first kilometer was on a gravel road, before the course started on single track trails with mud and turns. I tried to speed up down hills, look as much forwards as possible without doing face plants and when I had time look back to see what was going on. After 15 minutes I could not see any athletes. I was in front totally alone :-)
I tried to run in an even effort level, but my legs got really tired of shifting directions. I could tell that I got a little more clumsy at the end, but I kept myself on the feet and managed to even sprint for the finish. My time on my watch was 38.22.
My big take away. I had a lot of fun and it was a blast to be in the front for a whole race. Now I am looking forward to next race where I most likely will get killed.
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