a mid-summer's night dream

2007 Grand Tree Series Race #11 - The People's Forest Trail Race 7 miler
It is easy to let off of the accelerator of fitness when the heavy heat and humidity lay on like sweaty, old wool blankets.
Whoa, don’t want to overtax your thermoregulatory system, mais oui? Just pass me another ice tea there my friend and let those sneaks air out but good.
However, by the time your brain justifies the need to get off of your arse and get burning calories again, it is Halloween and those candy pieces from your kid’s collection are more than a bit tempting.
That is the beauty of the People’s Forest Trail Race.
Right at the time when you can justify getting into Barkhamsted for a little, early morning jaunt, with a quick dip afterwards in the frigid Farmington River (albeit the shallow West Branch) and make a day out of it in the shade of the old conifers. Not too late in the summer to mess up a perfectly good vacation, nor so early to prevent a good, healthy recovery from the craziness of those spring races, nor too long to require actually heavy duty preparation and training any LSDs.
A beauty, eh?
As it was this year. A bit of recruitment brought out a whole bunch of our soccer friends from our former co-ed team, plus a few of my former hockey players all for a fun, little event and a picnic morning afterwards. Seven bills gets you into the park and the event costs only $5 ($7 post). Pack a picnic lunch and the swimsuits and you’re off!
The best part? A few of the non-racing spouses came along and kept an eye on *all* of the kids, so we didn’t need to find a baby sitter, our kids got to come along *and* all who wanted to run got a chance to! They will *forever* have my thanks.
The pre-regs looked about 50 or so and 77 finished. Included in that pack was Carolyn, Jimmy-Jam, Jim, Shelly, Matt, Carpie (who brought another friend), Ryan, myself. For once, we had a big crew.
The weather had been dry and warm, so the smart move was to bag the trail shoes for some sneaks carry a small water bottle and *plenty* of bug spray ~ the kind that had 100% of the high-octane DEET that you’re not supposed to utilize on children or anyone with an immune system deficiency.
The start and finish head along a spectacular gauntlet of old conifers with a great pine needle bed. From there, across an open field and then up.
And up.
And up. All up to the first mile mark.
Then a slight rolling of roots and rocks with a gradual incline until about the 2½ mile mark. The surface was pretty typical of single track in the hills of southern New England. Not easy, but not impossible (if you’re a half-decent technical runner).
The big rock staircase up at the second vista marks the top of the climb and the start of the ¾ mile or so stretch through the pine needle path through the winding trails under the conifers. The temp here drops a good 15 degrees from the open rock face just climbed and comes as a perfect relief as my first water bottle was already almost emptied.
I was hitting sub 10’s for the first two miles and didn’t have the piece of mind to hit the lap button at the third mile mark, but I assure you, it wasn’t a sub-10. The next mile brought my times back to 10’s and offered the only water drop on the course (which I partook). Then onto a gravel road for a ½ or so and then some speedy little rocky trail. I passed more than got passed here only because I think people were trying to slow down on the downs and I have long since learned that this is a double whammy for trail runners.
I hit the 5 mile mark well under 10s and crossed the little bridge and into the swampy area catching my second wind.
As the trail starts down a bit before 6 I started to feel the rush from knowing I’d beat my time from last year and ramped it up a bit. Everytime I realize this, it does feel like I get lighter and faster and it helps even more.
I hit 6 and really went at it flying by (politely) everything and everybody. I was passing rocks and trees like they were standing still. As I crossed the field heading back to the start / finish, I saw the next 2 runners out of reach and so saved the all-out, barf-inducing sprint for some other race and carried it in for a 1:05.42. Three minutes plus better than 2006. I’m happy with that.
Until I found out that the winner crossed at 45 minutes taking almost 3 minutes off of the previous course record.
FORTY-FIVE MINUTES?!?!
Pull out the DNA testing kit to assure that the finisher *is* human, folks. Seriously. I was at the little bridge way up the hill as this guy was unlacing his shoes and grabbing a burger.
Be careful if you see him breathing through his eyelids.
As a few of us talked to him later and he actually seemed like a normal guy ~ he was actually doing his first trail race (or so he said). I think a few of us talked him into trying the 7 Sisters. That should humble him as it does us all.
I don’t think that anyone questioned who would come in first from our little pack ~ Matt finished Mt Wash in 1:27 which is border line for DNA testing. I came in second. Then Jim and Shelly together (awwww), then Jimmy-Jam, Ryan, Carolyn and then Carpie and his friend.
After the race, we opened up a picnic area, chilled out in the Farmington (at 32.1 degrees) and ate.
It seriously was an awesome day that will hopefully stay in my memory for a long, long time.