2008 USAT&F New England Trail Championship
Sometimes, things aren't always what they seem.Sometimes, they are.
This is my first time doing this event even though with Dave Dunham and crew organizing the event, certainly it would be well run.
and it was.
I like Dave ~ he obviously is a high speed kind of person and keeps a great sense of humor as he runs the event and also runs the course. And does really well too!
But several things struck me on the single loop course.
One - there was very little (read: almost none) technical running to this trail course. As such, it was fast and truth be told, I had a very good time (for me) versus the leaders. But, there is a certain beauty to really technical running and there has got to be some rockiness to this mountain somewhere - but it wasn't on this course today. I would have thought that the USA T&F wanted to challenge the best of the best, but maybe they didn't want to risk injuring the best of the best. Not an obvious nor clear conclusion.
Two - the wide, clear and relatively easy surface of the trail greatly favored the more-cross-country inclined among the entrants. That would be an obvious conclusion.
Three - very few people besides myself noticed the huge pile of (bear?) scat coming down the hill around the 5.25 mile mark.
Four - where was Richard Busa?
I hope that the third and fourth points weren't related.
The course was basically 3.8 miles of a gradual cross-country style double-track up to the Northfield Reservoir. A water stop at the top. And then a 2.5 mile or so drop to the start / finish.Either I'm getting much better at hill climbing or the hills weren't as steep as other races in the area. I'd vote for the latter on that.
I like technical running better than just running. I'm much worse at technical running than just running as my times consistently show, but I enjoy it more (and it is probably why I enjoy trail running). I think my finish should have given me just barely 70 Grand Tree points and against some exceptionally faster entrants. It is what it is, I guess.
I enjoyed talking pre and post race with some fellow Grand Tree regulars and there is a funny "Wella-Balsam" effect going on. Two runners introduce me to two more runners...and so on...and so one...
I also pulled a 5-year old pair of Nike running shoes out of the garbage and ran this soft course with them - and had no foot pain for the first race in 2 years. Hmm...time to start looking for Air Max Assail II's. New shoes aren't always better.
I also decided to buck tradition and...
run...
without...
the...
boonie...
The planet didn't implode, dogs and cats didn't shack up ~ in fact, it was nice. I might even do it again for the next summer race.
The results should be posted soon, but I'm happy I most likely got 70 points, feet didn't hurt, didn't cramp and had a fun day running.
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