Into the Wild Trail Run Race Report—what goes up, must come down…and then back up again

Last Saturday I ran the Into the Wild OC Trail Run with my friends.  It was one of the hardest trail races I have run, but also the most enjoyable.  Oh…and there are so many noteworthy items from this event.

The first noteworthy tidbit is…the student becomes the master.  My running padawan, Kelly, finished seven minutes ahead of me!  We started together and ran the first half of the race together.  As the hills hit us hard, Kelly pulled ahead.  She ran a very strong race and showed that all her hard work has paid off.  As I tried to catch up to her during the race, my brain kept alternating between being extremely proud and being frustrated that I couldn’t catch her.  When I was frustrated I simply reminded myself that her success was also my success—even though she has done all the work to reach her current fitness level.

But I am getting ahead of myself.  The morning started out shaky.  It had rained on and off during the week leading up to the race.  We weren’t even sure they would hold the race.  The OC park system often closes trails when they get too muddy.  We got word Friday night that the race was ON. Kelly let me know she was still unsure about running in that mud—the kind that cakes your shoes and makes you five inches taller.  I received a text from Marci at 6 a.m.letting me know that it was raining like crazy at her house (she lives two minutes from the start of the race).  She even suggested we skip the trails and do a “regular” run.  I was committed.  If the park ranger gave us the go-ahead, I would be running on those trails.  This is our stomping grounds—of course we were running this race.

Sandra, Kelly and I hung out in my car for a while while the rain came down.  We saw Marci and Kris as we headed to the restrooms.  They were a bit cranky.  In fact, everyone, with the exception of Sandra and me, were pretty negative about the weather and trail conditions.  At that point, I was really looking forward to it.  I had a horrible week* and I was ready to take my aggressions out on some trails.  As the start neared, spirits seemed to raise.

Ready to go!

Shannon came to cheer us on at the beginning.  She ran the 10K, which started a half hour later.  She did great in her 10K, btw. Her time was the same as her previous 10K and this was a much more difficult course.

The race started out and we kept a decent pace.  We knew that big hills were coming, so we wanted to make some good time early.  Immediately, we took a beautiful trail that we had never been on.  We run these trails all the time and to find a new gem was exciting. I am eager to get back out there.
 

Kris getting ready to tackle the hills

The first five miles were relatively easy (as trails go).  There was some mud to contend with, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it would be. Around the sixth mile the hills began in earnest.  The hills…oh, the hills…were relentless.  We would get to the top of a particularly challenging incline, thinking the worst was over, only to turn a corner to see yet another hill.

I stayed with Kelly, Marci and Kris for the first part of the race.  As we got into the hills, I noticed that my legs were feeling a bit weak.  I was still sore from my Thursday Body Back class.  I hadn’t really prepared for this race.  I had approached it more like another long run.  I have been following my meal plan which focuses a lot on lean protein and whole foods—not necessarily carbs.  I quickly realized that I might not have a whole lot of energy stores. I don’t think I had any glycogen stored in my muscles—two hours into the race I felt like my tank was empty.  Another possibility, of course, is that I am not in as good shape as I thought and very low mileage two weeks due to moving might have lost some of my zip.

Kelly and Marci slowly pulled away from me.  I ran with Kris for a while.  Then, as she walked during a section, I slowly pulled away from her.

This might have been my last view of Marci and Kelly

My goal from then on was to catch up with Kelly and Marci.  I wasn’t able to run up the steep inclines, but I powered down the declines pretty well.  But I think they did too.  I considered waiting for Kris, so I would have someone to run with, but I couldn’t shake the desire to catch up with Kelly and Marci.
At least the scenery was great.  I didn’t get to enjoy a whole lot of it as I was staring at the ground in front of me trying not to bite it in the mud.  While the mud was not nearly as bad as we thought it might be, there were definitely spots that were a bit dicey, especially on the downhill sections.
   

The course was marked really well.  I have run several trail races and to me, this race was marked more thoughtfully than most.  It was clear that the race directors were runners.  As we came to a fork in the trail, there would be a chalk arrow.
They also put an “X” in front of the trail that we weren’t supposed to go down.  This helped me on more than one occasion when I assumed we were going one way, but really going another way. 

Of course, runners still need to pay attention.  When you are running such a difficult course, that is sometimes pretty difficult.  Even with the great markings, I sometimes questioned if I went the correct way.  Luckily, the race directors put pink ribbons showing the correct way.  As I ran down a trail, wondering if I was going the right way, I would see a reassuring pink ribbon and know I was on the right path.

And yes…runners do make wrong turns.  Out of five of us, two of my friends somehow ran different routes than the rest of us.  Kris ran a shorter course and Sandra ran longer.

As I struggled to finish the race (I seriously had nothing left in my tank), I powered through to the finish line, glad to be done.  Much to my surprise, Kris, who I had left around mile 7 was hanging out, clearly having finished some time before.  I worried that something had happened and she had to quit or something.  She said no, that she had run the entire race.  But…it was all single track and she never passed me. It turns out that Kris and a couple other women accidently took a turn that headed back toward the park, instead of doing a one mile loop heading away from the park.  I remember the fork and thinking it odd that we were running in the opposite direction of the finish.  I have to admit, I was a bit deflated when I saw that she finished ahead of me.  As I was struggling through the difficult course, as mean as it might seem, it made me feel a little better that I wasn’t alone.  Ironically, Kris ran almost exactly 21K where the rest of us ran closer to 23K.**

The spread after the race was really nice.  They had bananas, licorice and Myoplex, among other things.  They had an incredible raffle.  I think everyone who stayed after long enough for the raffle won something.  I won a cool buff from Buffsncuffs.com.***  Kris won a pair of Inov8 trail shoes (insert green-eyed-monster here).  They had water bottles (the nice stainless steel kind, not the plastic kind) and gift certificates to places like REI.

I had a hard time enjoying the awards ceremony and raffle drawing.  Sandra hadn’t come in yet and I was getting worried.  I talked to race officials about whether they had a “sweeper.”  I was ready to go back out to find her. Apparently, there were several runners who hadn’t come in. I felt responsible for her, not only as her friend, but as the person who suggested she run this race.  She debated between the 10K and the 21K and I told her that she would be fine running the longer distance. The last thing I wanted was for her to have a negative experience her first trail race.  Finally, I saw her, running her heart out toward the finish line.  I screamed like a crazy woman and everyone else joined me.


She finished so strong considering she had been running nearly four hours!!  She and a couple other women made a wrong turn on the trails. One of the women said she thought they ran at least seventeen miles.  If she took the trail I think she did, she ran closer to eighteen!! I immediately grabbed her some protein drink, a banana and some licorice. I knew she was beyond tired. The longest run she has ever done was her first half marathon in January. When I asked her if she enjoyed the experience at all, she came back with a resounding YES.  She said to Kelly and I, “I am so grateful to the two of you. I never thought I would ever do something like this and now, look at me.”  On a Facebook thread about the race, one of Sandra’s comments about being lost and her tough run was, “will I do it all over again? ..... YES! ;)))”  I love that girl!  She has the best attitude and I am SO proud of her.  Did I mention she is a grandmother?


This was the first time this race was held.  I give it a definitely thumbs up.  There were less than two hundred people, but I am sure there will be more next year.  The race directors assure us there will be a next year. I will definitely run it again. Kudos to Alison and Mike for a great event!


*We moved (which is why I haven't been blogging or commenting on other blogs).  We just moved down the street, but I don’t think there is ever the case of an easy move. In fact, the short move might have been worse since I didn’t organize and pack as well as I could have, knowing I could just carry stuff that I didn’t pack.  Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I didn’t run all week and was ready to run hard.
**The race was scheduled to be a 21K, but due to the rains the river was over the trail in one part.  The park deemed it unsafe to cross and closed that trail, so the race course had to be changed.  Where it was originally supposed to be thirteen miles, the final course was over fourteen.  
***A review and possible giveaway to come soon!

Wild Runs and Wild Life

I haven’t blogged in two weeks.  Bad blogger.  School started this morning and in the past couple of weeks we seemed to be busy squeezing all we could out of the summer.  I am going to use this post to recap some of my runs over the past couple of weeks.

Last Saturday, we had a great long run down at the beach.  The weather was still uncharacteristically cool and the sun didn’t come out at the beach our entire run.  I had twenty on my schedule, but Kelly and Joan wanted to do eighteen.  I took the long way to get to Kelly’s house before driving to the pier and gave myself almost a two mile head start.  We ended up running nineteen, giving me twenty one for the day!  We ran up to “the water tower.”  I had never been on this run, but it was obvious where our turnaround spot was.  The crazy thing is that the water tower is an actual home!  They apparently live up in the round part of the tower.  Cool!


That Tuesday, I met Joan for a run in the trails.  She had shown me a fabulous trail off Weir Canyon the week before and I was eager to run it again.  It has a lot of hills and mostly single track.  At one point, we ran through a tunnel under a road.  I don't mean an underpass, but an honest-to-goodness tunnel.  At one point we couldn’t see our feet, even though we could see the light coming through the other end.  Trippy.

Joan realized that trails don’t scare me.  I don’t worry about getting lost and am willing to try a new one if it means finding a fun new route.  She asked if I wanted to try a trail she had always wanted to explore, but didn’t want to do it alone.  Of course I would!  From this point on, we explored the area, trying new trails and some areas that weren’t even trails.  We battled overgrown brush and even some giant spiders.  Yuck!

At one point, we looked up at the top of the hill and saw a deer.  We stopped and tried to wait for him to run down the hill, but he/she saw us and was willing to wait us out.  I am glad that the deer is as far as the wild life got that day.  We were out a bit later than normal and the sun was really starting to get hot.  I was very worried about seeing a snake (I HATE SNAKES), and thank goodness I didn’t.

I met Marci last Wednesday for an eight miles tempo run.  We did a good job of keeping our pace faster than marathon pace (8:45), but not quite to half marathon pace (a little over 8:00).  Most of our tempo miles were right around 8:30.  It felt good to work a little harder and remind my legs how to run a bit faster.   We ran through a neighborhood that had a lot of horse properties.  Every other house or so had a stable or corral and horses.  I was taken by surprise when I saw a ZEBRA!
You can see his buddy the llama (or alpaca) coming up behind him.  These people also had an ostrich, a pot-bellied pig, more llamas and a bunch of donkeys.   You really don’t see that every day!

We have run a couple times in the last week into the Boy Scout camp just past Irvine Park.  It is a great hilly run with a lot to see.  How beautiful is this run??
  
Yesterday, we saw a different kind of critter.  No deer or even coyotes were spotted.  Just an incredibly creepy crawly.

Joan put her hand down to give reference to show how big this thing was.  Ewwwwww.
   
And, of course, we run our beloved Santiago Creek at least once a week.  I never get tired of this place to run.  Now that we have branched out and tried new trails from this route, I know I’ll never get bored here.  There are so many trails and so many kinds of terrain.


In the middle of all these great runs was a little race called the LA Mud Run.  I will post a race report soon.  I still have to get the pictures developed, and that is something I am not used to doing.  I ran with a disposable water proof camera so I am hoping for some fun muddy pictures.

I am so lucky to live so close to such fabulous places to run.  Add all the wonderful people I have met to run with, this is turning out to be a great training cycle!

Happy Running!

Peter’s Canyon Trail Run Series #1 Race Report

Thursday night I ran the first of three Peter’s Canyon Trail Runs.  I expected a very small event—similar to the OC Chili Winter Trail Series.  This was bigger.  There were at least four vendor tents and probably twice as many runners.  I was pleasantly surprised.

It was a low-key start, like these trail races often are.  It started at 6:15 and the temperature was just right.  I had put on a long sleeve tech shirt, but at the last minute changed into short sleeves.  I’m glad I did.  While the temperatures were comfortably in the low 60’s with a breeze, it was still very humid.
The first mile was a somewhat gradual ascent. During that first mile, I was wondering if the five miles I had run earlier in the day were making me sluggish.  I felt like I was struggling to get into a groove and to breathe.  I hadn’t run in the evening for a while and I wondered if I was so used to morning runs that I wouldn’t be able to push myself at night.

As we got into the canyon, we turned up on the ridge and headed up, up, up the hills.  It was a nice trail up to the ridge with plenty of room to pass.  I walked sooner than I would have liked, but I didn’t want to run out of steam too early.  For those of you who are familiar with this park, the route bypassed “Big Red.”  Although the other hills gave us plenty to get our heart rates up.

By the time I was done with the worst of the hills, I was feeling more in a groove.  I think a lot of it was due to the fact that I love running down steep, technical hills.  I am getting more and more confident of going fast going down those hills and I tend to pass quite a few people.

The last half of the race is pretty much all downhill.  I was able to get a good stride.  I ran the last two miles right around an 8:00 pace!  Not bad for the end of ten miles for the day!*

My time for the race was 44:25.  My Garmin showed that it was actually 4.8 miles, rather than five.  I ended up 116 out of 378 runners.  The results were not broken down by division or gender, but from what I can tell I was the 27th woman and the 3rd in my age group!

I wandered around a bit and checked things out.  Again, there was water in a can, courtesy of Monster.  Strange.  As I was getting a sample of Gleukos, I struck up a conversation with another runner.  She is a mom of two and lives near Peter’s Canyon.  We both are training for a fall marathon and have similar PR’s (although she ran this race a full four minutes faster than I did…SPEEDY).  We decided that we should go running together and exchanged contact information**.  When I got home, I was as excited at finding another running buddy as I was about my performance in the race. 

This race was the first of three in a series.  The next one is in July and the third in August.  I am bummed that I will be out of town for the next one, but the August race is on my calendar.  It is a nice race with the challenge of the hills and the opportunity to run pretty fast.

Happy Running.

*five miles in the morning and five miles during the race with eleven hours in between.
**She and I ran on Saturday AND Sunday this weekend and will be again tomorrow.  I believe it was the beginning of a real friendship.  That is better than any medal!