Well that was a bit of a disaster.
Panic at the Start
I got there in plenty of time, picked up my bib, and was sitting in my car. About 25 minutes before the race I decided it was time to put on my shoes.
Horror of horrors - I had forgotten my orthotic inserts at home! I briefly considered racing without them, but there wasn't even an insole (just a hard bottom) - so I bit the bullet and decided to drive home to Whitby.
Whitby is too far to get to and back in 25 minutes... I called my wife in a panic and had her drive them out toward me, met her somewhere near halfway. I broke several traffic laws (I won't say which ones in case the long arm of the law reads blogs)... but somehow I made it to the start with about 1 minute to spare.
Damn! This is not the mindset you want to be in when the gun goes off!
The Race
The first few kilometers were deceiving... pretty easy, downhill a bit, and the full force of the heat hadn't kicked in. I was doing well. With all the adrenalin of the orthotic-panic, I likely went out a bit too fast, but nothing I shouldn't have been able to recover from.
But it didn't take long for me to realize that wasn't going to stick.
The Heat - I'm not good with the heat at the best of times, but with our cold winter and late start to spring, I'm not even close to acclimated to heat and humidity. This was the warmest day we've had all year, and definitely the most humid... it killed me, right from the start. By the end I was pretty dehydrated and wasted.
The Hills - This is a "hiking trail" and apparently people enjoy hiking to the top of the valley, diving back into it, then hiking back up, and repeating this several times! There were some dark moments for me. Really, I should have anticipated a tougher slog, the trail crowd loves a challenge.
The Trails - Great for the most part! A little mucky in some places but really nothing too technical or challenging.
The River Crossing - With about 2km to go (a little more than that actually!) you have to cross the river. It wasn't all that deep, maybe mid-way up my shins. It felt amazing... I was so happy to get some nice cooling on my poor feet. I was very tempted to jump right in head to toe and cool off.
My Time - 2:39:36 - 27/84. Crazy slow pace, but this was tough business! I'm really happy with that placing actually, good to know it was hard for more than just me.
The Volunteers - were awesome, great people. Actually everyone was really nice, and the organization was excellent. Course marking was fantastic.
All in all a pretty rough day, but I enjoyed the trail and the race was well done. I'll have to come back and do it justice, maybe next year.
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