On Saturday Oct 16th I ran the 50k Vulture Bait Trail Race, in which I PR’d by 22.5 minutes and caused myself some minor bodily harm.
The Vulture Bait, was a 25k loop course, which I was running twice. I arrived there about 1.5 hours early. Picked up my kit and chilled with a couple of other RunningFree teammates and some of the other regulars on the trail scene. As I lined up, one of my friends doing the 25k asked what I thought I would finish my first loop in. I figured 3 hrs.
The race got underway and I felt pretty good so I went with it. Weather was perfect, averaged 55F for the race. Lots of rolling hills and leaf covered trails and one creek crossing. The leaf covered trails were a problem as they hid a lot of rocks and roots. I took one nose dive in the first loop, with no serious harm, just got a little dirty. Made it through the first loop in 2.5hrs, oh oh too fast.
Dialed it back a little and headed out on the second loop. All was going well until I hit the same section of forest I took my tumble in, and down I went again. This time I landed hard, drove my fist into my chest and whacked the top of my foot off the root. (My foot is okay if my shoes are not too tight, my hand is still a bit swollen today and my chest hurts like hell, especially when I sneeze. By the way I have allergy problems and sneeze a lot.)
After recovering my wind, I got going again only to take one more stumble, landing on my knees. Fortunately not too bad.
Not long after that, I came across one runner doing the zombie walk, holding his left hamstring. He said he was okay, so I carried on. There was an aid station not too far ahead and I figured I’d let them know he was hurting. As I entered the aid station I caught up to a friend. Apparently he and another runner had actually picked the hurting runner up. He had been lying on the trail. We got a first aider heading back down the trail (found out later, that after giving the runner some Gatorade and salt, the runner worked out the cramp and continued on).
After that, my friend and I leap frogged along the trails and through the aid stations, each of us managing to pull ahead briefly. Finally in the final aid station, I took the lead, and although he almost caught me on one hill, I topped out and gave everything I had left and beat him into the finish by 1 minute.
After a soak in the lake and a nice meal my friend has decided I wouldn’t have beat him, if he didn’t have to help the other runner. So in a week we have a grudge match. (I told my daughter, that means I get to trip him whenever he tries to pass me).
Finished in 5:31:27, beating my 50k time from two weeks ago by 22.5 minutes.
