Race Name: Dirty Girl Run
Race Date: August 6, 2011
Race Location: Mansfield Outdoor Centre
Race Website: www.dirtygirlsrun.com
After not running much this year due to injury, I had decided about a month ago to sign up for the Dirty Girl 30 kilometer trail run which was a daunting task to say the least. I had planned on signing up to do the Creemore 50km Vertical Challenge last year after reading Derek Virgo’s race report on his Seaton Trail run and being inspired (April 24, 2010), but a knee injury over the Christmas holidays shelved that idea pretty quickly. I’ve been testing my knee with shorter distances prior to the race, as well as a few Enduro races through the 5Peaks circuit… And I’m happy to say that my knee has held up.
The Dirty Girl Run has a variety of different categories to choose from. Oddly enough, the 30 kilometer distance I did was the shortest of the categories! For the Insane athletes, you can sign up for the 6 hour category (which basically means you run as many laps as possible in 6 hours). If that doesn’t float your boat, there is a 12 hour category (similar to the 6 hour, you do as many laps as possible in 12 hours). Sound tough? Well, as if it weren’t tough enough the 12 hour runners had to start at 8:00pm and run through the night! And finally there were the ultra insane athletes that signed up for the 24 hour category. Good grief.
When I arrived to Mansfield Outdoor Centre the morning of the race, I was happy to see a great turnout for the event… Including quite a few Running Free uniforms! While chatting with a few folks, I started to actually feel lazy for only doing the 30 kilometer distance! Everyone was there to do the 24 hour event!! After doing some stretching and gulping down some water, I was ready and roaring to go. I lined up at the start, and after a few moments we were off.
Lap 1
The 30km group and the 6 hour group started at the same time, and I purposely didn’t situate myself anywhere near the front of the start line as I knew I wasn’t in any shape to be a contender at this race. That was a mistake as only moments into the race we bottlenecked… and it was baaad. I ended up walking at least a kilometer as it was primarily singletrack at the beginning of the 10km lap, and to make matters worse someone in the front made a wrong turn and we got lost. Remember how most race organizers always say at the beginning of the race to follow the markers and not the person in front of you? Yeah… now I know why. I wasn’t impressed, but knew it was more of a training run for me than anything else so I didn’t really get bent out of shape about it. Once back on track, I was able to get into a rhythm and pace myself properly. The trails were perfectly groomed and were a mixture of single track and double track. There were about a dozen sections to run through, each bearing their own name on a pink sign at the entrance to the section. I have to hand it to the race organizers, other than the little blip at the beginning with the bottleneck; the course was perfect for a race of this calibre. It was not only challenging, but it was perfectly laid out and marked. Everything was going hunky dory until approximately the 8 kilometer mark were I stood there looking up this monstrosity of a climb. I was very familiar with the climb as I’ve raced Mountain Bike races at Mansfield several times… but part of me assumed that I wouldn’t have to conquer this big bugger in today’s race!! All well… I shortened my stride and made it all the way up… Once atop the beast, I had to take a breather and sip some Gatorade – that was likely the last time I’d be running up that hill… mental note, walking up this section the next two laps isn’t going to be the end of the world. Not too long after that climb was the start/finish… I looked at my Garmin and it said 10.45km’s in 1:08:–. I was hoping to be sub 1 hour, but with the bottleneck and getting lost I was content.
Lap 2
The second lap was obviously more challenging as I was running on fairly tired legs. What was nice is that the competitors were spaced out nicely and I found myself just being able to do my own thing. I got to meet lots of runners this lap as I’m always up for chatting, and I took full advantage of the Aid Station at the 5km marker this time around. They were fully stocked with Heed, Salt tabs, Gels, Water and an array of fresh fruit. All was good and fine until I met the ugly hill again at the 8km mark of the route (but this was my 2nd lap, thus the 16th kilometer). I decided to walk up it this time… yeah, even that was tough. I crossed the start/finish line at 2:19:29… an hour and eleven minutes for the second lap. I could live with that.
Lap 3
The third lap was pretty well identical to the second lap, only a bit slower. Some of the short and steep ascents were taking their toll on me forcing me to walk some of them, but overall I ran 90% of the lap so I was happy. I once again took full advantage of the aid station on the course, and went at a comfortable pace and took my time. I walked most of the big hill again, but was able to pull off a light jog up the last ¼ of it (probably because I knew I wouldn’t have to face it again that day). When I came to the finish line, I looked at the clock and it said 3:39:07… I’ll take it.
So, this is certainly the farthest trail run I’ve done to date… I know it’s a fairly slow time, but I’m really happy with the results as I didn’t think I’d be able to run any sort of long distance race again 3 months ago. I feel as though I could have gone a bit harder through the race, as I ended up not really feeling any major fatigue that night or the next day (where usually after a long distance race I can barely walk). Overall I finished 28th of 81 entrants, and had I trained a bit more for this race, and perhaps pushed myself harder, I feel a sub 3 hour race could have been in the books; Next year perhaps. As for my knee, it feels better since having done the race (if that’s even possible), so perhaps my dream of completing a full Ironman is back on the bucket list.
If there’s anyone wanting to partake in an amazing trail running event, on beautiful terrain that’s very close to commute to… give the Dirty Girl Run a try, you’ll be glad you did.
