Member Race Reports

I'll preface this by saying that before running this race this past weekend, I had not run more than 3 miles, collectively, in over 5 months. This, however, was not my plan going into the race. I believe I registered for the event towards the latter part of 2009 when registration opened. My objective was to spend at least 8-weeks on a running plan that I grabbed off of www.RunnersWorld.com to get myself into reasonable condition. But life and its responsibilities (not to mention my many excuses) crept in front of my daily workouts until the week before the race when I decided that it would just be plain stupid to start training at that point. I mean, come on! How stupid can someone be, right?!

Anyway, the weekend of the race I felt a little nervous and excited at the same time. I was nervous simply because I had not run in so long, and I had no clue how my body would react to attempting to run such a long distance with virtually no training. Would I go into complete shock and give up 2 - 3 miles into the race? If I couldn't run the entire race, could I stand to walk to the finish line? Or hell, maybe if I didn’t run too hard, could I possibly run the whole thing? My heart went for the latter, but at times my heart and muscles will tell two completely different stories. Besides, in order to get a medal, I had to complete the event in less than 3 hours and 30 minutes. I felt somewhat confident that I could do this.

The race site was located in Yorker State Park in Winder, GA. The race director announced that only about .3 miles of the race would be on paved ground. The duration of the rest of the course would all be in the woods. I got really excited when I heard that, because I knew that even if I decided I couldn't run, I would at least try and enjoy the view, as I love the outdoors.

The first 3 miles of the race went pretty slow, simply because all the athletes had to enter the trail through a very narrow corridor, in addition to the trail only being wide enough for one athlete. So it took 2 to 3 miles before the runners were spaced out enough to get into their natural running rhythms without being effected by other racers. This bottle-neck was great for me, because it allowed me to get into a rhythm that I knew I could maintain for a while. Once everyone cleared out, I decided to hold that rhythm for my own well being.

My strategy was to hold a slow and steady pace until about mile 7 or 8. Then, depending on how I felt, I would pick up the pace and start racing a little. But, what I always do from time to time is let other athletes get me out of my rhythm, where I try to maintain the pace of someone in front of me to sort of “keep me moving”. There was a guy in a neon colored skull cap that was my rabbit for the first 4 miles. I’m sure he was completely unaware that I was trailing him, but when he went faster, I went faster. If he slowed up, so did I. We were like twins…until he took off and left me halfway into mile 4. So I looked for another rabbit. This time I found a woman who appeared to be 15 to 20 plus years my senior (from behind, at least). I decided to stay behind here for about 2 miles because she NEVER broke her rhythm. She never tried to follow the crowds; she never got some burst of energy that she could only maintain for a small time. If I could read someone’s personality from their running style, this woman was someone who knew who she was and confident in herself. I was very impressed!

It turned out that she and I were basically neck – and – neck throughout the rest of the race. Occasionally, I would get those crazy bursts of energy or follow the crowds to gain a little leverage and, at times I would past her. The funny about this, though, is that I was never too far in front of her. If I stopped for more than 10 seconds she would pass me. After mile 10, I had learned my lesson, and just chilled right behind her again. She actually, ended up beating me to the finish line, which I had no problems with. I ended finishing in 2:35:25.

In all, I had a great time. I surprised myself, in that I actually ran the whole race. Also, this was the first time I Facebooked an entire race where I was a participant in. I am looking to do more races like this one. Hopefully, I’ll see some of you there.

Otis Hopson

Wow thats great. Congrats on a successful run. Thanks for the update. I just started running last weekend. I jogged 3 miles, and it turned out to be a 10min mile, so I'm working on it.


Neisha

Thanks for your posting Otis. I, like you, haven't run very much this winter and I have a 10 mile race next weekend. I know I can do 5 with no problem. How did you feel afterwards?

TMITCHELL