East Fork Backpack Trail Run

This one was last Sunday, July 17. It's another race in the Dirt Days series. For many years, this was the only trail race held in the Cincinnati area. I have done it a couple of times before but it was like 10 years ago, maybe longer.

East Fork State Park lies between St. Rt. 32 and 125, east of Cincinnati. The lake is a popular site for triathlons. The Backpack Trail is a well-established route, supposedly about 14 miles long in its entirety. This race used to be about 4 miles or a little over. Now it is a 5.6 mile and a 10.8 mile. You can use either race to count towards Dirt Days series points and Dirty Dozen standings, but the formats of the race are slightly different. The longer race is just a "normal" race with everybody starting at the same time. The shorter race has a handicapped start. Back in the day, they used to give out special shirts to the top 25 finishers in the handicapped race, but I think they've stopped that.now. I wasn't 100% sure about that so I still wanted to try to finish in the top 25.

I was doing the shorter race. I was just not up for 10 miles in the woods in this heat and humidity. The shorter race was going to be hard enough for me. I had spent the previous two days running the dogs in agility, and I was tired. And I really wasn't much in the mood for this race, but I had to go and get a finish time if I wanted to get those Dirt Days series points.

One of the things about it that I really wasn't looking forward to was getting passed by all those younger and faster people, due to the handicapped start. I had some unpleasant memories from the previous races of getting passed by almost everybody who started behind me, and only passing a couple of people myself. And now I would be starting earlier since I am much older, so maybe even more people were going to pass me, and there really weren't many people starting ahead of me that I could pass. I would have preferred a traditional mass start, like they were having in the longer race.

But East Fork Lake is so pretty that it immediately put me in a better mood. So even though it was muggy and miserable, once I got there I was ready to race. I picked up my numbers (front and back for this thing!), and the volunteers helped me pin the one on my back. I did a little 10 minute warm-up jog around the parking lot. I visited the portapotties, twice. I asked Bob Roncker why the race was so much longer than it used to be. He said that over the years people have cleared out more area for the trails, so it has just gradually gotten longer.

I debated wearing a fanny pack with a GU and a bottle of water. I wouldn't need that for a 5 mile road race but I was anticipating being out there for well over an hour on the trails. Bob said that there was just one water stop, in a parking lot in the middle of the race. Or maybe it was a little before the middle. Or a little after. I decided to wear the fanny pack.

The first runner went off at 8 am with a 30-minute handicap. So, the "open" runners started at 8:30. The rest of us were distributed across that 30 minute period based on age, sex, and "previous performances" (whatever that means, as Bob was doing the handicapping). I had a 24 minute handicap, so I started at 8:06. The first runner was an older guy (he ultimately wins the race), and then there were a few women after him, so there were about 6 people ahead of me. Two of the women I thought I might be able to pass, but probably not the others.

What is Up with This?
I thought I was to start by myself based on the pre-race info I had seen, but to my surprise there was another woman lined up next to me at the start. She had apparently been a late registrant, which wasn't supposed to be allowed but I guess Bob let her in anyway.

No big deal, except I looked at this woman and there was just no way she was 52 years old. She looked like maybe somewhere in her late 20s, early 30s and certainly no older than 35. I'm a poor judge of age, but this woman was way younger than I am!

Even 52-year-old movie stars do not look as good as this chick. Fit, tan, long blond hair, no wrinkles. I hated her immediately.

So, I can't help myself, I have to say to her that I think she should be starting at least 10 minutes behind me, maybe 15. I do mean it as a compliment, sort of, and that is how she takes it.

I was interested to see how fast she would take off. If Bob had done the handicapping properly, this much younger woman has to be very slow. Otherwise, he really should have put her further back.

Well, off we go and guess what, she takes off up the hill---you have to run up a steep hill for a couple tenths of a mile or so before you hit the trail---and it is obvious that either she does not know what she is doing or she is much faster than I am. I catch up a little when we first hit the trail but that does not last long, and soon she is out of sight, and I am alone. For awhile. Ultimately, she beats me by 9 minutes. So much for Bob's handicapping. Now if she had started ten minutes behind me where she should have been, maybe I could have held her off. But mostly, it wasn't fair to the other women her age, who had to start far behind her.

Alone in the Woods, for Awhile
I did not have much memory of what the trails were like at East Fork. Basically, they are less technical than at some of the other races, but fairly narrow. Although it had been dry for awhile in the days leading up to the race, there was a bit of rain the day before, so there were a few slippery spots. The problem was, it was hard to tell where the slippery spots were. When it's all slippery, it's somewhat easier because you just know it and deal with it. When you never know where you might fall, it's a little more dangerous. That's my opinion, anyway.

I found the first part of the race to be the most difficult. That part of the trail was very narrow, and on the edge of a hill. I was glad the whole thing wasn't like that. In this early section of the race, I also heard a tree fall down somewhere close to me, which was a bit unsettling. The tree cover was very dense, so the woods were very shady. Despite the shade, it was still plenty hot and humid. Worse, I was wearing sunglasses. Even worse, they kept fogging up. But since I wear prescription lenses, I couldn't take them off. I am almost blind without my glasses.

It took me about 15 minutes or so to catch the two women that I thought I would pass. We discussed how much faster the other woman who started with me was. They said she was really flying, and I said there was no way she was 52 years old.

(I have been obsessing about this since the race. From the results, it looks like she was actually 43. An extremely well-preserved 43. Bob says he put her where he did based on her previous performances. I still think he made a calculation error.)

About 24 minutes into the race, I was passed by an older (well, he's also in his 50s) guy, somebody I knew was going to pass me at some point, even though he started 9 minutes after me. He went on to finish second overall.

I don't remember it all too clearly anymore and it's only been a week and a half.

I was really glad I had that water bottle. I took a sip from it every ten minutes or so. After about 30 minutes, I was wondering where the little parking lot area with the water stop was. It used to be the middle of the race and now was supposed to be two miles in, or two and a half miles in. I heard a guy fall down somewhere behind me, and then there was some cursing.

Finally we hit the parking lot, and the guy who had fallen came up behind me and he was whining about how awful the race was. I didn't understand what his problem was because it really wasn't that bad, as trail races go. Well-marked course, trails in reasonable shape. And here was an aid station with water. What was he whining about? We passed a volunteer and she radioed in to Bob that # 709 (me) had just come through and was "looking strong." I thanked her for that because it gave me a little lift.

And on and on and on. I think it was flatter after this point. Mostly. More people were passing me now. Lots of guys and a few women. I had thought about counting them but gave up on that. Just wanted to finish and not be last. One of the guys who went by was really fast and I wondered if he was the last to start.

Since I didn't really know where I was and how much was left to run, it was all a bit disconcerting. Around 47 minutes into the race I had the GU. What the heck. At least I was managing to stay on course, which is always a challenge for me in these things. The race was for me a weird mix of lonely stretches, punctuated by having to step off the trail to let faster runners go by. It was hard to stay motivated. I walked a few times, then woke up and started running again. The trail was narrower and the tree cover denser than the trails I run on at home. I found it a little spooky and claustrophobic when nobody else was around. I would not like to run those trails all by myself for very long.

I started to feel a blister forming on my big left bunion. Or maybe it was when it popped that I started to feel it. I was wearing my Salomon trail shoes, that are light and breatheable, but I had pulled the laces a little too tight in the toes.

Bob had said that when we passed by the clearing with the little backpack huts, there was around a mile to go. Maybe. The details are always a bit vague. Finally we hit something that looked like that description. And then there was some uphill. I thought I remembered the uphill from the race years ago. On the last hill, I got passed by a twelve year old boy. And then, just coming out of the woods and back to the road that led to the parking lot, I got passed by a 35 yr. old guy. Later I was wishing I had tried harder to stay ahead of them both. But who am I kidding? They started long after me and they caught me, so it is unlikely I could have stayed ahead once they caught up to me.

I did run fairly hard down that last hill towards the beach, anyway.

Official time was 1:07:43, or just a little slower than I had expected. I was thinking 1:06, so I was close. Maybe if I hadn't walked in a few spots. For Dirty Dozen scoring purposes, I was 13th of 25 women. In terms of my actual finish spot, however, I was 26 of 61 runners (and was thinking that wow, if they still gave out those shirts to the top 25 I would have just missed one!) and 9 of 25 women. My age-graded time was also not so hot, 31 of 61. At least I did not get lapped by any of the 10 milers, the first of whom finished just behind me.

I stayed around for a little bit after the race, anyway, and had a cinnamon crunch bagel and a banana. Took off my wet, nasty shoes and socks, and found the first aid kit in my car to treat the blister.

I am going to miss the next two races in this series, one for a dog show and one for the Leading Ladies marathon. My next race, however, is the Lady Distance Classic 10k on August 6.