Glenwood Gardens Night Trail Run

This race, last night, was the last event of this year's Dirt Days series. It was the third year for this race, and my third time doing it. Hey! Another streak!

Glenwood Gardens is a Hamilton County park that I have never visited in daylight, but I suspect is is pretty when you can actually see it. The race course is on the walking trails that circle around the gardens, some of which are paved, and some of which are gravel. The terrain is a combination of flat and gentle undulations.

So, it's not really like a trail race, as compared to traditional trail races. But, it is run in the dark, which presents a different type of challenge. Especially for those of us who are unfamiliar with the park during daylight.

I needed a good placement in this race to move me up in the standings for the Dirtiest Dozen. This year they are taking your placements from your four best races in the series (so you have to do at least four to qualify), and the top 12 males and 12 females will get the awards. Last year it was a handmade ceramic cup. I've placed 7th the past two years. Trying to move up some, but mostly the goal is just to make it, period. I've done five out of the previous six races, so I have enough scores already, and even without a good placement at this race it looks like I will make the top twelve.

But we always want improvement.

Last year (which you can read about here) I finished this race in a little over 30 minutes (30:08 to be precise) and was 11th woman and 11th overall finisher age-graded. So this year, I wanted to break 30 minutes, and make it into the top ten women and top ten age-graded. And if Cyndi K. showed up, I wanted to beat her. And if I could beat her by three spots, I would finish ahead of her in the Dirtiest Dozen standings. But if she didn't show up for this one, she wouldn't be in the standings, because she has only done three races.

It was a nice evening to run, with temps in the 60s and low humidity. The race didn't start until 9 pm, so the park could get good and dark. I had a cup of yogurt around 5 pm, and a banana around 7. Left for the race around 7:45, which was a bit early but I was ready to go.



I wore a red running skirt, a white top (the one with the "26.2 Dog" on it I bought at Hartford last year), a white running cap, my trail shoes, and the little Petzl headlamp that I only use at this race. (Looks like I will need to remember to replace the batteries for it next year!) The headlamp gives off enough light to make it around the trails. They also give you little red blinkies to attach to your back at the race, which helps the people behind you. And the side of the trail is marked with the little blinkies as well, just enough so you can find your way around.

I decided to wear the Nike GPS for this one. I've used it enough now that it is not too distracting. And since the miles are not marked on the course, I thought it would be nice to have a good, bright display of approximately where I was in the race and how long I'd been out there. I set it for 1-mile autolaps but turned off the sound.

I got my number and headed out for a warmup. Last year I had stressed out about getting lost in the dark, so this year I just ran straight down the trail from the start and decided that I would turn right around after a half mile or so. They hadn't finished putting the blinkie lights out on the trail yet, but this was enough of a warmup. I didn't see many other people warming up, but maybe that was because I couldn't see very much, period. I noticed that there were already people gathering in the start area, and I thought that was weird because we still had like 40 minutes until the start of the race.

I felt a little stiff. And my headlamp didn't seem quite as bright as I remembered. Honestly, I was a little nervous about falling. And then I felt a little twinge in my left knee towards the end of the warm up. It went away quickly, but it was enough to worry me a little.

No sign of Cyndi K., but I couldn't really see who was there in the dark, anyway.

I joined the other people waiting at the start around 8:45, which still seemed way too early. And of course, the race didn't start right on time. The GPS had worked fine during my warmup but when I tried to get it started again for the race it had trouble finding the signal. Of course. At least the shoepod sensor was working.

There were the usual people there with compression socks but at least I didn't see any fuel belts for this 3.6 mile race. I did see a couple of young women wearing long tights, and one of them even had on a long sleeve top and a vest! That seemed like too much clothes even if you were just going to stand around and watch. I was perfectly comfortable in my little skirt and top.

I put myself pretty close to the front, then got scared about being run over and moved back a row. I counted a dozen or so women ahead of me, which seemed like a reasonable position. I would pass some, and maybe someone from behind would pass me, but I certainly thought I belonged among the top dozen women.

As we started, I had a moment of fear that I would get tangled up in the other runners before things opened up. But soon I was into a rhythm, and just concentrating on the sound of my breathing and the thump of my feet. I quickly passed a group of about 3-4 women who had been in the front, then set my sights on one just ahead. Just tried to keep moving steadily along, knowing there would be time enough to pass her later.

After the start, I was really only passed by one group of people, a woman running with a couple of guys, who must have started pretty far back. They were booking it.

The first mile or so of the race makes a loop on a paved trail. I caught up to the woman who was just ahead of me late in that first mile, then pulled a little ahead. But she stayed with me and pulled ahead again. Okay, be that way, I thought, I am happy to draft off you. And I tucked in right behind her.

But she was tiring, and when we hit the gravel it was too much for her, and I pulled away for good.

The gravel was deeper than I remembered, and harder for me to run on. It also seems like the gravel section, which is pretty much two miles of the race, has most of the hills. Or maybe the hills are just more noticeable when they are on gravel. Whatever. I felt myself slowing down on the gravel.

It was comforting that I found myself remembering more of the race from the previous two years, so I wasn't as worried about getting lost as I had been last year. I saw the guy who looked like he was going to win coming around the gravel loop where the you can see the faster runners on their way back, and I didn't remember that from last year so I wondered if this meant I was further ahead or further behind.

I tried not to look at the watch too much. I referred to it periodically to see how far I'd gone, and it WAS a little disheartening to see that, oh, I have another two miles of this! Well, once I'd passed the approximate halfway point, I felt a little better about things.

The elapsed time was harder to read on the watch, but as we left the gravel and returned to the pavement for the last portion of the race, it looked like I was going to have trouble hitting that sub-30 minute goal. I had to remind myself not to quit, and just keep pushing. There weren't any other women ahead of me that I could see and try to catch, so that made it a little tougher to stay motivated.

And then I got the twinge in my knee again. Damn. So I backed off a little, and it went away, but I was afraid to push too hard.

Finally I could see the finish line, and then the clock, which unfortunately, was in the 29s and ticking away. I pushed it again but could not make it in time for the sub-30. Final official time was 30:04, or four seconds faster than last year.

Maybe if I hadn't had the knee twinge come up, I would have gone a little faster in the last half-mile and gotten it.

I gave my tag to the woman at the end of the chute, then pulled off into the grass for some dry heaves, and then I walked up the hill towards the shelter. I thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to ice down the knee. I decided that if I could get an ice bag, I might even stay for the awards. There weren't that many women walking around in the shelter area. And last year they even had pizza.

But there was no ice to be had, even at the medical/message therapy tent. And it looked like the only food available was bags of apples, probably unwashed. So I decided that the best thing to do was just get home as fast as possible and ice the knee there. And that's what I did.

Back home, I sat down with my bag of frozen peas for my knee, and ate a Lean Cuisine and drank some chocolate milk. The knee seems okay today so hopefully it is nothing serious. I think the ice was a good idea. Maybe all my stiffness and the problem with the knee were related to having given Maggie a bath in the afternoon, which involves some bending over and risk of slipping, and so does tend to take it out of my body a little bit.

So I will blame my somewhat disappointing performance at this one on the Maggie bath. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Reviewing my results (thanks to the help of the GPS), I ran the first mile in 7:42, which was possibly too fast. The second mile was an 8:55 and the third was an 8:37, which were partly due to the hills and the gravel but perhaps would have been a bit faster if I had not gone out so quick in the first mile. the last .6 was a 4:50.

I ended up placing 12th of 79 women, which, while not what I had hoped for, is still good for the Dirtiest Dozen because it displaces my 21st place from Powder Keg. So I have a 10, 15, 15, and a 12---not too shabby. Cyndi K. was not there, so she is not in contention this year. I have mixed feeling about that because it is fun to have a friendly rivalry and someone to race against. She is a good competitor for me because we are about the same pace. She has an advantage on the trails (where I am often afraid to push too hard on the downhills because of my knee) but I am a little faster on the roads.

Tenth place woman in the race ran a 29:33. I was 54 of 163 runners overall, and 15th based on the age-graded times (11th last year). There were more runners this year, which explains why even though I was a tiny bit faster I did not place as well.

I'm a little bummed out because I am training so diligently for Indianapolis and I am expecting my race times at the shorter distances to improve as well. But I have to remind myself that maybe that is not realistic. My speed at the shorter distances is not far off what it ever was. But it's the endurance I have always lacked, and hopefully that is what the training will give me. We'll find out in about 7 weeks.

Am I looking forward to the 18-miler on Wednesday? Not really.