Mt. Airy 27k trail race

This was the final race in the Dirt Days Trail series. For this one, we returned to Mt. Airy Forest, on the west side of Cincinnati. Mt. Airy is the largest US park located within a city limits. It's bigger than Central Park. I did the 5.6 mile race here back in April.

The 27k has been added on to an already existing event, the Stone Steps 50k race. I've attended and participated in that one a couple of times but never finished. In fact, I've never gotten past the first 8.5 mile lap. The first year (2003) it was just shortly after my knee surgery, so I showed up to volunteer for awhile. I returned to run in 2006 & 2007, hoping to get a long run in but never expecting to finish. I had hoped to get a little further than one lap in 2007, but it was not to be.

The last few years, there have been other events---dog shows, probably---that kept me from running. Plus the probability that I would not be able to finish a 50k race within the time allowed. So I was excited when they added the 27k event, because I thought that was something within the realm of possibility for me.

And so it was, but it wasn't pretty.

I've never run farther than that 8.5 mile loop on any trails. My longest "training" run for this event was about seven or so in Ault Park last week. So, I went into this long trail run about as trained as I ever seem to be for my marathons---not much. Just another exercise in mind over matter.

This is one part of the trail series that I could have skipped and still maintained my standing in the "Dirty Dozen" of the top 12 women in the series. I would improve my point total by completing it---knocking out 30 points from one of those early jogs and replacing it with a number less than 20. There were just 20 women registered for this race, so even if I was last, I would improve my point total.

Since you have to complete five races in the series to be ranked, I also figured out that I could not be knocked out of the rankings, no matter who showed up to do this last race. There were just four or five women who had done four races, which meant that they could possibly get in the Dirty Dozen if they did this one. But all except one of them was slower than me, so they wouldn't be able to knock me out of my spot. (The one exception is a speedster who actually did show up and won the race, which put her in first place and moved me down to seventh.)

I also couldn't possibly move ahead of the woman who was just ahead of me in the rankings. Well, it would be theoretically possible but it would require me to finish twelve places ahead of her among the women. Since we seem to run about the same pace, and there were only twenty women registrered for the race, this was really not going to be happening.

I didn't need to run the race to be in the Dirty Dozen, or to have finished the required six races to get the special "participation" award, and finishing it wouldn't make any difference to anybody...except me.

We had great weather for a change this year---high 50s-low 60s at the start, and it didn't get much warmer, a little sun and dry. Arrived at the start a little before 8 am for the 8:30 race. The 50k runners started at 8 am and the "trekkers" (just two of them this year) started at 7. If I ever do the 50k, I might have to do it as a trekker in order to get that extra hour.

I wore my CW-X compression capri tights that are so kind to my knees and a short sleeve top. On my feet, I went with the Saucony Xodus trail shoes. I did have my thin tyvek jacket from the Las Vegas marathon on as well, but I took it off right before the start. I had a parking space in the oval right near the road crossing where we came out of the shorter loop, so I could have left my gear in the car, but instead I put a bag up in the shelter area with everybody else's. That was just a tad more convenient. I had to pass through the shelter at the completion of each loop, so if I needed anything it would be handy. I had packed a spare pair of shoes (my Salomons) and socks, and it's always comforting to have the option of making a switch mid-race if you want.

I wore my old fanny pack that holds a 20-ounce water bottle, and I brought along a couple of GUs and a pack of GU Chomps (strawberry flavor, yum). I decided to have a gel or some chomps every three to four miles or so, and I needed to carry the water to wash it all down. Also, I couldn't make it through a 17 mile race without having some water every mile or so, and this was the only way to get it. There weren't any aid stations out on the trails, so without my water bottle I would only be able to drink when I cam though the shelter after each loop. I did need to refill it each time but that was no big deal.

Chatted a bit with Brenda W., tried to absorb the instructions from the race directors (I was still going to need help after each loop trying to figure out which way to run next!) and at 8:30 we were off. I quickly fell to the back of the 50-person pack. I was not going to push it. By the time we hit the actual trails, there were probably only about 10 people behind me, and after about a mile or so I let most of them go by. Brenda was ahead of me but I didn't care. This was just about finishing, I kept telling myself.

The trails in this park are, from my perspective, rather technical. There are some fairly steep sections, a lot of singletrack with loose rocks, and then there are the infamous Stone Steps. Not to mention, something called Gummy Bear Hill that I thought was worse than the steps. You climb up the steps, so it's not like you're going to fall. But you run down this Gummy Bear Hill thing (before you run up it!) and you actually could fall. I didn't feel comfortable running freely in my decrepit, elderly state, so the necessary braking action really took a toll on my quads. I am wondering if that is where the Gummy Bear name comes from.

There were mile makers---red paper plates attached to the trees---so I could keep track of my pace. Mile 1 was 10:08---probably faster than advisable for me and still I was almost in last place even then! Mile 2 was 10:31. In mile 3, we climbed the Stone Steps for the first time, so that was a 14:03. Mile 4 was an 11:26, and mile 5 (including the Gummy Bear Hill) was 14:31.

We came out of the first loop in the middle of mile 5 (approximately 5.3 miles), crossed the timing mats and passed through the shelter, where I had a cup of Heed and refilled my water bottle. My time for the first loop was 1:04:43. I took off in the wrong direction for the short loop, and had to turn around and come back. A bit embarrassing!

Sometime during miles 2-5, I had actually managed to pass a couple of people, including Brenda. Going into the second loop, I was two minutes ahead of her. That would soon change.

The second loop is what I guess you call a lollipop loop, so there is this section in the beginning where you have to get out of the way of the faster runners who are coming toward you. For me, this was not just the 27k runners but also the 50k runners. A lot of getting out of the way. I was also beginning to get lapped by some of the 50k runners coming up behind me. I don't even know what loop they were on at that point.

Mile 6 was 19:32---this included my refueling stop and my little detour, but still seems a bit ridiculously long. I guess I was getting fried already at that point. So, I'm only good for about 5 miles of trail running! Mile 7 was 20:57. Oh yeah, I got lost during this mile, in about the same place that I managed to get lost in 2006, so that did account for a couple of minutes of it. When I got back on the course, Brenda was just ahead of me and that was the closest I would get to her.

(I know, it is quite ridiculous to be obsessed with my position in this race relative to this nice person that I barely know, but really, I'm just using this as a yardstick of my own fitness. Really.)

Seems like the mile 7 marker was in the wrong place, because mile 8 was 6:38. After the 3.2 mile second loop, I came through the shelter again in a combined time of 1:51:50. Slow as this is, it is still quite a bit faster than my time for my previous two attempts at the 50k race. The first year it took me 2:25, and the second time it took me 2:09. So 1:51 is a huge improvement.

My left foot had really started to bother me during this second loop, so I decided to change shoes while passing through the shelter. The right foot felt fine, so I just switched the left one. Yes, this meant I was wearing mismatched shoes, but it's not the first time. I figured that in a trail race, on terrain that is uneven to begin with, it would make even less difference than usual. I think this whole idea that your shoes have to match is just to make it easier for the shoe companies, anyway.

Also, the chip was on my right shoe, and it would have been a major PITA to change that over to another shoe.

This time I took off in the correct direction. Mile 9 was 16:19 (including the time it took to change my shoe). Mile 10 was 15:10. Mile 11 (Stone Steps again) was 20:15. Mile 12 was 16:37. Things were getting bad, but not as bad as they would become. The shoe change didn't really seem to help. It wasn't any worse, but it wasn't any better. I was glad I had switched, though, because if I hadn't I would have thought that I should have and been regretting it. But basically I was just dragging that poor left leg around. It's not just the foot, but that poor old arthritic knee, which had already barked at me a few times when I landed on the loose rocks and slipped a bit.

I was considering dropping out. I was weighing the possibility that I was doing serious damage to my body, and also again realizing that I didn't NEED to finish this race. But I kept going.

Mile 13 (Gummy Bear again) was 21:15. I made it back to the shelter from loop 3 in a total combined time of 3:27:04. The first two times in the shelter, I refilled my own water bottle, but this time I let a volunteer do it for me. Just 3.2 miles to go. Too bad it was going to take an hour!

Mile 14 was about 18 minutes (12:24 from the shelter). Mile 15 (which I assumed was at the # 7 marker, which was now laying on the ground somewhere) was 13:44, but that was obviously wrong because it wasn't like I was getting faster. Mile 16 was 26:04! I think if you just combine miles 15 and 16, it comes out to me toodling around at about 20 minute pace. I got passed here by one woman whom I had been ahead of the entire race. She told me that I was "a really fast walker" --- I think she meant this as a compliment but it was hard to take it that way.

And then, it was another 8:08 for the last little bit which must have been less than a mile. And finally it was over, in a total time of 4:27:26.

Bob Roncker took my picture at the finish line and I think he even gave me a hug, but I'm not sure because I was a touch delirious. There wasn't much left in the way of food. I had a handful of Oreo cookies and a few orange slices. So much for all the hype about the great food at the ultras. Imagine if I had actually been doing the 50k. There really wouldn't have been anything left.

As I was walking down the hill to the car, I heard them announcing the name of someone who actually finished behind me in the race. So I wasn't last, but almost. 45 of 46 finishers and 14 of 15 women. There were a couple of people who DNF'd so I guess you could say I beat them too. Age-graded, my time was 35 of 46 runners, a little bit better but not much.

At the time I am finishing this post, a couple of weeks after the race, we are still waiting to hear about when we will get our completion awards and whatever they are giving out for the Dirty Dozen. I am guessing it will be sports bags for the completion awards, and like I really need another sports bag. I hope it is something more interesting for the Dirty Dozen. I am a trail goddess, dammit, and I demand a Shiny Metal Object!