Pigtails 9.6 mile
Posted by z on February 22, 2010
We had the usual routine for this race: Stumble out of bed, make coffee, get something to eat, round up the dogs, leave, pick up Susan. As I was getting dressed I noticed that I had a little blister on my toe. I assume it was from the Nookachamps run the week before and was happy that I hadn’t felt it at all. The Pigtails 9.6 mile run at Lake Youngs started at 7:30. By the time we got there at 7-ish it was still dark and the parking lot was full. We ended up parking in the church parking lot across the street. We checked in, got our bibs and paid our donation then headed back to the car to prepare. After affixing our bibs and removing our sweatshirts we headed out to the one Honey Bucket. Naturally there was a line. We inched our way up. I was the last on in our group and as soon as I came out the race started. I barely had time to pull my shorts up.
Anyway, off we headed. Still a little dark out and with a slight drizzle we entered the woods. But then, just as soon, we were out of them and running behind a row of houses. We hadn’t gone far when we took a turn to the left. A little hill here, then a little drop there. We ran between a chain-link fence and the road. Past housing developments and barking dogs. It rained the entire 9.6 miles. It wasn’t bad, just a light shower to mist but still, I was pretty cold by the finish.
The trail was pretty wide in most spots. There was evidence of several trees falling over across the trail. In some spots they had bent the chain-link fence. Every once in a while you’d come upon horse poo.
I had managed to start off in front of Susan and Morrie but couldn’t sustain it and they eventually caught up to me. Then Susan took off. Then Morrie took off. And then I finally finished in 2:02:30.
