More Mud and Chocolate. Except without the mud.
Posted by z on May 17, 2010
We took a long break after the Dirty Duo. We let Susan rest her injury (still not healed) and took it easy. But we did sign up for the second Mud and Chocolate half marathon. Morrie and I had done this race back in November and it was only our second half marathon. We wanted to die by the third lap. We were interested how the trail would look after having done the Dirty Duo.
We arrived at the Redmond Watershed Preserve and actually found a place to park in the parking lot. Would this be an omen of things to come? We checked in, got our bibs and affixed them to our clothes. We found Morrie’s mom and got her outfitted. She was going to do the one loop 4.25 miler for sure and was hoping to do two loops. One last bathroom run where the line was out the door and up the trail. A few women, including Morrie, Susan and I, commandeered the men’s room. After that we were off to the start.
We got the usual rundown: Don’t scare the horses, share the trail, markers are pink. Then we were all stuffing ourselves onto the narrow trail for the official start. We were so far back that we never did hear them say “Go”! But we were off.
I took off, feeling pretty good and that was the last time I saw Morrie and Susan. I worried though, that they were right behind me. And that just made me more determined to run the whole first loop, no matter what.
I got to the first big hill and I couldn’t believe it. I sorta chuckled that I had remembered this as a gigantic hill when it was really nothing. Well, nothing compared to anything the Dirty Duo had to offer. This was going to be a cinch. I plowed up, and around, and past. I was feeling really good. The trail was different this time. No big leaves on the trail covering the rocks. I kept trying to remember what was next and I never managed to guess right. The horse gates were much further in than I remembered and there was a complete section that I had forgotten about. But, soon enough I was back at the aid station. One loop down and it only took me 45 minutes.
I emptied my shoe of rocks and had an Honest Tea and grabbed an Agave gel. I spent about 5-8 minutes at the aid station and figured if I waited around too long then Morrie and Susan would catch up to me. Unacceptable! So I hit the trail.
There were fewer people on the trail now. Everyone had thinned out and a bunch of people were only doing the one loop. I decided to take this loop a little more leisurely. I walked a bit on the hills and slowed my running down a little. I had to pull over for mountain bikers once or twice. They think they own the whole road.
There is a section of the run that fakes me out a little. When I get to it I always think that I’m just about to pop out at the aid station. I call this section the fake forest. I am always surprised when I get to it and it isn’t the section that I thought it was. When will I learn? And this section always seems longer than I think it was last time. Probably because I’m still confusing it with the actual end forest, which is much smaller. Finally, I pop out of the fake forest and into the end forest then out to the aid station. The second loop is complete in one hour. I’m only 1:45 into the run and here comes the winner passing me. I still have one loop left so I grab some more Honest Tea and an Agave gel and hit the road. I’m convinced Susan and Morrie are going to pop around the corner any minute.
Even with the thought of Morrie and Susan being right behind me, I did end up walking more on the third loop. I figured they would be slowing down too. I toodled my way through the forest but I don’t really remember anything about the loop. I was tired and my knees were a bit tender but other than that I still felt pretty good. I finished the third loop in about 1:07 for a final finish of 2:52:33. That’s almost 55 minutes faster than the last time I ran the course so I feel pretty good about that.
