Braid Hills Cross Country Slosh - 11/11/2006

My friend Alan talked me into running a hill race on Saturday. It was not a 5K. I learned that on the race website. Instead it was a 3 mile hill run through the puddles and mud to the top of Braid Hill and back down the other side. The girls' race was 3 miles and the boys' race was 6 miles. I was sad that the girls didn't get to run 6 miles. I nearly talked myself out of it twice. The first time was around noon, when I looked out the window to see spitting down rain and 25MPH winds. The rain went away but the wind didn't. The second time was a little bit later when I finally got to my office and my friend who suggested the run was nowhere to be found. My negativity didn't last. The sun was out, the course was close by. Excuses went away and I signed up.

Alan gave me a lift to the start and ran a short warm up with me. Our sneak preview of the course suggested it would be muddy and wet. The sun held out for us though. After scouting the course, I set goals of less than 30mins would be ok and I would be thrilled with less than 27mins, given course conditions, off road, etc.

I started near the back of the pack, amongst the puddles. Despite the wind, I was the only one wearing a jacket at the start. The first mile and a half was more or less uphill. We ran the perimeter of a golf course. Yes, here they build golf courses on hillsides. :) We ran up a gently sloping hill for a little less than half a mile before turning right and heading up at a slightly steeper angle. Men warming up for their race and a handful of spectators cheered us onward. We weaved amongst trees and beside the occasional sand trap working our way uphill. At about the halfway mark, we passed the radio tower at the Braid Hill summit.

So far, the trail conditions weren't terrible. Puddles were easily dodged. Mud wasn't too slippery. Just past the summit, we started on our way rolling downhill and that changed totally.

I passed a bunch of people on the uphills and a bunch of them passed me again on the downhill. A few people who burned themselves out at the start were walking as I ran past them. I took each of the steeps as fast as I could, and sort of flailed my arms like wings a few times. After the steepest bits, the trail conditions got really nasty. Deep, muddy puddles spanned the trail width in a lot of places. I ran around them as possible but sometimes through was the only way. My socks were quickly soaked and my shoes no longer the shiny white they were for the marathon.

I took my jacket off just before the 2 mile mark. It got covered in mud as I spashed through more puddles. The trail turned right again and our track followed a road to the finish. We splashed through more mud as the cars drove beside us on nice, semi-dry pavement.

In the last half mile, the trail occasionally opened from woods to grass, so we had the opportunity to pass. Much of the last stretch was single track, so passing was otherwise very difficult. My pace was erratic as those in front of me slowed and sped up. The occasional small hill slowed the pace more. I got around a few people on the last hill, but otherwise was trapped. Just before the finish, we splashed through one section of trail. I felt bad for kicking water at a guy with a camera, but it was his foolish choice of location. The trail opened up for about 10m to the finish chute. I gave one last push, couldn't pass anyone, but didn't get passed either. We sort of jammed into the finish chute, apologising as we crunched.

At the finish, they tracked our numbers, but there wasn't a clock to tell us our times. I finished before the men's race started, so if they were on time (likely), I knew I achieved goal #1 of <30mins. Based on the post-finish faff and gentle cooldown run I got to start, I thought goal #2 was likely, too. I cheered Alan through the start of his race and then took a gentle run back downhill to my office. It was a nice, though still windy cooldown run.

Back in my office, I made a small pile of muddy gear. My running shoes were brown. My socks were brown and crunchy. My jacket looks like I slid 100m downhill on my backside through mud. My legs had a thin crust of brown to the knee. It was a good run!

My friend got back a little over an hour later -- his race was 6 miles. We just now got back from the awards ceremony at the student centre. My time was 24:16. I placed 84/101. I'm thrilled. This was a cross country club race, extremely competitive (winning time was 17:26 for the women) and I was racing mostly 18-24 year olds who take their training far more seriously than I, not to mention up and down a hill through mud and slosh.

Somebody posted pictures from the race. The black and purple smudge in the background of this photo and the tiniest bit less blurry smudge in this photo is me!