Race Report: Wildwood 10K Trail Run

Last week in Iowa, I got an email from T…”Wanna run the Wildwood 10K trail run with me on the 7th of Sept?  Trail, downhill, should be fun?”  After a quick check with the wifely unit, I agreed.  Although I have been running quite a bit, I haven’t been training for anything and didn’t feel like I was really in a racing frame of mind.

Actually, the last couple of days I was regretting my commitment to T to run in the race with her.  But then I reflected on races past and remembered that that’s the way I always feel during the days that lead up to the race.  After the race, I always feel great, no matter how I did.  Every race that I run is such a unique experience.  The faces, places, and paces are always different, but the vibe is always the same.  Racers have a great support system built into every race–their fellow competitors.  The fast racers hang out when they’re finished and cheer on the slower racers.  Then everyone hangs out and cheers on the walkers and others who had problems out on the course as they finish up.  Yesterday’s race was no different and I’m glad I got out and did it.

The morning in Salem was chilly, cloudy and rainy.  Every race I’ve ever run has been rainy.  I was hopeful that this race would be different even though it’s been really rainy here all weekend.  T told me that the weather forecast was for showers and clouds in Salem, but not in Portland, so I had hope for a dry race.  There was one shower during the race, but we were under a thick cover of trees so I never felt a drop, only heard them falling.  It was actually a great day to run–overcast and cool, but not cold and wet.

The race billed itself as mostly downhill until the last 1/2 mile; this was a very accurate description.  The trail was very pretty.  It was narrow, muddy in some spots, rocky and bumpy in others.  Passing people was sometimes a problem and the course wasn’t closed, so there were other runners, walkers, hikers, and leashed dogs out on the trail as well.  And since it was a narrow trail race, there were staggered starts with groups of up to 4 runners leaving the start area at 2-minute intervals.

T and I were joined by two solo runners for the 9:02 starting time (32 minutes after the first group of runners)  One of the solo guys was dropped pretty quickly, leaving the three of us chugging along together for about the first 1.75 miles at a pretty good clip.  We ran the first mile in 7:44 and the second in 8:15.  T and I stayed together for most of the race but the second solo runner passed us right before the 2-mile mark.  I was upset at that point because I wanted to stay with him, but figured if he was passing me now, I couldn’t hang with him at a faster pace for 4.2 more miles so I let him go.  Well it turns out that he couldn’t hang with himself at that pace either because we passed him back somewhere around mile 4.5 and didn’t see him again until at the finish line.

I ran the last mile in just under 10 minutes.  The last hill was very difficult for me but I kept chugging along until I got to the top and the finish.  I crossed the line in 52:22.  1 minute and 18 seconds faster than my only previous 10K race.

So, since this 10K was the first time I’ve ever duplicated a race distance, my streak of setting a PR in every race is still intact.  I came out of this race feeling great.  Everyone told me not to expect a PR because trail races are slower than road races, even down hill trail races.  Couple this with the fact that the course had been rained on pretty hard over the last 48 hours and you’ve got the makings for a pretty slow day.  But I still managed to shave some time off my 10K best time and that made me extremely happy.  Internally, I had a goal of breaking 50 minutes for this race, but I think that will have to wait for a 10K course that’s flat and on a road.  I think I can do it.

Next up for me is the Blue Lake 15K race on October 10.  Hopefully I’ll be able to break my Shamrock Run 15K time from back in March.  For now, I’m going to go to Runners World and make a smart coach program to see how much I’ll be running in the next 5 weeks.