MST stands for the Mountains to the Sea Trail. That’s where the race takes place– on the beautiful, wooded shores of Falls Lake just north of Raleigh, North Carolina. Bull City has been holding the 12 mile event for a couple years now and even made an attempt at holding the 50k last year, only to have it cancelled because it’s, er, hunting season. But hunting isn’t allowed on Sundays around here! Hence, this year marks the inaugural 50k, a great distance for running at a relaxed pace through the woods without being so long that either the preparation time commitment is burdensome or, if that’s not possible, completion becomes a traumatic experience. I signed up without hesitation to round out my low-key season of longish trail events that started with Holiday Lake 50k, followed by Umstead Trail Marathon and finishes with this fine tromp through the local forest.
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USATF seems to be investing in lots of championships. Ten mile state championships, trail championships, 4 mile state championship, what have you. Not that I’m terribly knowledgable about the running scene, but it seems to be growing into a similar scene as triathlon. There seems to be some sort of championship going on nearly every month if you go looking for them. It so happens that an event in my hometown that is a fund-raiser for a cause I like (Communities in Schools Durham) also happens to be one of those championships. Last year, I was lucky to score a spot in the Umstead Trail Marathon, and then I had an awesome day and won it. This was double lucky, because that scored me another spot in this year’s event without having to battle the registration madness increasingly seen at popular events. Whee! Here’s how it went. It’s been a week since I did this event– a busy week. We were away from home for 6 days counting the trip up to the Appomattox, Virginia area and finishing with a 4-day work-related jaunt to Topsail Beach, NC. In the middle was a short stay in Beaufort with the in-laws during which our 1996 Mercury Sable showed signs of its age and necessitated a borrowed vehicle from said in-laws and some more driving back and forth for Gary and Remy while I worked. The car repairs cost about $400, but it’s probably best not to think about how much gas all that driving ran us. But this is a race report, so I’ll report on the race. It’s been a few months since I’ve offered up a race report or any kind of commentary on the athlete side of life, so now I’ve created A Running Rundown – a new category of post that summarizes my harrier activities for those that wonder about that stuff. I’m currently 3 1/2 weeks from Holiday Lake 50k++, my first actual ultra of the season, and, well, the preparation hasn’t been seamless. It’s time to come clean and talk about what I would have rather been doing while I was training and racing triathlons throughout the 2011 season and what I will be doing during the 2012 season. It took a little forcing myself to do swim and bike workouts. I just wanted to run. When I’m peaking for my A event, I like to get in a good, hard long tempo run. There’s a hilly 9-10 mile route in Umstead I’ve used a lot for this, but this year I opted for this hilly, women’s half marathon in downtown Durham. I decided to do the TrySp0rts series this year since it looked like I could do 3 of the 4 required races without any overnight stays. Actually, I could have done all four, but I really wanted to do Lake Logan and really didn’t want to do a pool swim. Unfortunately, my September event got cancelled because too few people signed up for it. Cane Creek Tri down in Waxhaw was my replacement. Here’s a short post while I continue to dally with writing up the wildly overdue special 3 year old edition of Toddler Talk. My big event in November is looming closer, so some of my training has become more specific. Oddly, this specificity for a completely on-road triathlon took me off-pavement this weekend. Continue reading Brutal Trail Weekend |
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