Skippo

Last weekend was my second trail race, this one was a bit bigger than the first. It's called the Skippo and it takes place at Castlewood State Park right outside of St. Louis. Like most races, there is more than one distance. This one has a 10k, 20k and 30k, basically 1, 2 or 3 loops. It's a popular race that sells out within a day. I guess most trail races have a small cap because there isn't a lot of room on the trail .

I was fairly excited about the race but had no clue what to expect since the first trail race was very small and not crowded. I did a practice run the weekend before to see what I was up against. I've run at Castlewood before but only part of it.

The tone for this race is: annoyed. The race start was organized with pace groups, although people were flying by in the first 2 miles. They let about 50 or so people go at a time to lessen the crowds. Even with the waves it was still a bit crowded. The first 2.5 miles are relatively flat and I suspect that people went out too fast. I have the problem of wondering what other people are thinking during a race. I was hold the correct pace for my placement at the start but people were still passing me. I kept thinking if you started behind me, you're running twice the distance and you pass me at 2 miles, you're running too fast. Whatever though, I shouldn't worry about what other people are doing.

Anyway, the first 2.5 miles were uneventful. Then came the stairs. There are about 200 steps, instead of a hill, to climb. People were moving slow...very slow. There is barely enough room to pass but some people from the tri club started passing me so I hopped on. A lot of people didn't want to let anyone by. This set the tone for the rest of the race, people getting pissed about being passed.

After the steps there is a little more uphill which I promptly attempted to fall up. For some reason I guess I forgot I was on a trail and watched the person in front of me instead of the ground. Luckily I just had a couple scrapes and I squeezed a lot of water out of my bottle. Once I got to the top I knew going down was going to suck. I can go downhill fairly quick but, there were a lot of people without trail shoes and I don't think many people racing run trails on a regular basis. Granted, I'm fairly new but I've been running trails in the dark with a headlamp.

It's almost more difficult to go slow downhill because you don't realize when people are going to slow down. Half the race I was afraid of running someone over. The downhills are easy switchbacks so it wasn't very technical at all. After the first downhill there was a creek to cross. I thought it was funny how they had the creek roped off so you HAD to get your feet wet.

Then it was back uphill...straight up...no turns...the one thing that I don't like about Castlewood. I passed some people while walking up the hill. There was no point in running since my HR was pretty high even while walking and the race was only half over. This was where it got a bit more annoying.

I would pass people on the short downhills but, they felt the need to repass me on the flats or the uphills. After the second time you'd think they would give me the courtesy of staying behind me...nope. I certainly would if this happened more than once. 

Then it finally thinned out for the rest of the race. I attempted to pass more people on a downhill at very wide part of the trail. I looked up to make sure I wasn't going to run into them and sure enough, I tripped on something. I didn't fall but I probably doubled my speed trying to regain my footing. I also manage to narrowly miss taking out a girl in front of me. She didn't seem to notice, she just said "nice catch." I said thanks and apologized for almost taking her out like an unprotected wide receiver coming over the middle.

Then it was off to the finish...where they had M&Ms and BBQ.

My advice to anyone thinking about a trail race...get some trail shoes and practice trail running before the race.

Not much of an elevation change

Macklind Mile

There is a running store about a half mile from my house that I've run or walked to more than once. They're probably the biggest running store(s) in St. Louis. If not, they put on the most events. One of them being the Macklind Mile, named after the street it's run on Macklind Ave. The finish line is directly in front of one of their stores. Since it's the first race I could walk to the start line and it's only a mile, I decided to do it. The main reason is because I've never run a race that short before. Sure, we've all done mile repeats but running a mile race is a little different. It's almost an all out effort.

I meant to practice my pace on Wednesday night but that didn't happen because it was the first week of puppy training for Loki and I couldn't work around it. So, I figured I'd try to keep it under 7 minutes.

The Men's race didn't start until 9:20. I tried to kill some time with Loki before I left at 8:30 and I would be gone most of the day. It's been a record setting week of high temperatures with every day being over 100 for the high. Needless to say, I had a good sweat going by the time I got to the start and an even better sweat after I warmed up.

I think it was around 90 at the start

The mile is a very interesting race, I started out sub 6 according to my Garmin probably due to a steep downhill. The race is around an 80 feet drop in elevation. I slowed to sub 7 during the slight incline and picked it up a bit for the last half mile. I felt fine until it flattened out for the last 1/8 mile and my legs could feel it but I managed to hang on until the end.

Finish Time:
6:49
Mostly towards the back in all the groups as the slower people run the Friend's and Family wave. However it was kind of a shame as the excitement was over so quickly. If you think a 5k goes by fast, run a mile.

Then I ran...sorta...home to get the dog and head to the end of the street to watch the elite runners go by. I was drenched and decided to change my shirt but it didn't matter as that shirt was drenched within a couple minutes. The fastest male was 4:09 and the fastest female was 4:48.

A couple hours later, I went riding. I needed to ride for 2 hours according to my training plan...it sucked. The heat was brutal and my arm coolers dried out in less than 5 minutes each time. I didn't not plan accordingly for hydration and basically ran out of water. Stopping for a light made it feel like I was in an oven.

Speaking of running fast there was an interesting post on Slowtwitch about how long you can maintain the world record marathon pace of 4:43/mile (12.63 mph). I never attempted it but after that I would guess 300 meters if I'm lucky. That pace has to be faster than most people can sprint 200m. Hell, it's faster than your average person can ride 26.2 miles on a bike.

Tomorrow, I'll have more clever analysis on paying to run a mile race.