Jelm Mountain Trail Race (11 mi)
Medicine Bow Nat Forest, Wyoming
Just when I said I would stick to 10K’s I went and ran this 11 mile trail race 25 miles SW of Laramie. This is the only Saturday I have off until the Silent Trails Race in October so I thought I’d take full advantage of it. The run itself was grueling on the way up and equally as difficult coming down. The race followed the Jelm Mt. Road to the observatory at the top and was uphill the entire way. As I hit the 1st hill right off the starting line, I started to think I was in for it but was fine once my body adjusted and kicked in. Afte
r the 1st mile, the field was pretty spread out and I was hanging about 9th or 10th which I held the rest of the race.
I hit the observatory (elev 9,656 ft) with a 50:40 split (5th place) and that was all I cared about. A couple of guys passed me on the downhill but I was running down VERY conservatively. As coach used to tell us up at Happy Jack, running downhill is the easiest and fastest way to tear apart your knees. I have bad knees as it is and couldn’t afford to obliterate my menisci. The way I look at it, anyone can run fast down a hill but few can withstand the endurance it takes to run up.
I finished with an overall time of 89:05, a time still good enough to place me 8th overall in a field of 100+ runners. My time didn’t even compare to Dr. Dan Radosevich who finished 1st with a time of 75 something. The guy is an animal and has way too much time on his hands. Rumor has it, he ran the course 3 times before the actual race. You rock my world Dan!
Once I finished I couldn’t find Farhad or Kai, the two guys I rode up with. As it turns out, these two crazy mofo’s took off running for another 7 miles to “cool down.” Apparently they wanted to make this into some kind of long run. Honestly, I was sore from the race and don’t see how anybody could have kept going for another 7 miles.
Just when I said I would stick to 10K’s I went and ran this 11 mile trail race 25 miles SW of Laramie. This is the only Saturday I have off until the Silent Trails Race in October so I thought I’d take full advantage of it. The run itself was grueling on the way up and equally as difficult coming down. The race followed the Jelm Mt. Road to the observatory at the top and was uphill the entire way. As I hit the 1st hill right off the starting line, I started to think I was in for it but was fine once my body adjusted and kicked in. Afte
%20001.jpg)
r the 1st mile, the field was pretty spread out and I was hanging about 9th or 10th which I held the rest of the race.I hit the observatory (elev 9,656 ft) with a 50:40 split (5th place) and that was all I cared about. A couple of guys passed me on the downhill but I was running down VERY conservatively. As coach used to tell us up at Happy Jack, running downhill is the easiest and fastest way to tear apart your knees. I have bad knees as it is and couldn’t afford to obliterate my menisci. The way I look at it, anyone can run fast down a hill but few can withstand the endurance it takes to run up.
I finished with an overall time of 89:05, a time still good enough to place me 8th overall in a field of 100+ runners. My time didn’t even compare to Dr. Dan Radosevich who finished 1st with a time of 75 something. The guy is an animal and has way too much time on his hands. Rumor has it, he ran the course 3 times before the actual race. You rock my world Dan!
Once I finished I couldn’t find Farhad or Kai, the two guys I rode up with. As it turns out, these two crazy mofo’s took off running for another 7 miles to “cool down.” Apparently they wanted to make this into some kind of long run. Honestly, I was sore from the race and don’t see how anybody could have kept going for another 7 miles.
posted by Chris Sanders at 14:22
.jpg){kind=link}
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home