Smith's Challenge - 10k Trail Run Review

Well that was rather painful.

Yesterday was Smith's Challenge - a 10k romp through the County Park trails, which consist of a lot of single track, large rocks and burn hazel. There were also two water crossings - the first to mid-thigh and the second high enough to make one worry about leeches.

Because I had the Garmin on auto-stop, it missed a couple points (and seconds) where the brush and the water slowed me down so much that the 405 thought I was catching a snooze, but you can check out the link with most of the action here. Garmin note: using auto-stop during a race is obviously a bad idea.

Last year I'd done done this one in 54:43 - good enough for 38th place. I'd set a goal of sub 50 this time which sounds too aggressive and it was, but still I was pleased overall. I finished in 52:16, good for 27th out of 156 in this all-male race. I would've liked to place higher than 9th in my age group, but the fact of the matter is this race attracts a lot of local talent, so I likely got what I deserved.

Well, except for the tree scratches in my arm-pit. I didn't deserve that... Or the aching knees today. Not that, either. Fact of the matter is, these hard trail races beat the crap out of you and I'm sore today. There were plenty of photographers on the scene. However, this is the only race - being male-only - where I permit myself to go sans-shirt, so I'm withholding links until I see how bad it all looks in stop-action.

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