"Its that time again already?" I ask myself as I wake up Saturday morning. Three race in a row every Saturday morning and the fourth race with just one week break, all "only" 5 miles long and the combined time of every race determines the winner. The reason I say "only" 5 miles long is that 5 miles is tough for me, I dread 5 miles, I'm okay with 30, 50 and even a 100 miles, but 5 miles scares me! The thing is you have to go out fast, really fast and hold on to that the whole race, up and down hills, it really test your heart rate, climbing ability and speed. To test your running like this every weekend for a month is a good and a bad thing; good because every runner (whether ultra or XC) needs to work on their speed, it will make you a better runner overall. Bad because running fast hurts, it beats your legs, pounds your psyche and spits you out of the pain cannon on the other end. Argh, what did I get myself into!?
"Is it that time again already!?" I ask myself as I pull up to the Long Canyon trailhead, at least I got to sleep in a little longer this time as the trailhead is right up the street from my house. I mingle around and talk to all the other nervous runners at the start of the race, what a great crowd trail runners are. And as soon as you know it we are off again straight up the first climb, no warming up the legs, just a straight brutal sprint up a pretty steep incline for the first mile. I hear several runners right behind me breathing down my neck but I don't turn around or look over my shoulder, I just keep my head focused in front of me and concentrate on getting up the hill. Ahh, success, I made it up the first climb, ahh crap what's this? another climb!? This climb was a lot shorter and was on fire road, it gave me a chance to look over my shoulder to see my competition. Low and behold who is that right behind me? Its Melissa again! this girl is a beast, I cant shake her, I have a feeling that this will be a reoccurring theme for the whole race series. But I am now in my element as I bomb down some technical single-track and put some space on the beast. My relief is short lived however as she catches right back up to me on the flats and climbs, she is faster on the flats than me and climbs up just as fast as me, the only advantage I have over her is technical downhill. I knew the race ended with a nice one mile technical downhill, so if I could hold off her charge up till then I could take home the win. But she doesn't make it easy, she pushes me hard going up the toughest and longest climb of the day, I'm running scared and out of breath. Side by side at the top of the hill we hit single track heaven and I run down it with complete disregard to my well being, smiling from ear to ear (I really do love me some downhill) and setting a Strava CR for the segment in the process. I cross the finish line in first with a time of 38:34 and Melissa right after me with a time of 39:02!
"Is it that time again already?" is what I'm sure I will be asking myself next Saturday morning as I wake up to do it all over again at Marrland for race #3 in the series. Till then a beer to celebrate and a trail to run!
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