Half-Assed Runner

Archive for the ‘Trail Races’ Category

Today was the last of the three event in the Endless Summer Trail Series of races.  I ran the first race in the series at Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve back in July.  That race was a brutally hilly 10K race.  I skipped the second race in the series but signed up for this race a month ago because it was closer (within 5 miles of my work) and was a 5K.  Plus, I’ve been to French park quite a few times and did not remember any big hills.

Endless Summer Trail Series – French 5K

I went back and forth about whether or not I was going to run this race or not.  My heart was really not into it.  It rained a lot that day, I was behind on some projects at work, blah, blah, blah.  I tried to talk myself out of running, but in the end I drove to French and picked up my bib and race pint glass.

Pre race

The weather was nice.  It was 68 degrees at the start of the race.  The humidity was nearly 80% though.  I lined up near the back of the pack and off we went.  Although it had rained quite a bit earlier in the day, I didn’t notice it during the run.  The grass was not wet and there were no puddles or mud bogs.  I had not pregamed the course, so I was not sure where the hills were nor how big they were.  I started out pacing off the pack, but quickly started passing runners.  About .5 miles in I found myself between the larger packs of runners and was pacing off of a lady in front of me.  I was pretty surprised to hear Endomondo announce my first mile pace at 8:40.  That’s by far the fastest trail mile I’ve ever run.  In the four previous trail runs, I’ve never broken 10 minutes per mile and a couple have been very close to 11 minute per mile.  Hell, my road 5K PR pace is around 8:20 mile.  I decided to slow it up a bit at that point because we had not hit any monster hills, but I knew that they were in the mix.

Starting Line

Around the 1.2 mile mark there were volunteers handing out water.  I passed and wondered why they were offering it so early.  I made a right turn and saw the first monster hill.  I laughed and understood why they chose that spot to have the water stop.  I chugged up the hill and actually passed a couple of runners.  I got about 90% up the hill before walking.  I felt pretty good about tackling most of the hill, but I was getting winded and there was still another 2 miles left, so I didn’t feel bad about walking.

What goes up, must come down: soon after we hit a couple of steep downhills.  By that point there were only about 5 runners around me so I was able to zig-zag down the steepest hill to keep my speed in check.

Downhill

The course was quite pretty.  There was single-track, grass, sand, very little rock, and mostly packed dirt trail.  We ran through a lot of tree covered areas, across a small bridge, and along the water.  There were three big hills and – compared to the Murphy-Hanrehan hills – they weren’t too bad.  They weren’t too good either. 

My second mile (which included the monster hill) clocked in at 9:45.  While the first mile was a bit fast, this felt a bit slow, so I picked up the pace a little.  I was not feeling too tired, but I was sweating like a beast.  Stupid humidity slays me.  I felt pretty good about my race as I had only been passed by three runners since the 1 mile point and had probably passed about the same number since then.  I’ve been in the last group of males to complete each of these trail runs but I knew that – barring a major collapse – I would finish in front of a number of male runners.  I would not be threatening the leaders, but I wasn’t bringing up the rear either.

Around the three-mile mark I could hear the clanging of a cow bell and started up a medium-sized hill.  I then saw a volunteer pointing to the left.  I turned left…and saw that the hill continued up to the finish line.  Fuck!  It seems that trail races like to end on hills.  I ground out the last hill and finished under 30 minutes.  That was in itself a minor victory as it meant this would be my fastest trail race to date.

Finish Line

Like the other runs in this series (and last year when it was the Lifetime Trail Series) the after party was great.  Tons of pizza, beer, water, and soda.  I nabbed a couple of slices and stood around while sweat poured off my body.  I stuck around for the prize drawings and extended my streak of never winning a prize drawing.  I did pickup a free Scott water bottle before calling it a day.

I’m glad I ran this race and it sounds like they will be bringing the series back again next year (there were about 170 runners for this event).  I love the views and the feeling of being out in nature that trail runs provide, I just need to get better at running the short, sharp hills.

Pint Glass Front

Pint Glass Back

Endless Summer Trail Series – French 5K Course

I had signed up for this race months ago.  It was held at Lake Maria State Park and was another trail race.  Lake Maria State Park is about 20 minutes north of my house and is a very quiet and pretty park.  It gets exceptionally pretty in the fall when the leaves change color.  This race falls on the same day as the Twin Cities Marathon and my wife runs/volunteers at that event every year.  This year though, she decided to forego the TC Marathon and so she and the Monkey joined me for this run.

On the way to the park, we saw a huge bird flying over us.  My wife told me it was a Snow Goose.  When I looked it up later, I found that is it was actually a Trumpeter Swan:

The Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator, is the largest native North American bird, if measured in terms of weight and length, and is (on average) the largest living waterfowl species on earth.

Trumpeter Swan

The day of the race was beautiful and clear, but very cold.  It was 44 degrees at 9 am.  Of course, I was running in shorts, so I was freezing.  Since the event was being held in a state park, there was an entry fee ($5).  I had driven up a couple of days earlier and scored a yearly pass ($25 for entrance to all Minnesota State Parks for 12 months).  Timberdash was offering the yearly passes for $20 on the day of the event.  I’m glad that I nabbed a pass prior to the day of the run as I did not want to wait in traffic to purchase a pass.  We were warned that parking would be limited, and even though we arrived about an hour before the 5K, the parking lots near the race area were already full.  The race volunteers guided us to parking on the side of the road and we actually ended up pretty close to the starting area.

This was a very well run event.  There were a few vendor kiosks set up, but also free coffee and some other small snacks.  There was also a campfire which turned out to be a great decision due to the cold temperature.  Check in was fast and friendly.  The only problem that we encountered was that they were out of safety pins.  Having run so many races this year, I had more than enough in my car for our bibs.

The Monkey was running the Kids’ 1K Fun Run.  They broke the kids up into age groups and the youngest children did laps in a small field.  There were kids as young as 3 years old running and they were a blast to watch.  The older kids ran a 1K portion of the same course that the 5K runners would follow.  My son was in that group.  He came in 3rd place in the race, only a few feet behind the 2nd place finisher.

Another nice thing about the race is that they watched/entertained the kids while the 5K was run.  While my wife and I were running, my son was drinking hot coco and sitting around the campfire.  He won a Minnesota Golden Gophers ball cap in the kids’ raffle.  There were also bananas and other snacks (including early season Halloween candy) available as well.  This made waiting for mom and dad to finish running very easy, even for my son.

I had jogged around the course a couple of days prior when I bought the park pass.  I ended up seeing most, but not all of the course…and not in order.  That’s due to my poor directional skills.  I did warn my wife that there was a huge hill at the end of the race.

The race director asked that “serious runners” line up first.  I don’t consider myself a serious runner, so I waited.  It sounded to me that they were going to have a wave start.  That’s a good idea, but could have been a problem since the trails were not very wide (about 6 to 8 feet) and the first 3/4 mile was also the final 3/4 mile of the race.  I guess that as long as the slowest runners/walkers were through that 3/4 portion before the “elites” reached it on the way back.

It turned out that I misunderstood the intention.  It would be a gun start for all racers (no chip timing) and the RD was just trying to position walkers in the back.  By the time I figured this out, we were only able to secure a spot near the very back of the pack.  The horn sounded and I was still futzing with my iPhone (I used Kinetic to track this run instead of my trusty Runmeter because Kinetic seems to handle GPS better in wooded areas).  By the time I actually started moving, I was one of a handful of folks in the very back of the pack.

I started passing people left and right.  This was very tricky due to: my proximity to the back of the pack, the number of slower runners/walkers, and the steep downhill portions of the initial run.  I was flying past runners (including my wife) by using the sides of the trail.

Eventually I hit a pocket of runners keeping a comfortable pace.  I would stay with them for most of the race.  The water stop came very quickly but was positioned so that runners would cross it twice (.75 miles in and .75 miles from the finish).

The terrain was gorgeous.  While the full on explosion of fall leaves was still a week or so away, the park was beautiful.  There were heavily wooded areas, lake views, open fields, plenty of hills, gravel, and – my nemesis – sand.  Even though I was keeping an incredibly slow pace (around 11 minutes/mile) I found the run challenging.  I ran the first 1.5 miles before taking my first walk break.  I have learned from my previous trail runs that there’s no shame in taking walk breaks.  My breaks were very short (10 – 20 seconds), but were more plentiful than I would have liked.  Still, I managed to stay with the same group of runners through most of the course.

I hit the water stop for the second time and grabbed some water.  I knew what lay ahead.  The last leg consisted of a big hill, followed by a small downhill and a small streth of flat terrain, and then finished with a monster hill.  I was during this portion of the run that I started picking off more and more runners.  When the monster hill finally appeared I was surprised to see EVERYONE ahead of me walking it.  It didn’t matter if they were at the top or bottom of the hill, they were all walking.  I planned to run as much as I could and then join them.  Another guy had been pacing off of me for the last .5 miles or so and we were the only ones running the hill.  He started walking about halfway up the hill and I was going to follow suit, but I noticed that the photographer was positioned about 3/4 up the hill.  There was no way I was going get photographed walking and panting, so I sucked it up and ran past the photog.  I started walking right after that.    I walked most of the rest of the way up the hill and regained running for the (incredibly short) remainder of the race.  I must have passed about 20 runners on that last hill and was going to pick off a couple more before the finish line, but their kids ran out from the spectators and joined them and I really didn’t feel like flying by them at that point.

I crossed the finish line and stopped Kinetic.  It recorded the distance as just short of 3 miles.  So much for the GPS accuracy.  One of the things that I don’t like about Kinetic is that you cannot change the distance.  Oh well, even with the correct distance, I managed to average 11:09/mile, by far my slowest race so far.

I found the monkey with his new hat sitting by the campfire playing video games.  We waited for my wife to cross the finish line.  She punched me because I guess that “monster hill” didn’t adequately prepare her for the final hill.

I really enjoyed the Timberdash.  The event was extremely well run.  The race shirts were awesome as were the finisher medals (first time I’ve received a finisher medal for a 5K).  I would love to run this race again next year if it’s not on the same date as the Twin Cities Marathon.

I am thankful that this is my last trail run of the year.  I only have two races left: a local 5K and the Monster Dash 10 Mile run (will be my longest race yet).

Tonight was the fifth and final race in the 2011 Lifetime Trail Series.  Tonight’s run was in Elm Creek Park Reserve near Maple Grove.  Since the course was near my work, I left from there.  Even though I was less than 10 minutes away, I managed to just barely make it to the race on time.

I drove to the park and followed the large Lifetime signs with arrows on them.  This is a nice touch, especially in a spacious park like Elm Creek.  There were two large parking lots near the start of the race…both of which were full.  Runners had started parking off the side of the road and my late arrival was actually a bit of a blessing as I was able to get a spot directly across the road from the registration area.

I got into the registration line at 6:20, only 10 minutes before the start of the race.  I was pre-registered and soon I had my bib.  I was given the choice of a tshirt or a hat.  The hats were nice (and very popular), but I went with the dark shirt as I wanted it to match the light one I got at the last trail run.

I stashed the shirt and all non-essentials in my car and went for a quick pre-race jog.  The weather was a pretty chilly 54 and since sunset was set for about 7:10 it’s going to be quite a bit colder before I’m done running (the temps dipped to 48 degrees at the end of the run).  I wore shorts and a long sleeved tech shirt.  I was debating whether or not to throw on a light jacket.  I decided to skip the jacket, which turned out to be a good idea as I was drenched in sweat by the end of the run.

We lined up for the start of the race.  The race director advised us about some of the course details.  I had checked out the course on Monday so I knew that we would be mostly on cross country trails with a .75 mile portion on a paved trail.  The hills were much more mild than the beasts on the Carver run.  They were mostly rolling hills and not too steep.  Most of the trails contain a very narrow single track bike trail of packed dirt.  To take advantage of the single track, runners would need to run single file and run on a tightrope for a lot of the trail as the tracks were only about six inches wide over much of the trail.  Oh, and one more advantage compared to the Carver trail: no horse shit.

The race director advised that the trail had been measured at 5.2 miles.  The trail I mapped out on Monday was over 6 miles (including some of my wrong turns).  They had obviously trimmed the 5.75 mile loop from last year’s race.

The horn sounded and we were off.  As usual, I had positioned myself in the back 20% of the field.  The initial portion of the run was mostly downhill and I found myself unable to hit my pace, so I started passing runners.  I ended up passing more runners than usual and by the .5 mile mark Kinetic announced a pace of 9:04.  That’s fast for me on a paved course, it was much faster than I’m used to running on a trail (the trail usually adds 1.5 – 2 minutes to my average pace).  Still, my legs felt great, the weather was perfect, and I knew that there were no monster hills ahead of me, so I kept up the pace.  I was a little worried about burning out, but my goals for this race were simply to finish and to avoid the tons of walk breaks I used at Carver.

I had switched back to Kinetic for this race as I’ve been pretty unimpressed with Runmeter’s GPS accuracy lately.  Kinetic measured the miles short, it would announce a mile marker shortly before the mile marker would appear on the course.  This is exactly the opposite of Runmeter’s behavior.  On mile 5 though, the mile marker showed up before Kinetic announced it.  Kinetic measured the 5.2 mile course at 5.23 miles, so I’m still impressed by it’s GPS accuracy.

Mother Nature reached out and reminded us that this was indeed a trail race:  a runner ahead of me tripped and fell on the trail.  He was on his feet quickly and uninjured thankfully. 

At the 1.6 mile mark, I took my first walk break near the top of a hill.  I had been attacking the hills, but this sucker was the last of three successive hills and I needed a breather.  This also gave me the opportunity to fall behind a group that I had been pacing.  They were too fast for me on the flats, but I would end up passing them going up or down hills.  I didn’t want to keep "rubberbanding" with them.  I took a quick breather and started running again.

At this point I was alone.  I decided to kick my pace down a notch.  I was about 2 miles in and still running around 9:30.  I dropped down to a pace above 10 minutes and continued on.  Of course, this meant that I ended up getting passed by a dozen or more runners over the last 3 miles, but I was cool with that.  I would occasionally pace behind some of these runners and that kept my legs pumping.  5 miles is still a long run for me.  The weather and the (albeit passing) familiarity with the course meant that I was never super tired, but I did take a few strategic walk breaks, but kept them all to around 10 seconds.  I only took 2 of them on hills.

Around the 3 mile point we started the paved trail portion of the run.  This is where most of the runners passed me.  For whatever reason, it seemed like I actually slowed down on this part of the course.  My feet went slightly numb.  This has happened to me before and, as usual, it cleared up within a half mile.  We ran over a long wooden bridge and past the disc golf course.  Near the end of the trail we hit the only water stop.  I grabbed a cup of water and walked through the stop.  A number of the runners ahead of me did the same, so when I started running again I was in a small pack of runners.  I stuck with them for the rest of the race.

I made one attempt to race ahead of the pack.  Just before the 5 mile mark, I decided to increase my pace and see if I couldn’t get ahead of the dozen runners in the pack.  My idea seemed brilliant…until I hit one of the last hills.  I had to take an embarrassing walk break to catch my breath.  Nothing like racing past a group of people only to have them pass me as I walked with my head down, wheezing, at the top of a hill.

The sun had just set prior to the end of the race.  There were some pretty dark, tree covered patches on the last mile of the race.  There were a few bits (including the paved trail) that were lit.  I assume that these lights are there for the cross country skiers.  The dark spots were manageable, but I did keep a heightened eye out for anything that I might trip over.

There was one more hill right before the finish line.  I looked up and saw 53 minutes on the clock.  I stopped Kinetic and saw that I had run 5.23 miles in 53:18.  I was pretty happy with the 10:12 pace even though I had toyed with trying to trim that to under 10 minutes.  I had a shot at doing that, but my humiliating hill walk ended that pipe dream.  Oh well, I had a much better run than I did at Carver.

Lifetime has a ton of post-race food available.  I grabbed a slice of pizza, some water, and an energy bar.  As I was a sweaty beast and the temps were now in the 40’s, I finished my pizza and took off.

I really liked this course and really like the Lifetime Trail Series.  Next year I hope to hit all five of the runs and improve on my performances from this year.  I am definitely going to do a LOT more hill work.  I have two more trail races left this year (Autumn Woods Classic and Timberdash) but they are both 5Ks and will not be as challenging as the Lifetime courses.  I’m also getting better at long runs.  5 miles now feels to me like 5K felt mid-summer: challenging, but very "doable".

Sisu is a Finnish term loosely translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. However, the word is widely considered to lack a proper translation into any language. Sisu has been described as being integral to understanding Finnish culture. The literal meaning is equivalent in English to “having guts”, and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However sisu is defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu.

– Wikipedia

I signed up for this race quite a while ago.  I’m not sure what drew me to the race: the setting (Wirth Park), the fact that it was a trail race (at a time when I had not run any trail races), or maybe that it was taking place on a unique date (9/10/11).  When I signed up for it, I did not have any races scheduled around it.  Fast forward a couple of months, and this race turns out to be the 3rd race within 5 days.  I ran the Red Rooster 5 mile race on Monday, the Lifetime Trail Series Carver Park 5 mile trail run on Wednesday, and was now ending my busiest race week with this run, described as “A wooded and challenging 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) course.”

Vendors

After getting my ass handed to me on the Carver Park trail run, the thought of tackling another trail run was far from enticing.  I seriously contemplated skipping this race, but it was a nice day and I had already paid to run, so I headed over to Wirth Park to pound this sucker out.

Theodore Wirth Park

The website and subsequent email notice warned about parking issues.  It turns out that the big parking lot near the race course is under construction.  It was strongly suggested that runners bike or walk to the park.  I live about 30 miles away, so this was not an option.  Consequently I got the park around 8:30 am, an hour and a half before the 5K began to (hopefully) get a parking spot.  It turned out that the event was allowing people to park on the grass close to the starting area, so parking was not a problem (as long as you didn’t mind a little “off road” action).

Parking

After parking I walked to the registration area.  We had been mailed postcards with a bar code on it that the volunteer would scan.  The scanners were not cooperating, but even so, registration was quick and painless.  I scored my swag bag (pretty cool stuff) and t shirt.  I walked back to my car, stowed my gear, and pinned on my bib.  Now I just had to kill 1.25 hours.  Luckily, walking around Wirth park on a beautiful morning is a great way to kill time.

Wirth Park

I eventually wandered to the starting area.  There was a lot of stuff going on.  There was a nice collection of vendors as well as a number of races already taking place.  There was a half marathon and “Nordic Walk” already in progress.  I was running the 5K, which would share a 10 am starting time with a 13.1K race.  Yes, I typed that correctly.  I’m not even sure what to call that race?  A half-marathon poorly converted to kilometers?

Start

As the start time approached, I took a 5 minute jog to get warmed up on the trails near the start of the race.  There were definitely going to be some hilly areas on this run.  I followed the runners with the red 5K bibs to the starting area.

Start

The starting area is the only real complaint I have with this race.  The race started on a paved trail about 6 feet wide.  Between the 13.1K and 5K, there were about 250 runners crammed onto the trail.  A lot of them (myself included) were standing outside of the paved trail.  Once the race began, the flow of runners had to squeeze together to get everyone on the trail and moving.  Needless to say, it was a slow start.  I positioned myself in my usual back 20% position and did not start actually running for a good 2 minutes after the race started.  This brief jogging period came to an abrupt end when the course turned left off of the paved trail and onto a dirt trail.  The trail went up a hilly area right away.  Everyone started walking again.  It was impossible to pass anyone.  Once the trail widened out a bit, I started passing as many people as possible.  I generally don’t try to run fast up hills, but in this case it was the easiest place to pass people, so I powered up the early hills just to pass runners and try to create some space.

Even this strategy was flawed.  Once we hit the single track trails, it became impossible to pass once again.  The trails were very narrow (as single tracks are wont to be) and passing would mean running though waist high foliage.  There was also a beautiful single track area that wound up a large hill.  Everyone was walking at this point.  Not because the hill was super steep, but because all of the runners were clumped together on the trail and the trail was right on the edge of the steep hillside.  Trying to pass would most likely result in a nice tumble down the hill.

This was definitely not a run to PR on.  While I was not happy to be crunched together single-file walking, I did welcome the involuntary walking breaks.  I did have a runner try to pass me at one point.  A younger runner (I would guess around 12) tried to pass me on my left.  The combination of no room to pass plus him being exactly tall enough that when he fell trying to do so that he ran into my elbow made for an ugly scene.  I helped him up, which meant stopping and subsequently stopping everyone behind us.  I felt bad for the kid, but could not understand how the hell he thought there was room to pass.

Other than the extreme congestion, there were plenty of cool parts of the run.  This was very much a trail race.  There were woods, streams, mud, roots, rocks, fields, and hills galore.  There was even a point where you ran through a muddy area and then had to duck through a hole cut out of a metal fence. I didn’t realize there was a choice of bypassing this (I saw the sign but did not understand it):

At one point on the course, the path diverged with two signs pointing to “ick” and “no ick”. “Ick” was through a sinking muddy sludge pool, and “no ick” involved ducking and running through the bramble and log debris to the right of the mud; the choice was yours.

Eventually we hit an open field area on the backside of a school campus.  At that point the runners could finally spread out and start passing other.  I kicked my pace up a notch here so that I could get ahead of as many runners as possible before hitting the trails again.

After this point, the trails were wide enough to accommodate the runners.  There were a bunch of small to medium hills, with a couple of larger hills.  I ran most of the hills, but did walk a couple of them.  I ran the biggest of the bunch, but actually ended up walking a bit of the downhill because I was so winded and the downhill portion was pretty winding and steep.

Second Half Hill

Runmeter must have been having GPS problems, because it nearly a half mile off of the actual distance.  It measured the 5K course at 2.78 miles.  This also meant that it was telling me that I was running 13+ minute miles.  I was running slow, but not that slow.

There was one point where the 13.1K runners and the 5K runners split.  This was confusing and a number of the 13.1 runners went the wrong way.  The volunteers did manage to get them turned around, but they did not look happy about the wrong turn.

The water stop came pretty late in the run (around the 2.8 mile mark) and there were cups of water and “blue stuff”.  I grabbed a cup of the blue stuff.

The final bit of the run was on paved trails.  I was pretty wiped out and knew that my time was going to be well north of 30 minutes so I didn’t try to kick it down on the last stretch.  Plus with Runmeter so off on the distance, I really wasn’t sure how much further I had to run.  One dude tried to pass me at the end but my inner asshole was stronger than his and I sprinted to finish before him.

I had no idea what my finish time was.  When I crossed the finish line, I was too sweaty for my iPhone.  I wasn’t able to stop the timer on Runmeter.  There was a digital clock, but it was still showing the time for the half marathoners.  I know I ran the race slowly, but I was pretty sure that the 1.5 hours on the clock was not correct.

Finish Area - Clock was for 1/2 Mary

All in all, this was a tough, but pretty fun run.  I felt a lot better about my performance than I did at the Carver trail race.  I’m still a long ways from being a trail runner.  I did end up in the top 50% of runners even with my 33 minute run.  That’s pretty good for me, though I can’t help but think I could have done much better if I would have been able to pass other runners in the first half of the race.

There was plenty of after race food and drink.  In the swag bag we received a wooden nickel which you could redeem for a beer.  I grabbed a banana and drank a lot of water (it was in the mid 80s and very humid by the end of the run).

Swag

The only problem I had was when I was driving out of the makeshift parking lot.  Some late arriving car drove in while I was trying to get out.  I had no choice but to take a right and let him in.  I drove down the between the rows of cars, but they were parked all the way to the end, so I would have had to reverse all the way back to get back to the exit.  Instead I drove to the end of the rows and onto the street.  Unfortunately this meant dropping over a curb.  I cursed as I heard the bottom of my car scrape on the curb.  I drove home and found no damage.

I found the Finn Sisu trail race to be challenging, yet fun and beautiful.  The race was very well run and there were plenty of volunteers.  I would suggest starting the run on a street for the first .25 mile at least to allow runners to spread out and hit their pace before hitting the (very narrow) trails.  If you’re running this race I would suggest starting further up than normal and starting out faster than normal to get some space.

Wooden Nickel

T Shirt - Front

T Shirt - Back

Route

I checked out this trail series earlier in the year.  I really want to do trail runs because that’s the type of running I enjoy the most.  We are blessed in Minnesota with tons of different wilderness trails.  I love running through wooded areas and along some of our 10,000 lakes.  I rarely get bored while on wilderness runs.  When I checked out the LifeTime Trail Series I balked for a couple of reasons: I’m not a member of LifeTime fitness, the distances seemed pretty long to me, and the results for last year’s races showed very small attendance.  I’m still a crappy runner and I really didn’t want to be an anchor for the experienced trail runners.  

I was checking out Active.com for local runs and saw a Thursday night run in Maple Grove.  I work in that area and an evening run after work appeals to me much more than waking up early on weekend and driving into the Cities for a race.  I checked the race website and found that it was the last of the 5 Lifetime Trail runs.  

I almost passed on the run again.  After the debacle at the Granite City 5K (my worst run and the closest thing to a trail run I’ve done for a race) I pretty much decided that I’m not a trail runner.  The previous race results (they’ve already run 3 of the 5 races) were posted to the site, so on a whim, I checked out the results.

First of all, the distances aren’t nearly as long as I remembered them being (I swear they were all 5 to 9 miles long) as they are all around 5 miles, with one race at 5K.  Probably more importantly, they had around 200 runners for each event.  I remembered (my memory is probably faulty) the fields being 30 or less for last year’s races.  Finally, there were a number of runners with paces that I am confident that I can match.  I might still be an anchor, but at least I’d be part of a gang of anchors.

The Thursday night schedule was too good to pass up.  Plus now that I’ve finished a 5 mile race, that distance – while still challenging – doesn’t frighten me the way it used to.

It turns out that you don’t need to be a LifeTime Fitness member to participate in the runs.  The pricing is $20 for non-members and $15 for members.  The site is a bit confusing as to whether that price is for all five races (amazing bargain) or just for each race.  It’s for each race (includes a shirt).

I signed up for the 08 September run.  The other cool part of the series is that each is in a different park.  This week’s run is in Carver Park – which is a beautiful park in a gorgeous area.  The site has maps available detailing the course for each run, so you can scout them out in advance, which is what I did for this first run.

If I have a good time on this first run, then I’ll sign up for the next one at the end of September (in Maple Grove – another gorgeous park).  The only downside is that the NFL season starts this Thursday, so I won’t be hitting the bar after the run (not going to punish everyone with my sweaty mess) but I should be able to watch the Saints crush the hated Packers after the run.