I'm sore

(More blog entries from ryan)

Bradbury Bruiser Race Report

On Saturday night, I stayed until 1:00am watching the Red Sox take game 3 of the World Series. On Sunday morning, I got up at 6:00am to run in the LL Bean Bradbury Bruiser 12-mile Trail Race at Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal, ME. Apparently, I've decided that sleep is not necessary for race preparation.

The course was really, really, really hard. It was 15% wide paths/old roads, 65% single track and 20% the most ridiculous single track you've ever seen. There were only a couple hills on the course, but there we so many small bumps and twists and turns it felt like running in a pinball machine. On top of that, with all the rain that fell on Saturday, 90% of the course was covered in wet leaves. Like I said, it was hard.

No exaggeration here, but 12 miles was to be the longest run I've done in 10 years. So, I went out pretty easy at the start. Sort of. The first 200 yards of the race was on a wide trail, followed by an immediate left onto some single track. My biggest fear was getting stuck behond someone who sprinted the first section only to slow to a 43-minuete per mile crawl. Luckily, this didn't seem to happen, and I settled into a good group right away. Again, I knew I had 12 miles to go, so I was pretty conservative.

I felt great through the first 5 miles despite almost falling 47 times and kicking myself in the shins over and over. I downed an Espresso Hammer Gel somewhere between miles 5 and 6. Word of caution here: don't squeze too much Hammer Gel into your mouth while running; it may make breathing difficult. Tasty, but difficult. My plan was to reenergize around that point because there was a "wide open" woods road at about mile 6. It was uphill, but my plan was to run this section hard, which I did. I managed to drop a couple people here and catch up to a woman who was going at a pace that was perfect for me. I ran with her for a while, helped her up from a fall, through the water stop at mile 9, and then into the "O" Trail.

I'm not really sure why it's called the "O" Trail. It's more like the "O Gawd Why Am I Doing This!?!?!?" Trail or the "O @#!&*@@#" Trail. It was the hardest single track trail I've ever run. It was 2.4 miles of winding, twisting, rocky, rooty, bumpy nastiness. The "O" Trail is surrounded by a trail that follows an old woods road. This woods road makes an approximately 1-mile loop. All 2.4 miles of the "O" Trail are inside this 1-mile loop. It's pretty crazy. So not only was this trail really hard because of the footing, but it twisted so much it was really disorienting. I had no idea where I was. I felt like I was trapped in a maze. It was pretty demoralizing. My pace slowed to a hobble in a couple places and I was pleading for that section to end. Eventually it did end, and onto a woods road for the last 1/4 mile to the finish.

I staggered through the finish chute, tore the tab off my number, made my way to the table of goodies, grabbed a Gatorade, grabbed a brownie, talked to my buddy, then wandered over to the results board. Somehow, I was 11th. I was stunned. I had no idea where I was in the pack. I was running hard, but I wasn't busting all out, and I definitely had no expectations. I had to double check it a couple times to be sure. Cool.

D finished a few minutes later, with a bloodied knee. She took a pretty good digger at mile 4, but was still in one piece, and happy with her race.

Overall, it was a great experience. It was definitely one of the harder races I've ever done. It was a great race for making friends along the course in a "well, we're all in this togther" way. A great atmosphere. It's cool to see more trail races like our There's a Black Fly in My Eye popping up here and there. There are plenty of road races, but in my opinion, trail races are just cooler. This race was no exception.

Monday morning brought on some soreness. I have a couple blisters. I stayed up watching the Red Sox win the World Series. It was a heck of a day!

- Ryan

Comments

Re: I'm sore
by Ed on Oct 30th 2007, 9:08 am

Congrats on a great race and experience! (I am surprised that young guys like you get sore, however, from a little workout like that!?!?!?!)

Re: I'm sore
by Ryan on Oct 30th 2007, 9:44 am

Thanks, Ed! I'm definitely sore, but much better today. I'm planning to run today to get the blood moving, but I have some pretty good blisters. Apparently, all that lateral movement and my new shoes weren't the best idea. ouch.

Re: I'm sore
by Stephen on Oct 31st 2007, 5:48 pm

Thanks for joining us for the first LLB Bruiser. I am glad you had a good time. As a co-director I love seeing commentaries like yours..."it was damn hard but I enjoyed every moment of it." I posted a short video of the race with some pictures on my race report. Check it out at www.livestrongmaine.blogspot.com. Thanks again and we hope to see you at some of our new races next summer.

Re: I'm sore
by Ryan on Oct 31st 2007, 9:15 pm

@Stephen: Thanks for putting the race together. It was definitely fun in one of those wasn't fun at all kind of ways. Good stuff. Can't wait until next year. And I hope to see a few of you at our trail race in June...it's definitely in the same "fun" category!