Fools 25K Race Report -

This past Sunday I ran my first 25k race. AND it was a trail race; the Fools 25k, in the CVNP. When I arrived at the park, it was still totally dark. I watched the sun rise and then did a .75 mile warm up in the cool 20 degree weather. Thankfully it was at least sunny, and it probably warmed up to about the mid 20s during the race.
The race began at 7:30 am, and I made sure to start near the back, knowing I'd be slower than a lot of the other runners. Many of those racing were running the 50k - two loops of the course I was running!
The course was very hilly - almost no flats. I was happy that I had experience running on every trail that the course consisted of - thanks to my fellow Grunt Girls! (Of course, I had never run them all at once before though!)
A few miles in, I felt a blister on the arch of my left foot. Ugh. I tried to shift my sock around and eventually I was able to not feel it. (It was still there, but at least not causeing any pain.)I tried to keep a good pace and was enjoying the run.
THEN - around mile 11.5 of the race I was running downhill and felt some pain in my right knee. Ouch. Every downhill step hurt. Around mile 12 you can see the finish line in the distance and I thought about heading there and calling it quits. Two things kept me going - one was knowing I had some good Grunt Girls friends at the finish line (didn't want to quit with them there) and knowing that I really liked the last loop of the race - a trail called Salt Run. So, I walked the downhills because of my knee, and I walked the uphills because I was tired and they were steep. That didn't leave me with much running for those last few miles. BUT, I finished.

Garmin Mile Splits
1 - 11:44
2 - 11:25
3 - 10:18
4 - 11:49
5 - 13:26
6 - 12:20
7 - 11:09
8 - 10:48
9 - 13:32
10 - 12:11
11 - 11:26
12 - 14:26
13 - 15:37
14 - 16:11
15 - 16:35
.7 - 10:06

Total time - 3:23:13

A pic of some of the Grunt Girls at the Fools Run: (Some ran the 25k and some were just wonderful and greeted us at the finish line.)


I made the mistake of making this face when I crossed the finish line:


It was a nice day, but with my knee hurting, I was GLAD to be done!

Race day was supposed to be an 18 mile running day in my training for the Cleveland Marathon, but with my knee pain, there was no way I could finish my miles. So, it was just a 16.5 mile day with my warm-up and race.

I took off from working out Mon and Tue, and was able to bike on Wed. I planned to run yesterday, but life got in the way - big time! - - - I found a local school district that is hiring TWO teachers (grade one and five) and the deadline to apply is today. SO, I spent almost all day yesterday applying for the jobs. WOW!

Today I hope to run some, and then I hope to run an 11 miler this weekend. We'll see how that goes, and then I'll decide whether to run another 25k race next weekend.

THEN - the week after that is the "Forget the PR" 25k (17.1 mile) race down at Mohican. I'll really have to be careful on the downhills there!!!