&appId;The weather was beautiful: nice and cool. However, the humidity was still pretty high. I registered for this event rather optimistically - as I prefer trail runs over road. It doesn't hurt that the wooded trails in my town are pretty awesome - and appear to be straight out of a Disney film.
I kind of feel like these guys... Oo - De - Lally
Recently I heard from several people that this race was not a good candidate for a PR. I was told (after I registered), that the course is 'a bit hilly'. Now, I had heard these same runners complain about hills on courses that didn't contain hills - so I pushed it to the back of my mind. After all, this is Florida - how bad could it be?
Emerging from the woods - red-faced and tired - Photo Credit: Paul Guyas/ Gulf Winds Track Club
This time, however - they were correct. The race description uses the term 'undulating', but on a few occasions, I felt like I should be using my hands to help pull myself up the hills. Silly me, I thought that Tall Timbers referred to the trees, not the monster hills. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the course. It was just more challenging than I anticipated. And it could've been worse. Like poor Flynn here.
For a small local trail race, this was a fairly well attended event. Also, the course had great volunteers and water stations. The second water stop (somewhere near mile 6) was completely decked out for Halloween. Starting about a tenth of a mile from the water stop, spooky decorations started to appear. I was still rather optimistic at this point that I was well ahead of my time goal (I wasn't) so I failed to stop and take some pictures. This was the first themed water stop I have seen locally. I do hope the runners enjoyed it (I did) and it becomes a tradition.
The course looped through a timber research facility that is not open to the public. This once-a-year race is actually the only way for runners to enjoy these trail. I am glad I took advantage of the opportunity. This is definitely a race I will look forward to running again.
Photo credit: Fred Decker /Gulf Winds Track Club
Unfortunately, my finish time won’t be helping me to move up in the Dopey corrals. However, given the course, I did feel pretty good about my finish time. I tested out my hydration vest for the first time in race conditions - and there were no issues. I successfully tried out a new interval: 2:30/1 (run 2 minutes 30 seconds, walk 1 minute). I had no cramping, no injuries, and I worked out the timing of my fuel. All in all, a success.In fact, I felt good enough to run seven more training miles after the race.Then to make things more interesting, I ran the Color Me Rad 5K with DisneyBride in the afternoon. (Recap coming soon.) Daily total mileage: 20K + 7 Mi + 5K = 22.5 MilesSo this back-to-back running gave me a little taste of what Dopey has in store for me come January. My next big test will bethis Sundayas I run my first full marathon: Running for the Bay.
- Are you running Dopey or another runDisney Challenge (Glass Slipper, Goofy)?
- How is your training going?
- Are you using local races as training runs?
-DG