Horseshoe Hill Climb 20K

I've been wanting to add more trail racing over the past few years and have slowly done so.  With a 5k, 10k, and five miler under my belt, I wanted to try something a bit more challenging.  Enter the Horseshoe Hill Climb 20k. 

The race was held at Marmon Valley Farm in Zanesfield, OH, which is only about 20 miles away from my parent's house.  Nice bonus being able to visit them!  I knew going in that the race would be more challenging than any other trail run I've done, and twice as long.  If you're familiar with Zanesfield, you know about Bristol Ridge.  It's a cursed hill that has its own name!  Part of the trail was parallel to Bristol Ridge and, good grief, I will have nightmares about it for many days.  Plus, we had some torrential rains in the days leading up to this one.  Trail running is difficult enough without mud up to your knees.  One positive is that the race offered three distances (10k, 20k, 30k) on one single loop.  So at least I could feel out the course on the first go round.

We started out with, you guessed it, the hill.  Right from the start.  It felt like we were going straight up for a mile, in mud.  This first mile was basically a brisk walk since the trail was single track and footing was iffy at best.  It took 14 minutes to get one mile into this race.  No joke.  And I had mud in my shoes and up to my knees.  What a way to start! 

The easiest section was next.  We made our way across a field, to a turnaround, and back towards the woods.  It was almost two miles of basic running and provided a nice breather.  But then back to the woods and more mud.  You could speed up at times but it was difficult to maintain any kind of pace.  I was able to strike up some good conversations with other runners along the way.  There is definitely more of a sense of comradarie in a race like this than in your normal road race.  The ridiculousness of the course makes you laugh out loud with fellow runners.  The best part...people were having fun. 

There's not much more to report on the course itself.  Uphill and downhill until we made our way back to the farm.  Lots of twists and turns.  My first lap was in the 1:04 range, which I was fine with since my goal was to come in under 2:15.  The second lap felt faster, but I had to stop for water once, another time to clean off my hands at a stream crossing (after a nice little fall), and once more to retrieve my shoe after some mud sucked it right off my foot.  The sock is still down there somewhere.  But, again, I had a blast.  My finishing time was 2:10:02, good enough for 13/26 overall and second in my age group.

I've been debating how to finish off 2013.  I've looked at some half marathons, but I really don't have the time to train properly.  Instead, I'll look at doing a couple 5ks since I've only ran two this year.

Next race: Run Like the Dickens- Tiffin, OH