This was a fantastic local race about ten minutes from home. The event was held at the Ohio Bird Sanctuary, which is a beautiful local gem of Richland County.
We've had a lot of things going on in our lives and I haven't been able to run much let alone race. This one had a 2 miler and 4 miler. I opted for the 2 because of the lack of training and because I've ran the trails before. There are some very difficult hills, switchbacks, bridge crossings, and low lying areas by the Clearfork River. I was thankful for opting for the two miler, as we had heavy rains the night before and a light rain the morning of the event. Couple that with the slick bridges and fallen leaves. That's a recipe for some slipping and sliding!
We headed out from the sanctuary and made a counter clockwise loop through the northern part of the grounds. This first section had some nice up-downs right from the get go and it was hard to keep your footing. The bridge crossings proved to be very tough, but the race organizers did a great job to keep everyone safe by putting chicken wire down to help with the footing. Nice touch!
I started out near the front pack. It was difficult to tell where I was at in the race since there was a longer distance. I figured more of the serious runners were running the double loop four miler. We hit the low lying part of the race about halfway through and it got soggy! This portion is just feet from the river and the rainwater had made for some nice puddles. I've said it before, but I love this part of trail running. It becomes playing instead of racing.
The pack had thinned out and I passed two runners as we went for the southern loop. This part of the race was very tough, regardless of it only being a two mile race. The hills were not straight and I had to watch out for sticks, leaves, branches, and roots. There's no real zoning out in a trail race. The final quarter mile or so was all uphill and it was rough getting back onto grass after being on the trail so long. I almost slipped with the first step I took back on the wet grass. The ground then leveled off and I hit the finish line in 18:38. Not a bad time for a tough trail race in the rain. I was surprised to find that I was the first two miler to finish! As I suspected, the four miler was indeed faster as there were two or three runners in front of me running the four. I'll take the win, though! The best part was the prize; a bird feeder! I like getting things I can actually use.
The next race is set for Thanksgiving morning. It will be my last one for the year and probably the last one for quite some time. W and I are expecting our first child in late December or early January so that will obviously be a huge life change. But we are looking forward to it!
Next race: Mansfield Lexington Turkey Trot 5k- Lexington, OH
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