On Saturday morning Shelly Girl and I decided to jump in the car and drive to Massachusetts to run the Oxford Dam Trail Race. After a summer of mountains I was looking for something flat and totally runnable and Shelly was looking to find the groove that has been elusive in her running this summer. For both of us the race turned out to meet our goals.
We did not know much about the race, other than it is put on by the Central Mass Road Runners, it is a part of the Grand Tree Series, just under eleven miles of trail and it is supposed to be fast. I had read several race reports which seemed to indicate there would be no major climbs, a variety of non-technical single track trail and various types of fire roads. Of course defining a hard climb or technical single track is not as simple as one might think. I suppose it really depends on your experiences in previous races, but this looked good and off we went to find out.
We left bright and early and got to Oxford about 45 minutes before the start. The crowd looked small and I think the turnout for this race is effected by a lot of other races going on this weekend (Ocean Beach, Sea Legs Shuffle and People’s Forest to name three) This was fine by us, in fact it was the type of race we wanted.
After the usual preparations, mainly consisting of figuring out what to take on a course we did not know on a day that was hot and humid, we wished each other luck and toed the line.
The race starts with both the long and the short course (5 miles) runners starting together and ascending a hill of about a quarter mile. Considering there was not supposed to be any hills I was a bit surprised, but it really was nothing too serious and I chugged forward until we reached the single track. The trail was a bit more technical than I had anticipated but it was very fair and I just settled into a pace I thought was moderate. Within a mile or two I was keenly aware of two things. First, it was hot and the course was fairly exposed to the sun and second, I was breathing way too hard for this early in the race. The trail was quite easy so I really was in a bit of a panic as to what was going on. First order of business was to slow down. So I adjusted my pace and even walked a couple of bumps. I always find stopping and walking helps me when I am out of the zone. As I tried to regain my composure I took inventory and realized that my legs were feeling pretty heavy. I am not used to that feeling this summer. Everything I have done has been geared towards mountain type courses and the feelings on those races has been pain more than leg fatigue. I suddenly realized that I have not done a race all summer where I had to run the whole time and run pretty fast. These are not my type of races! We got to the 3 mile split, where the short course went right and long course goes left and I almost veered right. It was hot, I was out in the open on flat roads where you are supposed to run fast and I was sucking wind three miles into the race. Yikes! I struggled on as best as I was able and slowly worked my way back from the brink. One thing that helped was I tried to focus on the thought that this was good training for me. I was no longer racing but simply trying to get used to running hard on runnable trails.
By the second aid station, at roughly five miles, I was tired but I had a better frame of mind and settled into a pace I could maintain. The trail continued to alternate between nice shaded single track and out in the sun fire roads, with some ATV trails tossed in for good measure. The trail was terrific and I was already thinking that I simply need to come back next year better trained for this type of race. At the last aid station (roughly seven miles) I ate a bit and walked a hill, to gain as much energy as I could, and then took off for the final three plus miles. All day the trail was nice and rolling and while I would say the course was a bit more hilly and technical then I had anticipated it still was quite a fast course and everything is runnable. Up to this point in the race I had been the guy getting passed but finally I started seeing people up ahead and, as we all know, passing people always helps your frame of mind. While I was tired I was well in charge of my mind by this point and just went as fast as I could go and soon enough I was done. The real highlight came about four minutes later when I saw Shelly Girl pounding down the trail. To be honest, she has not felt that great about her running this summer. This combined with the heat, that she does not like, and the speed of the course made me think it might be a rough day so I did not expect to see her for another five minutes. When she hit the tape at a little over 1:41 I knew she had had the day she was hoping for. Sweating and gassed, but smiling, what more can you want? Plus, she got pumpkin bread for winning her division , which we chomped on all the way back to Killingworth.
So at the end of the day, it was a terrific race. The course is fast (Jim Johnson won the race in 1:04. That’s almost 11 miles of trails in 64 minutes!!)well marked and the RD put on a great event. Shelly found her groove and I learned I need to work on running faster. Plus we got Pumpkin Bread!
Lefty
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