WWC Memorial Day 8 mile trail race

Hot and humid were the words of the day. The temperature was pushing the low 80s when I stepped out of my car this morning.

By race time, it had to be pushing the low 90s. Wow, how fast have we jumped into the summer? Plenty fast, indeed.

The 5 & 8 mile races started together so it was a bit confusing to sort who was running what race. I ended up mixing it up with a 3 different guys during the race. One got away from me when we passed by the towers. The second one got away from me on the backside of the Lake Loop.

I could definitely feel the heat. Even running under the canopy of the tree, the heat was bad. I grabbed a cup of water at 5 miles. After taking a sip, I poured the rest over my head. It felt awesome, and I wished that I had taken several more cups.

The course was a different and a little longer than last year. Instead of dropping directly on to South Main after entering the woods, we ran further on North Main before circling back to pick up South Main.

I was happy to see that the maintenance crew cleaned up Toilet Bowl loop. Several trees were across the trail last weekend, but they were gone today. Kudos to them. They do an awesome job keeping the trails clean.

I finished 4 overall in 62:52. This was about a minute slower than last year. Considering they changed up the course and last year was much cooler, I felt like I had pretty good race overall. I picked up a nice WWC metal water bottle for my first place in the 50-54 age group.

Next up on my calendar is the Vertical Mile in 3 weeks. This is a new race for me, and this should be an interesting race. I don’t know which will hurt more my lungs or my quads. I suspect that they both will hurt equally bad.

Tails from the Trail

The Cool Down Runner