Resolution 5k Trail Race

 Saturday morning, I found myself driving around 485 to a new nature preserve here in Charlotte. Before jumping in to the race stuff, let me share some back story here. This all started a few months ago when when I was planning my New Years races. I planned to run the WWC New Years Eve race having a day off and then running this Resolution 5k. Things changed, and I found myself having three races in three days. Things changed still further when I got this email from the O.M.R Ultra guys saying that they were shifting the race from Oakboro, NC to Stevens Nature Preserve in Mecklenburg county. I read through their email and then thought "wait" Stevens Nature Preserve, I have never heard of it. Given that I have run most places that offer a trail option around Charlotte so I pulled up the Google search page and low and behold there is a new nature preserve here in Charlotte. If I understood their information correctly, it was to open in July of '20 but with the pandemic, this has been delayed. However, the O.M.R Ultra guys got permission to hold a small race here. 

Wait, don't go away; there is a little bit more on this story. They also shared that with this shift in location, they were also returning our race entry fee. The race would be free to all that entered but in lieu of the entry fee, they asked everyone to bring a food donation. If I am going to do this race then I always like to feel that I am doing my part. I walked with two big bags of groceries. 

With all these twist and turns so far what more could there be. I arrived on site race morning and hit another speed bump. They didn't have a bib for me. Seems somewhere between the file getting generated and the bibs getting printed, my name got overridden with another runner named "Bryan". So be clear the bibs had our names on them. Meaning, Bryan actually had two bibs and I had none. The fix was easy. I volunteered a black Sharpie, and they struck through "ryan" and added "ill". This is what I wore during the race. They offered to get another bib printed with my name on it, but with a smile hidden by my facemask, I shook my head no. I had a totally customized bib. This was far cooler than what anyone else was wearing. At least, I thought so. 

After sorting out my bib issues, I checked my watch. I still had time to check out the course before the 9 AM start time but it was going to be tight. Mainly, I wanted to see how it was marked, what the trail like, and what were the conditions of the trail. I had couple of different shoe options in my car. I need more info before making a decision. 

Of course with all the rain there were plenty of slick spots and plenty of puddles. Being these were all pretty fresh trails, this is to be expected. Every new trail takes to get worn. Once it does, it will run a little bit better. 

The course was well marked so I had no issues finding my way but I was going to be tight getting to the start. I had to hustle back to my car and change shoes. I made it to the starting line with about 5 minutes to spare.

I caught the tail end of the race instructions and hoped that I caught enough of them.  

While we had plenty of room to spread out at the start, we would go maybe 50 yards before going single file and crossing a bridge. I looked round at the start, and I knew that I wanted to be up front once we hit the bridge. 

The race started, and I gave up any thought of keeping my feet dry. I went splashing through the water and straight for the bridge. 

I got to the bridge first, and this gave me a great leap in to the trail. I am always reminded of how different my warm up is from racing. During my warm up, I am bouncing along keeping my feet directly underneath me. It is a lot like running on ice. Keep my center of gravity directly over my feet, and I have better chance of staying upright. When I am racing, I am going harder, and I am leaning more in to the turns. At one point, I was making a hard left turn and grabbed a tree to help redirect my momentum. After all, my Speed Goat do a fair job of giving me traction, but still there are limits. 

My Garmin chimed; I clocked the first mile in 7:09. For my 3rd trail race in 3 days, I will take it. But now, I wanted to see what I could do next. The course had numerous twist and turns along with more mud and puddles to scrub off some speed, but when the second mile clocked in at 7:09, I felt even better. One more mile, I am done. I needed to dig in harder. The 3rd mile chimed at 6:55 which was a surprise to me. Now, I was headed back to the finish along a trail which a bunch of runners had turned from a little mud in to a lot of mud. My legs were covered all the way up on my hamstrings. 

I went back across the bridge to the finish line and finished in 22:37.   

I was super happy with my efforts. Starting '21 with two trails races is the way to do it. 

After the race, I got a chance to talk with the O.M.R Ultra guys. Their goal is to create more trail racing around Charlotte. This would be awesome to see. The WWC pretty much has the market on trail racing around here. Seeing more races gives me an opportunity to race more weekends per year. Like more racers, I would love to see more local trail races. 

Find out more about the O.M.R. Ultra here. 

Cool Down Runner Adventures