WWC - Tread Brightly

 I had sleep fast since I had to be back at the WWC before the 7 AM start time. In full disclosure, I was worried that Tread Nightly might linger in to the Tread Brightly race. Adding to more worries, I was standing next to a guy at the start wearing a head lamp. I asked if he thought that we would need it. He wasn't sure but wanted to be safer than sorry. 

 On the other hand, I was going with the more risky approach. Yes, the darkness was still lingering, but minute by minute it was getting better. Getting through the early section of Carpet meant making sure I picked up and put down my feet more carefully. 

A couple of guys were more adventurous than I was, and I had another guy close behind me. 

By the time that we exited Carpet, dawn had fully arrived. The distance between everyone had stabilized. If anything, we were closing on the 2nd place guy. 

Passing by Goat, we were definitely closing. Turning out along the river, I had it down to about 5 yards. Then, something that has never happened before to me happened. I caught the back of my shoe on either a root or rock, and I pulled my heel out of my shoe. I did a few more strides but quickly realized that I was going to have to stop and fix it. I could not run like this to the finish. 

I did the hardest thing, and I stopped to fix it. All the time, I was watching those guys disappear up the trail. I didn't time how long it took me to fix it but it seemed like eternity. Adrenalin flooded in to my system, and I was flying up the trail. There is a long straight section, and I could see them. This only spurred me forward. I caught 3rd place coming up to the exit in the parking lot. I surged by 3rd place. He stayed close, and he out sprinted me to line. This is the 2nd time this year that I have been out-legged to the line. He beat me by the wide margin of 500th of a second. 

I finished 4 overall in 32:28. Even with stopping, I was still 4 seconds faster than last night. 

Pretty good back to back races for me. I was happy that I choose to do the 4 milers instead of the two 1/2 halves.  

 On to other races now. 

The Cool Down Runner