Yesterday was the Xterra Harbin Park 10K trail race. For me,
it started with a 45 minute drive early morning drive to a rural park. About 7:11am I topped a hill, cruising down a
country highway (as country as can be in metro-Atlanta) and Jimi Hendrix came
on the satellite radio as I was suddenly looking at the vast horizon of a
burning red sky. Morning was breaking and it was quite a beautiful site. It
slowly slid into a variety of red hues with some purple thrown in. What a way to start the day.
Arrived at this great park in good time to get a good
parking spot, pick up my race bib, stretch, and get my warm up run in. Today I get to use my Asics trail shoes. It really is a beautiful day, mild weather
but humid because in a little while, on my way home, it will begin to rain and
rain all day.
The race is a sell out as they always seem to be. 500 runners on the trail. It is a good trail about 4’ wide and nicely groomed. There are plenty of brownish leaves to hide
the rocks and roots along the way. There are also plenty of rocks and
roots. At several spots along the course
there are also beds of sand which I hate to run in. Only once did I trip on a root. I caught myself before my face hit the
ground, thank goodness. Going up one of the steep hills, and there were a lot
of them, it was so slippery with small and medium rocks that it felt like my
legs were acting like wagon wheels; going round and round in big circular arks
just like in the cartoons.
I came in second place in my age group. The first place guy was 8.5 seconds in front
of me. I did not see him until I had
passed the 5.5 mile mark. This means
that he had to start ahead of me. With
these trail runs I like to start a little farther back than usual because it
gets pretty hairy when everyone gets compressed onto the trail.
This was a well-run (pun) race and the organization was
good. Dirty Spokes, Xterra do a good
job. I had a good time and would do it
again. Maybe I will next year.
What do you think?
Zippy
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