Running the Medoc Trail Race

A few months ago I signed up to do the Medoc Trail Run and all of the other training this year, the triathlons, long 150 mile bike ride, long swims and so on have all been to help get me into shape for this 10 miler in the mountains. This past weekend I finally did it. I had set my heart on a sub-2 hour run as there were some good slopes, a lot of tree roots and rocks to run over. I went into the race with my right calf still hurting from the tear in January. My left calf muscle got pulled in a 5km race in Wake Forest a few weeks ago. The night before the race I was icing and warming the calf muscle.
I headed out from the house at 5am after a 4:30am wake up and was at the race nice and early after a McDonalds power breakfast...2 hash browns and a large coffee. The organization was superb, there was a marathon (2.5 loops) and the 10 miler that I was up for. I was feeling low energy and not in the best of shape for the run but that's never stopped me before so when we started at 8:30am I led off with a normal pace along the road that was about a mile to split up the pack.
I ran as ChemSpiderman..I would have loved to have a ChemSpiderman T-shirt to run with (free advertising in the trees but more important when I'm running in the Chemistry 5km races at the conferences!!!) but I'm thinking of rebranding myself as the ChemConnectorGuy  :-)

When we got into the trails it was much gentler on my legs running in the trees and I could kick a little harder. A couple of trips over the roots work me up pretty quickly as did some of the slopes up the "mountain". I was feeling the pace at 4 miles, hit the "it's all down hill" feeling at 5 miles because I had crossed half way. By mile 8 when Medoc the Mountain Man was looking at me from the trees (really!!!) I was feeling confident that finishing was no issue, and maybe with a good time. I didn't wear my Nike Plus as I wanted to run blind without a time as every time I have run against the clock of late it's been bad for the mind...

At mile 9 I got a major cramp in the right calf despite taking Calcium Lactate before the race to stop the cramping. I ran through it, as I had run through 3 side stitches, and saw the line with 1hr 37 mins on the clock. I ran pretty hard for the line and was really happy to cross in less than 1:38. I'm rarely impressed with my performance in these races and always expect more from  myself but this one put a REAL smile on my face. It was a great race and I was very happy to have run it. It started COLD, was warm when we finished, they fed us well, we all got medals and nice Finisher vests. All in all a grear day at Medoc Mountain State Park and home for lunchtime to hang out with the kids. Hope they do it again next year!