This was my first race in Pennsylvania.  I only live about 30 minutes from the state line (helps that MD is so small), so when I saw this 10-miler pop up I knew I had to do it since it fell on the day of my last long run in prep for Disneyland.  It was actually recommended by one of my fellow Trail Snails, so I thought maybe the field would be on the slower side.  This was the first race where I needed Dad to be there, not just wanted.   It was a point-to-point on a rail trail, so unless I wanted to run 10 miles back I was going to be stuck at the finish line.  The shirts were limited, so of course I wanted to get there early, which meant leaving the house at 6 AM.  I didn’t get the size I wanted, but they are nice Brooks Podium shirts with a train on the front.  I was waiting to use the port-a-pot till the last minute.  I knew the last minute came when the pre-registered folks who parked at the finish pulled up in their fancy buses – 3 of them!  I ran over to get in line before the bus doors opened. 

The race was generally small I think only fielding about 400 people and they ALL seemed to know each other.  We lined up a few minutes late and we were sent off by a Volunteer Fire Hall Siren instead of a gun.  I thought that was a cool touch.  After almost a mile zig zagging through the streets and heading up one really steap hill we came down to the final two turns.  I heard one volunteer as I passed yell to another “How many more?” and the reply was “2”.  My heart sank.  I was third to last after less than a mile.  and it wasn’t a slow mile for me either – 11:41.  My goal going into the race was to finish between 2:00 and 2:10, but now it was just to not get passed by the two people that were behind me.  Shortly thereafter I saw Dad parked on the side of the road that ran parallel to the trail.  He applauded and told me I looked good.  I told him I was third to last, lol.  When I hit the 7.30 mile mark there was a water stop and I just had a lot of trouble getting back up to speed after walking.  I was at this point on target for a 2:02 finish.  I decided I went out too fast and was worried that if I pushed too hard I would jeopardize the Disneyland Half.  To keep myself entertained being out on the trail with no competition in site I decided to say Hello to every member of the public I passed.  I probably walked 1.5 of the last 2.79 miles.  I don’t regret that choice since I still didn’t get passed by the 2 people behind me.  I came into the finish and I saw my father on his phone calling to tell Mom I was off my pace.  I felt embarassed coming into the finish because I could hear everyone cheering me.  I am sure they weren’t thinking it but I felt like the all were looking at me like I was a newbie.  They yelled at me to sprint in, so I did.  I tried to pretend I was in first and threw my arms in the air when I hit the line like I was breaking an imaginary tape, lol.

The course itself was a nice crushed stone rail trail.  Part of the course ran through the country’s oldest train tunnel still in operation.  It was really cool to run through it.  Throughout the race you are running next to a train rail that is still in operation and you are constantly criss crossing back and forth with the tracks.  Overall the scenery was breath taking.

As soon as I crossed they handed me a bottle of water with a towel wrapped around it.  I used it to clean off the dirt from the trail.  I told at Dad to watch as I reached down to snap my sock cuff which sent off a cloud of dirt.  Now I know what pig pen feels like, lol.  When I took off my shoes after I got home there was a dirt pattern on my socks that matched the mesh of my shoes.  When I ran this morning wearing the same shoes I got the same marks on my socks.  Might take me a while to work all the dirt out of the mesh, lol. 

When the race results were posted I did’t have a result because I didn’t make the top 20 in my age group.  I had to inquire and the race folks were nice enough to send me the full results.  Thanks to the results I was able to tell I actually finished 4th to last with an official finishing time of 2:12:09, which is a pace of 13:13.  This is certainly nothing to complain about in a race that was supposed to be a training run. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Race Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.