Christopher and I took a break from repairing the USM course (we got there extra early to get started with Damian) and heading over to participate in this first annual event held at the ultra hilly Haven's Park in Leavenworth Kansas. When I say hilly I mean it. Neither of us are much in the way of runners, but we both enjoy the woods and getting dirty.
The race started with an uphill start. I lined up on the front row for some odd reason. As I looked back at the 60 or so other participants and their skinny selves I should have just walked to the end of the line and saved myself the embarrassment. Knowing full well that my
body does not climb well. However, when the starting gun sounded I shot to the lead with the full intent to use my body mass to keep everyone behind me in the trail. Only problem was there was not single track trails, just hilly double track roads with plenty of room to pass. To my amazement, I actually lead up not only the first hill, but the next two as we reach the top of Haven's Mountain. At this point a couple of those skinny runners came by, but not as fast as I expected. I think all intensity of racing cyclocross this past 6 weeks has started to pay off....Christopher beginning of his race did not go as well as mine He started in 3rd and fell back to close to 50th p
lace by the top of that first climb. He was a little discouraged, but did not give up and slowly started to pass some other runners, namely the 50 year old lady who he really wanted to beat. She was a stealthy elder runner with plenty of years of experience on Christopher, but he had youth on his side. At least that is what he kept telling himself....As we approached mile 2 I had fallen back to around 10th place, but I still felt good and started to bring back some of the guys who went out to fast and passed me earlier. One of those runners was my old friend John Schlesselman. I was happy to pass him back because he is a solid runner and usually runs faster than myself. As we approached one of the steeper washed out trail sections, I picked off a couple more guys as they opted to use the ropes for safety. I threw safety out the window and just ran like old Good Ben would down hill - WFO. Ben you would have been proud of me. I could see the leader up ahead of me as we approached the end of mile 2. This is were things went south for all but a few of the leaders. Most of us missed this turnoff and kept running down this road. I for one never saw any sign
s and there was no one there to direct us. There we were were running lost in the woods. We finally came upon a volunteer and ask where the course went. She was really no help so I just ran back along part of the course that was already used in the first section of the run. This brought us back toward the finish. At this time we had already ran well past the 5K distance so we went to the finish where it was a little disorganized with runners finishing in both directions. Kind of funny when you look back on it, but also very frustrating. I ended up getting 2nd in the Male 40-44 division and 7th overall. The sad part is that the guy who I passed earlier on (#45 in the picture in the picture on the right - pics by Mr. Harrison) won the overall and my age-group. He knew Haven's Park and found the right course and finished with the winning time. I found this on Garmin Connect - Haven's Wooded Trail 5K Course. Looks like lysernix got lost also....Christopher finished in 40th place overall so he picked off a dozen or so runners. Not bad for a kid who does not run at all and as big ole feet the size of swimming fins (size 45 already). Maybe he should take up swimming with those things. He could be the next Ian Thorpe if his feet continue to grow.
We were going to stay and pickup my award for my age-group, but we were told that only 1st place would be getting awards. I am looking at the flyer now and it says "top three finishers in each 5 year age category". I hate when that happens.....
After the event we headed back to the University of Saint Mary to help Dave, Mark, JP and everyone else work on the course. We got a lot done and things look much better. Still need to pay USM another visit or two, but everything should be back to normal by early next spring. More on the repair later.
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