Z o r bl o g: Chase the Coyote race report

Monday, 28 September 2015

Chase the Coyote race report

So I was back for some major CtC redemption. The co-RD, Norm Nadon, read my race report of woe and offered me free entry. When the new 21-ish kilometre long course was announced, I went for that distance. May as well run as much as I can if I'm going to drive an hour each way! Excellent swag: CtC buff-type thing, Saucony headphones.

Just like last year, it was a beautiful early fall morning.

My only goal for the race was to finish, and I thought I would be over 3 hours, maybe closer to 3:30.

We're off! Note the guy in the yellow singlet.

Right away, I fell to the pack of the pack, in a small group of 4. There was a guy in a 70.3 shirt, he mentioned how he's never done a trail race. I was surprised he was so slow...I would have thought a trail noob would more likely start out way too fast and the hills would kill them later on. I ran slowly up the gradual incline that's the first 2K but walked Cardiac Hill.

Top of the Lookout.

The girl in the Nike shirt came up behind me quickly, maybe she was late to the race. She bounded over the rocks, and made "woohoo!" sounds every 10 seconds that came out more like deranged owl hoots. I was too glad to let her pass.

I reached the downhill where I fell and walked carefully through. I guess I experienced all of the big hills in the 5K portion I ran last year! The course was mainly singletrack, gentle rolling downhills, very little technical sections. Even the "roots of all evil" were not scary at all.

The thing that confuses me about trail races is how I can be a midpacker/occasional AG on the road, but near DFL on trails. I wonder if I fall to the back of the pack at race starts because I hate running trails with people, especially people behind me? I walked very little at this race and really don't think I am that bad of a trail runner - in fact running a similar (slower) pace was good enough for a BT FKT for Virginia!

I passed the guy in the yellow singlet, he was yowling with pain with every step and gasped out "CRAMPS!" in between yowls. I alerted the next aid station but I actually think he managed to finish.

Throughout the race, I kept catching glimpses of Mr. 70.3, he was maybe 100-200 m ahead but I finally caught him at 18K. I thought I was last at this point, and passing him motivated me to run strong to the finish to guarantee I wouldn't be last. I passed one more female walker around 19 or 20K and that was it.