Dirty Bird 15km trail race, French Creek State Park

My kind of race with a very reasonable start time of 11am. This means that I can roll out of bed and have a couple of cups of coffee before I hit the road for the hour long drive to French Creek.

My training has been pretty non-existent. I've been luck to get out of the house a couple of times a week. Although I put in my longest run in a long time on Friday. I intended to go out for about an hour, but after twisting an ankle about 10 minutes in, I found a cool new trail to explore (I got lost) and spent about 2 hours on my feet.

The ankle was a little bit stiff and sore on Saturday, but not enough to keep me out of the race. Getting ready for the race on Sunday morning I debated wearing an elastic ankle brace, but didn't feel like looking for it.

I got a late start on my drive and arrived about 30 minutes before the race started. I registered quickly and managed to find a toilet - good thing... Race started about 10 minutes late. We were warned at the start that we had about a quarter mile of road to spread out before the race turned onto a trail for a long slog up the hill. I tried to keep a good pace on the stretch of road so that I wouldn't be stuck behind too many people crawling up the hill. The climb was about 15 minutes of moderate grade. People jumped on and off the trail and jockeyed for position for the first 5 minutes, but then everybody calmed down as fatigue set in and we shuffled up the hill. The nearly 500 foot climb was followed by a 400 foot descent that took half as long.

French Creek State park is a rocky and rooty place. Footing was made especially difficult by the slick cover of leaves on the trail. There are many opportunities to trip, fall and roll your ankles. I tripped too many times to count, rolled my dodgy ankle 4 or 5 times and executed a graceful fall (no damage done). The entire route is challenging, whether climbing, descending or flat. My ankle can attest to that, today.

The field of 250+ spread out a bit after the initial climb and descent and I fell into line with 4 or 5 other guys running about the same pace. There was Clemson shirt guy, shirtless guy, knee brace guy, guy with huge thighs, 11 year-old boy guy, and black spandex guy. This was my crew for the race. We traded places occasionally, but generally stayed within sight of each other. At one point, Clemson guy got heckled by the race director because South Carolina put a beatdown on Clemson on Saturday (football) and also because he trailed the 11 year-old. Luckily, I was trailing further behind the 11 year-old and spared the heckling.

At this point, about midway through, the course goes into an out-and-back section with couple of tough hills and a loop at the end. I continued to trade places with people and stumble down the trail. It was on one of the downhills that I had my fall. As I got up and immediately started running again, the guy behind me, the heretofore unmentioned running club singlet guy, insisted that I make sure I was OK before continuing - but I think he just wanted to pass me, so I put the hammer down (well, I continued to run, at least).

My Hong Kong hill climbing experience came in handy on this section (being able to walk quickly and efficiently uphill). I passed people who were running - one of them the 11 year old - and saved a little energy for the last 2 miles of flat and downhill running. Actually, come to think of it, maybe I only passed the 11 year-old on that hill. Details are a little sketchy, but I don't think I knocked him off the trail or anything.

It took me about 13 minutes to cover the least section and I passed all the guys mentioned previously, so felt pretty good about myself as my heart threatened to leap out of my chest. Finished in 1:20:07 in 39th position. Got a sweet blue pint glass for my trouble. This is the second race I've run that's organized by Pretzel City Sports. They run a quality show, with a nice spread of food at the finish. I drove home through beautiful downtown Coatesville on a beautiful sunny day.