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| Yes, that is frost on the ground! |
With a 2nd place finish out of 86 runners in yesterday's Mendon Ponds 10K Trail Race, I failed to defend my "title" from last year, despite better training and running almost exactly 2 minutes faster this year. Now, granted, part of the gain in speed could have been due to dry conditions this year, compared to rain changing to snow last year. Also, the course was run in reverse. This poses an interesting math or geometry problem. With about 1,100 feet of climb (counting all uphill stretches), can a course be faster in one direction than another when it is a loop, starting and finishing at the same point?
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| I'm on the right. |
However, I have to guess that a 2-minute drop in time in this race (a bit over a 10K, per my Garmin, at 6.27 miles), and a drop of 4 minutes in my last trail race relative to the previous year, indicates an overall fitness gain this year. I ran 42:58 for what my Garmin showed as 6.27 miles, or 6:51/mile average. Garmin's underestimate distances on hilly courses (search this blog for previous discussions on this subject), so I am estimating about 6.4 miles. My fastest mile was roughly 6:30, and the slowest was 7:30, during one of the stretches with the most uphill. The last 0.25 miles was at a 5:55 pace.
Go Striders! Up next, an 8K XC race on November 20. We'll see what happens!
Mark
Full results can be found here.
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