Race Report - Dirty Spokes Central Park Trail Race

This race report is a few weeks old...It was sitting in my dashboard as a draft...whoops.

This was a big race for me personally. After struggling at Mt. Tabor and then having a miserable experience at the Sutallee Trace I kicked my training up a notch to try and get ready for this race. I logged five weeks over 75 miles and put in 72 miles the week of this race. I know that’s not a crazy amount of mileage but with my schedule it’s what I can realistically get in without feeling tapped out. I also think that, for me, 75-85 miles a week is my sweet spot. I’d love to ratchet it up and run 90-100 mile weeks but that’s not realistic for me.

Heading into this race, I backed off a little bit and only ran a couple of doubles in the week before. I still ran my monster mileage/workout day with my 8 mile/11 mile double on Monday. My workout (11 miles w/ 10 sets of 30-60-90s) went really well. It was faster than what I did the week before and had me feeling confident early in the week. I was also coming off of a road PR in the 10k (even though it’s still soft), which was a big confidence booster, but I was on my feet and out in the sun all week at work, so I was a little nervous about that.

Saturday morning I woke up early (5:30 am) to do clips, which wasn’t bad because I was up early all week with minicamp at work, ate an English muffin with some peanut butter then headed out the door to get to Central Park around 7:30. When I got to the rec center at the park and walked over to get my number I tried to figure out where and how we were going to get on the trail, as there is no trailhead at the rec center. Apparently last year there were too many cars at the trailhead parking lot, which also serves baseball and softball fields so Tim was forced to move the race to the rec center and reverse the direction of the course.

I grabbed my number and met up with Mitch to head out for a 2.5/3 mile warm up where we went over most of the course. Getting a third loop on it before the race was definitely beneficial. The race was two laps on a 2.5 mile trail (which I’m pretty sure was a little longer than that). I knew that the last section of the loop was going to be tough. It was tight with lots of twists and turns and from my experience last year I knew it would be chalk full of lappers.

After the warm up, Mitch and I headed over to the start line and tried to find a little bit of shade as it was really starting to warm up. When we got to the line I saw Jesse Rappolle from Big Peach and a Steve Wilcox from Atlanta Track Club and knew that those guys would most likely be upfront at the start. I got in a few strides, talked with Jesse for a minute then toed the line. From the gun I wanted to get out well because I didn’t know how we were going to get on the trail and didn’t want to get stuck in a bad spot like I did at Olde Rope Mill.

At the start, we ran through the parking lot then around the backside of the rec center before climbing a fairly steep hill and making a hard right onto some power line trails. Once we hit the power line trails I tried to open it up a little bit and see if I could stretch it out a little. Jesse settled in behind me and we ran the down and up a switchback hill. At the top of the hill I knew it leveled off and then was slightly downhill until you hit the woods. I put in another short surge, just trying to use the downhill but keep a relaxed effort. I ended up carrying this surge into the woods and ran well for the next mile or so. We came out of the woods and jumped onto a single track trail (in the truest sense of the word…the trail was maybe eight inches wide). At this point, I felt really smooth so just tried to keep it rolling, knowing that I had a slow section coming up. Before we hit the last section of woods, I took a peek back and didn’t see Jesse. I brushed it off, figuring he was closer than I thought rather than further back.

The final section of woods was tough. It was a roller coaster with a ton of tight turns and it killed my pace. I was really worried about getting caught or giving back a lot of time here. When I came out of the woods I tried to get back into a rhythm on the flat power line trail as I headed out for my second lap. I struggled a little bit climbing the switchback but settled down again on the downhill afterwards. I tried to maintain that pace all the way back into the woods, but with about two miles to go I was starting to feel like I went out too fast.

My legs started to get really, really heavy. My lungs felt alright, I wasn’t gassed but I felt like I was running in cement shoes. I tried to battle through it, hoping it was just a rough patch but the further I ran, I kept feeling like I couldn’t settle in without slowing down. After rough half mile, maybe three quarters of a mile I finally started to get back into a rhythm at a faster pace. I put my head down and grinded up the short uphill past the water station where I dumped two cups of water on my head to try and combat the heat, and focused on finishing the race strong.

I rallied really, really well on the next stretch, which was single track trail cut into the side of a hill. Any ground that I lost during my little pity party mile, I made up on this stretch. Knowing that the last half mile was going to be slow due to the terrain, I really pushed to try and finish strong. Once I got back into the woods it was nightmare city. I ran into a ton of lappers and about 600 meters from the finish I was completely exhausted from yelling “on your left” at the people in front of me. I stole a couple of glances back and didn’t see any sign of Jesse so I eased up and cruised through to the finish. I crossed the line in 31:43, which was about 1:07 faster than I ran last year. I’m definitely in better shape than I was last year and that’s why I think this course is a little long. It was my second win of the series and my fourth win of the year (all have come since joining the Saucony Hurricanes) and in 12 Dirty Spokes races I’ve managed to finish in the top three 11 times.

I guzzled about a gallon of water and had some Herbalife lemonade, which was really good, but it was like 25 bucks (no thanks) for the powder. I waited for Mitch to come in, hung out and talked with a couple of the usual suspects and grabbed my winnings, a box of cliff bars, a pair of Tifosi sunglasses, a coupon for the Treetop Quest (SCORE!), Montrail water bottle and a medal. Mitch and I ran about a mile and a half cool down before I headed out to Nitro to play some paintball. Good day all in all, but man was it scorching out.  

I’ve got about a month before the series finale at Sawnee Mountain now. My plan is to continue to hit right around the 75 mile mark but add in a few hill workouts. I’m thinking Chicopee Woods or the hills around the GEHC should be a good primer for the Sawnee race. I’m also traveling home for about a week just before the race, so I might taper a little during that time, but it will be good to get in a few runs back home.