Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Heritage Park Trail Race

That did not go according to plan...frustration and aggravation.

Saturday was the second race of the 2015 Dirty Spokes Trail series at Heritage Park in Watkinsville, Georgia or Oconee county as they say down here. They love counties down here. This is a really nice course with a good amount of up and down and a mix of single track mountain bike trails and double track equestrian trail. The course starts with a loop around the gravel road that circles the equestrian show arena thing, which is about a half mile before hitting the entrance to the equestrian trail and getting into the trails. After a short stretch of double track the course turns right onto the mountain bike trails and descends until the 2.3 mile mark, which was the split for the short course (2.8 miler) and the long course (7.85).

At the start a group of four shot out to the lead with Mitch Novy at the front again. I was a little off the back but by the time we got into the woods I had worked my way up to the lead group of four. This is were the frustration started to settle in. As I said in my last race recap, I'm not in good shape right now, and I knew that I wasn't going to run particularly fast, but I figured 'what the hell'. Around 1.5 I felt like the lead group was just sitting on the kid in front and I don't like to race that way in a race like this. My goals in these races are to run hard and get in a good workout, so when I saw a little bit of room to the side of the trail I made a hard move to the front.

My move split the lead group of four into two duos with Mitch and the other guy in the short race falling off and myself and the other guy in the longer race taking a 10 or 20 yard lead. Okay this is actually were I started to get frustrated. Once we hit the three mile mark it started to become apparent that the dude running behind me was just hanging out there. I threw in as many surges as I could but I just couldn't manage to shake him. After we hit the five mile mark, I started to get pissed. It was clear he had no intention of doing any work and was planning to just sit on my shoulder and out kick me. Which is exactly what he did.

I don't have an issue with losing the race. I was fully prepared for that going in. There's usually one or two guys from UGA that come down from Athens and tune me up in this race every year, but I did take issue with the way this guy ran. I appreciate tactics as much as anybody, but in a race like this to sit and kick, I think that's bush league and a shitty was to compete. To be honest, the guy probably could have run a minute faster if he would have just gone. The fact that I knew he was going to sit and kick took me out of my race too, I started yo-yoing, running fast then slowing down trying to get him to go around.

When he finally did go around with about 200 to go, I tried to kick with him, but I just didn't have the gears. I said 'you waited long enough' when he passed and he told me 'I didn't know who you were', it doesn't matter dude just race. I was pretty salty after the race but I just walked to my car and tried to cool down. This has actually happened to me at this race before and I'm not going to make a scene and look like a sore loser, I just think it's bush league. Maybe I need to wise up and I should have just stopped and let him go, I don't know maybe it's foolish but part of me said maybe I can out sprint him.

I was pretty hot about it for a about 15 minutes, but once I talked to Amanda and Mitch and got my frustration out I settled down and got over it. I still think it was a shitty way to race. If this was a championship race or there was money on the line I wouldn't have cared as much, but I think the guy could have run faster but decided to go the easy route. I'm not wired like that. I know we all have a tendency to put it in cruise control when we can get away with it, but I also think you owe it to yourself to give it your all. Maybe that's dumb, but that's just how I feel about it.

After the race we headed back to the house and met up with our friends Eric, Joanna, and Tyler and headed down to Atlanta to check out Monday Night Brewing and Sweetwater for Eric's birthday. Monday Night was the winner. I was a big fan of their Fu Man Brew. After that it was off to Cheekys for some tacos. I went with a couple different varieties but their Pork Carnitas tacos are amazing. Amanda and I passed out shortly after that. Not a great race, but a good, full day.