Recon Report 1 - Summit Rock 1/2 Mary Trail race
On Saturday Dec 11 I'll be racing in a 1/2 mary trail run. Hopefully John Stark will also be running. It's at a local park for me, but I've never run there, so I figured a reconnaisance run was in order.
I went yesterday morning to run the course, and, well, I'm a moron. I had studied the map on the race site, and since it's not that 'clean' I even downloaded the original Sanborn map. I was dialed in. NOT. I didn't print out the map, figuring there would be copies at the trail head. NOT. So I ran around for 5+ minutes trying to FIND the trail head, found it, and started going. NOT. I had found the trail TAIL - the backside of a loop. So I started off wrong. As I went I realized that the trails are much more complex than I thought, and the intersections were either not marked, or marked in an unclear manner. I'm pretty good with a map and navigation...but I was completely messed up. After about 50 min of running around like a blind man, I found the real trail head and turned around to run the first part of the race.
In the end, I got in a good workout, and learned some stuff about the area.
1. I need to print out my own map and go do it all again.
2. The trails are mostly soft coniferous forest floor.
3. As displayed by the course elevation profile - the first couple of miles is steep. There will be a lot of walking in this section. I realize it's only a half mary, but this section is steep enough that I plan on walking.
4. I ran, RAN, down that steep section twice (once when lost, and once when returning). This was a bit much, and strained my knee tendon some.
5. The trails are soft enough with lots of little sticks and pine needles - I'll be wearing gaiters.
6. Almost all of the course (except maybe 100 yards) was in the shade.
7. Some of the course looks like if it had been raining then we would be running through a creek.
8. It took me 17 minutes from my front door to parking the car.
Recon Report 1 done.
Recon Report 2 coming...
Mike
Comments
Thanks for the 411. Still noddling the 1/2 or 10k. Will sign up for the 1/2 and see how I feel on race day. Either way, will be fun to hang with ya and we can talk smack about Trent!
I will wear my American Flag "Dirty Girl" gaiters.
John