Hot Diggity Dog 10k – Labor Day 2013
I ran a 10k Trail Race at Mercer County Park at 9:30 today. I was running late and literally registered just as the National Anthem began. I arrived at the start, back of the pack, just as the race kicked off. I had to weave my way through the crowd to get closer to the front, but the leaders were already out of my reach.
I settled into a pace behind another runner wearing an orange Tough Mudder headband. I was on his heels for the first 1.5 to 2 miles, but didn’t try to pass him because of the narrow trails. He must have felt me breathing down his neck, because he stepped to the side and let me pass. I thanked him, but protested a bit, explaining that I was enjoying his pace. He insisted I proceed. This meant I was now navigating the course with no one ahead of me in sight. Fortunately, the Bucks County Speedsters did an awesome job marking the course. They must have labored for a very long time placing all the blue markers along the 6.2 miles of the course. There’s no way I could have gotten lost, even with all the twists and turns.
It was extremely humid and the course was muddy and slippery in many spots. I navigated my way around the obstacles of mud, looking forward to the finish. At one point, I could hear the crowd at the finish line cheering for runners but when I looked at my GPS I discovered I still had another mile to go. The trail took us further away from the finish before we looped back in that direction. Because I was running late for the race, I never had to chance to change into better running shoes, and did the trail run in my Crossfit Nanos. They have very little tread, and I was slipping and sliding in several parts of the course. I never did fall down, but I did have to stabilize myself over and over. When I noticed I still had one mile remaining, I was a bit dismayed because I could feel throughout the race that my stabilizer muscles were getting quite a workout. But I pressed on and tried to pick up the pace.
My finish time was 53:10, which put me in 17th place. I definitely could have done better if I hadn’t done my CrossFit workout 90 mins before, if I had switched into better running shoes, and if I had shown up on time. But I was very happy to do the race and look forward to running it again next year, if the Speedsters host it again. The results were posted to the website the very same day the race was held – nice!
It was great to see some many of my running friends on the course too. There were over 10 runners from the HATR group, and at least four from the Uptown Gentlefriends group.