Welcome to my first race report ever!

Pre-race

I registered for this race a while ago but thought I was going to have to skip it because of family scheduling difficulties. Luckily, we worked things out this morning, and my wife gave me the green light to race!

Last weekend, we got about 3 inches of snow here in St. Louis, and it has been cold this week: in the 20’s and low 30’s. It has been just warm enough to melt the snow partially in the afternoon and then freeze the snowmelt into a sheet of ice overnight. In fact, on Thursday morning, I slipped on the ice outside my garage, spraining my left wrist and bruising my left hip.

This morning, it was sunny, cold (21 degrees at 8 AM), but not windy. I never picked up my race number this week since I wasn’t expecting to race, so I jogged from my house to the race start at the Sons of Rest shelter in Tower Grove Park around 8:15. The woman who gave me my race number told me that they had to change the course because the roads and paths were too icy. Instead, we would be running on the grass, which was still mostly covered in snow.

I ran back home to change my shoes, from ViziPro Kinvaras to New Balance MT101’s, since I thought they would do better on the snow and grass.

On my way back to the start, I realized that I had forgotten my HR monitor strap and my sunglasses, but I didn’t want to turn back. At least I had on my Saucony Wascal hat to keep the sun out of my eyes.

At about 8:50, they announced that the actual start would be in a field near the corner of Arsenal and South Grand, so everyone began to proceed in that direction, assembling behind a line that someone had made in the snow with his or her shoe, from the look of it. Then, there was another announcement that the start line was, in fact, further ahead. We had been at the top of a small hill; now, we jogged down to the bottom of it.

Tower Grove Park is full of rolling hills (mostly small ones, thankfully) and trees. The ground is uneven, and there are lots of tree roots to trip you up, plus random small holes in the ground and assorted acorns and nuts scattered everywhere. Add an inch or two of ice-crusted snow throughout, and you have the makings of a fun run.

I lined up a few rows behind the skinny, hardcore-looking guys and girls who were still wearing shorts and singlets. (For the record, I was wearing tights, two shirts (a short-sleeve and a long-sleeve) under my new Zoot WRKS XOtherm jacket, the new Saucony ViziPro Protection gloves that I won in a giveaway from Running and Rambling (thanks again, Don!), and my Wascal hat. After warming up during the jog from home, back home, and back again, I was plenty warm. I probably only needed one shirt.)

The guy with the bullhorn told us, “If you’ve never run a cross-country race, congratulations, because you’re about to.”

With that, he said, “Ready, set, go,” and we were off.

The race

“Not sure about this,” I heard a woman say as we ran the first 500 feet or so, which were, of course, uphill. I was right there with her. Running on the snow and grass was tough, a little easier than running on sand but not by much.

My goal was to keep a steady pace, hard but not so hard that I fell apart. I had originally thought I might beat my time of 22:26 from the Billiken 5K in September, which was my first and only 5K until today, but that seemed unlikely given the course change. I also resolved not to look at my Garmin until the end.

As we reached the top of the hill, my breathing and heart rate felt fast but not off the chart. On the downhills, my plan was to ease off enough to recover a little but also to keep my feet moving fast and let gravity carry me down, à la Evolution Running. By the bottom of that first hill, I fell into a rhythm that had me passing people at a reasonable rate. One guy wearing what looked like basketball shoes, as well as his swag backpack, flew by me. I thought he was going too fast, and that proved to be the case a little while later.

The pack began to thin out as we started up the next hill. The course was marked by orange cones and lined by a small number of spectators and volunteers who must have been freezing. To keep me honest, I looked for someone to chase. I saw a woman in all black who was steadily passing people ahead of me. I decided to try and stay with her.

From this point, I just concentrated on keeping my steps fast and light, keeping up with the woman in black, and not slipping on the snow or tripping over a root or stepping into a hole hidden under leaves and/or snow. Without thinking, I glanced at my Garmin but looked away before registering anything other than the time, which was 9:57. Not even halfway there, I thought. Ouch. Fortunately, my pace—whatever it was—did not turn out to be too aggressive. I was in pain, but it was a steady pain, not a spiraling agony. Using the downhills to recover and letting myself slow a bit on the uphills seemed to be working.

The woman in black and I were still passing a few people but only a few, and a few people passed us both. After what I estimated to be about 2 miles, the woman in black stumbled over something. I asked her if she was OK. She nodded and kept going. A few hundred feet later, she stumbled again and recovered again. Another runner asked her if she was OK. She said, “Yeah. We must be close, right?”

I checked my Garmin and yelled out, “2.6! Less than… uh, half a mile left!” At this point, the woman in black faded, and I passed her.

From the look of it, the last half mile was all uphill. I decided it was time to feel the hurt, so I set my sights on a guy about 20 feet in front of me and pushed. I didn’t manage to speed up but most people were slowing down, so I managed to catch and pass him. As we crested the final hill, I spotted another guy who looked like he was running out of steam. As I came even with him, though, he picked it up and beat me out over the last .1, which was mercifully downhill.

As I passed the finish line, I caught a glimpse of the clock, which I thought read 25:something, and, of course, I forgot to stop my Garmin.

Post-race

Overall, I’m happy with my race. I didn’t keep count but I think I passed more than I got passed. The course, though advertised as flat, was basically all rolling hills, small ones (40-45 feet of elevation gain) but still hills. The terrain was a challenge for me, as a relatively inexperienced runner who never ran cross-country and has never run on trails (except for one ill-fated run in VFF’s at Queeny Park that left me with an injured Achilles tendon). I checked my Garmin at home, and it looks like I started walking at 24:20, so I’m not sure what my official time will be. (There was no chip timing at this race.) The race felt much harder than 8:00 pace, which is not too surprising, given the course.

Most important, it was fun! This was only the fifth race I’ve ever run, and I definitely want to race more often. The course also made me want to do some real trail running; I need to make it out to Castlewood one of these days. Thanks to Ghisallo Running for putting on a great race!

At the finish, there were cases of Vitamin Water and Gatorade jugs but no cups in sight, so I grabbed a Vitamin Water, even though I’m not a big fan of the stuff. I strained in vain to open it until I realized that it was frozen solid. I found another one that was not frozen and, thanks to my sprained left wrist, barely managed to get it open. I wanted to get my official time but had to get home, so I took a few sips and jogged back.

When I got to my block, I hopped onto the sidewalk and promptly slipped on the ice, falling on my ass. Naturally, I landed on my right side, but I don’t appear to have sprained my right wrist in addition to my left, which is a relief.

UPDATED: Ghisallo posted the official race results. My time was 24:16, 33rd of 377 finishers, 8th of 37 in the 30-39 age group. (Strangely, my overall place is listed as 35th in the age group results, but I choose to believe that 33rd is correct.)