Sunday, December 7, 2008

2008 Tecumseh Trail Marathon Race Report

Well, I'm still having trouble getting back on the blogger wagon, but hopefully I'll come around. I actually have a race report to post! A big deal considering I haven't run a race since spring!

This was my third year at Tecumseh. It's a really nice trail marathon in Bloomington, Indiana. The race is put on by DINO ("Do Indiana Outdoors," our something like that), a local outdoors group that does a lot of different events on the trails in the area. This course is about as close as a marathon can get to being an ultra. I've found that an average time for me at Tecumseh is about the same as a fast time for a flat trail 50k. It consists of 3500 feet of gain, and varys from mostly single track, to stretches of gravel and dirt roads. The organization and aid stations are well run, with great volunteers. The shirts are hit or miss, mostly miss, but it's fun seeing what kind of weird thing they're going to give us. This year it was a white sweatshirt with a giant brown rectangle in the middle. I think it was some sort of abstract forest scene. It is very grainy and hard to make out. It looks like a still frame from a video camera you would see on the news with the caption: "Big foot spotted last night at local metro park, neigbor says family dog is missing."

I went out on Friday night and stayed in a cabin with Marla, Ellen, Brian, Don, Bob, Matt, and other members of the Buffalo group from IL. I've hardly been running at all so my plan was to take it really easy and make sure I was still capable of finishing a challenging trail race comfortably. Mission accomplished. I strated off in the back of the pack, lightly jogging at a 15:00 minute pace for the first few miles. I was in 100 mile mode for the first 10 miles until I realized the race was almost half way over and I should probably pick it up. I came to the halfway point on pace for a 6 hour finish and gradually picked up the pace and ran some of the hills. It was a really big field as far as trail races go, with over 6oo runners. This made it difficult to pass on the single track with so many people in front of you. At times, on the uphills, I felt like I was standing in line at wal-mart on black friday. Towards the end things thinned out pretty well and I was able to go at my own pace, still slow and comfortable. I felt very even through the race, and never had to slow down due to physical limitations. I ended up finishing in 5:25 and felt pretty good about that.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice one. Wished I could have gone this year.

Unknown said...

Great Race report. The humor was much needed. -Now, post some more stuff.

Clara said...

Great job- we made it! I was looking for you but didn't see you. Hope you had fun- the down hill slippery slopes were a little scary but we survived.

Ragfield said...

Great job finishing the tough race! I think we must have met Friday night. You are Marla's friend?

Anonymous said...

Hey Josh:

You left out the part where "this guy came up to me around mile 22 not knowing who I was and attempted to get around me. Then I put the hammer down and kicked his sorry butt by 10 minutes".

Welcome back to the trails,

echoguy

Josh said...

Mike,

Wish you could have made it, too!

Nick,

I'll work on keeping the posts coming.

Clara,

OK, now we know we can finish with little training, now it's time to actually train and see what happens :) It was a bit like an ice rink at times out there! It's too bad we didn't get a chance to met after the race, but it was funny hearing about you through Brian. He mentioned a 24 year old women with blond hair talking about Mohican and I just figured it was you, ha.

Rob,

Thanks! Yeah, I'm Marla's friend. I remember seeing you Friday night. Great job on your race, and good luck at the Illinois marathon next year!

Brian,

Well, if I mentioned that part, I would have had to mention that the guy I "put the hammer down" on was also stopping to sign autographs and take pictures with all his fans, and stopped to thank every worker on the course :) Good seeing you out there!

Running 2 Mohican said...

Pretty good finish time for not running.

Clara said...

Josh-

I almost wish that we would have had a terrible running experience and that we would have finished in 8 hrs or something- THENNN i might be more motivated to train. The fact that I could finish that race comfortably without having run at all sucks because it makes it that much more hard to be disciplined to push myself(granted my time won't ever be that great, but still...).

Anonymous said...

So, have you purchased anything on SAC yet? Nice to see a race report on your blog again. Good luck with finals and the Westward move.

Ellen

Josh said...

Rob,

Well, I was running during the race (sort of), just not before :)

Clara,

You're right, maybe if I would have collapsed at mile 5 I might be motivated to stick with a training plan. I guess it would take a few more months of sitting around before it really started catching up to us, lets hope it doesn't get that far :)

Ellen,

Well, I almost have about 15 new pairs of sunglasses...but no, I've shown an uncommon amount of will power so far, and haven't made my first purchase. Studying is getting in the way of stalking the website this week, but I'll get my priorities straight soon. I'm so glad you and Brian told us about the site, those deals are crazy! I'm holding out for some new tights and a really warm pair of winter gloves. I hope you're feeling better now!

Clara said...

you've been tagged!

http://lacorredora.blogspot.com/2008/12/ultraholic-blog-tag.html

Anonymous said...

Josh, wow! Nice finish without training! Just wanted to say hi and check up on you, hope all's well. I had a friend I went to school with that ran this race too, sounds like you made it much easier. Nice! Happy New Year!
Tony

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