Monday, August 21, 2006

One last race before my 100-miler

Normally, I rarely post anything about running race distances shorter than 5o kilometers. I consider these shorter races fun diversions, instead of the taxing & insidious foes of both body and mind that "ultra" trail runs can be. I'll make an exception, in this case:
This past Saturday, I ran in the second 10K trail race of the 3-race XTerra trail race series. I did okay...I took first place in my age group for a 2nd straight time. Read more.

It's a pretty sad state of affairs for me to win, though!!! You see, I was running at only an 85% effort in both races, and I am not a "fast-twitch" speedy runner, by any means. My main reason for running at 85%, was to save myself for my upcoming ultra-distance trail races. The first of these short-distance series races was just prior to my 50-miler in Oregon, and this last race was 1-week out from my 100-miler. I ran at an okay pace, but a lack of very many folks in my age group significantly contributed to my having two gold medals in the series. (I'll keep the medals, though). :-)
The course was moderately technical, mainly because of the mud, and it was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning with my trailrunning friends.

On Sunday, seven of us ran on the very technical & rocky trails at Kill Creek Park. I ran for 1.5 hours. My son ran with us. At over 7 or 8 miles, it was the longest run that he's ever run in his life. In fact, he ran with us on hilly trails a total of 3 times, this past week. He's continuing to lose more weight and get into better shape. His goal is to speed-up somewhat, and not hold our pace up at all, within one month. He also wants to run at least the 10-mile distance in my club's February trail race. It's really nice to see him doing (even more) positive things in his life.

5 comments:

Scott Dunlap said...

Best of luck on the big 100! I will live vicariously through your post. ;-)

SD

Caleb said...

It's good to have Matt out there, I always enjoy seeing new people out on the trails. I really enjoy watching them get fit and push their mind and bodies to the next level.

Good luck and have fun this weekend.

Olga said...

Yay for your son! And for the medal, however it came:)
See you soon!

Hey Zeus said...

good luck, however I'm writing this as you are already running and then by the time you read this you'll be finished.

D said...

Waiting for your report.....