Race Report: Georgia Games Trail Run Championships

Lightening struck for me and The Mister’s boss put him on the late afternoon shift on a Saturday where there was a trail race being held in my vicinity.  After a last close brush with making him late for work, I now pick and choose my Saturday races very carefully.  They have to within 30 minutes of my house and also fall into line with my training plan.  With two back to back long runs every Sat/Sun that is a tough sell.

Lucky for me, the Georgia Games Trail Run Championships were being held at Olde Rope Mill Park in Woodstock.  If you live up I-75 and want to hit some trails that are a bit less exhausting than Kennesaw Mountain, I highly recommend this park.  The park is new and beautiful – there’s even a lake for fishing and canoeing.  The trails are well-maintained mountain bike trails.  Maybe that explains all the constant rolling hills?

I’m not sure why these were “championships” because I was not aware of any other trail races hosted by this organization.  All told, about 40 runners gathered for the epic battle.  I loved the small turnout.  I got to the race 45 minutes early which was enough time to:  get a legit parking space, get my race number, use the port-o-potty twice, warm up and chat with some first-time trail runners.  This is the calmest I’ve been before a race in a long time!

The race start was low key – no chips or D-tags.  I started towards the back because I did not want to put myself into a “racing” frame of mind.  Still I found myself struggling to keep up with the faster half of the pack for the first mile or so before coming to my senses again.  It always takes me a mile or two to really warm up and that is when I’m running on flat even terrain.  I was huffing and puffing way too much in the first 10 minutes so I decided to let the fast folks pass me by.

I eventually found a good position where I was essentially running alone.  I kind of prefer not having other racers around because I will invariably start to alter my pace according to theirs.  I either run faster than I should because I don’t want to get passed or run slower than I should because I don’t want to pass them and then have the pressure of maintaining a certain pace.  Crazy, huh?  Once I let some people pass me, I was able to find a good pace where I was working hard but not too hard.  I walked most of the hills and ran the flats.  I took walk breaks when I needed them and tested my quads on some descents when I felt like it.

The race started at 9AM and the humidity that normally dissapates with daylight on the roads seemed trapped in the trees.  It was hot and still sticky!  The tree cover is nice and all, but it was still uncomfortable.  For the first time ever, I poured water over my head at one of the aid stations.  In past years, I’ve taken my running indoors from June-October and avoided racing during the summer season.  I’ve never needed to pour water over my head.  All I can say is do it – it felt so good!  One (obvious) tip though – close your eyes first if you wear contact lenses.  I thought I was going to lose one and that would not have been a good thing because I have really, really poor vision and there are lots of trip hazards in the woods.

I managed to hang on to my contact lens and kept pressing on.  I estimated that I had about 2.25 miles to go and I felt like I was finally coming into my stride.  This race had very strange mile markers so I had no idea if what my watch said matched up with the course mileage.  At the next aide station, I asked a volunteer how far we had to go and she said “The finish is right down this hill.  Be careful – it is really steep!”.  The hill was indeed steep but the race was over?  What?!?  My watch said I still had 1.5 miles to go!  I never even put on my full court press to finish strong.

My race was over in 1:01:04 which is a few minutes faster than my last 10K-ish race at that park.  I don’t know if the course measurement was that off or if the change in my stride due to the rolling hills threw my running watch off.  Some other racers felt like the course was long.  Maybe I took an unintentional shortcut?  Who knows?

I actually stuck around a bit after finishing to see if I won a prize.  I don’t usually assume I’ll get anything but it was clear that I wasn’t the last finisher.  Plus there were so few people in general (43) and even fewer women (13) that the odds were in my favor to place in my age group.  I was right to wait because I ended up getting a medal for placing second in the 30-34 group!  I was technically 3rd place (out of 3 women in my age group ha)  but the overall female winner of the race was in my age group so that meant I was 2nd place.  Sweet!

Once again, the 30-34 age group had the fiercest competition with 1st and 2nd place overall female coming from that group.  That’s why I don’t feel bad about being 3rd out of 3 because there was no way I was going to beat those girls.  Those chicks were WAY faster than me and both finished in the 50 minute time range.  I finished 6th out of the 13 women like a good little midpacker.  I was 26th out of 43 overall which is a bit below the median.

This was a decent race even if my mileage measurements got a bit wonky.  The race swag was pretty sweet for the turnout.  Champion was a sponsor and we received a cotton race shirt and then a plain white Champion technical T-Shirt.  The only problem was I didn’t realize we got two shirts until I got in the car.  They were out of smaller sized T-Shirts so I requested an XL that I would just give to The Mister later.  Of course they gave me a matching XL Champion shirt that I would have gotten in my own size if I had been paying attention.  I don’t care about yet another cotton race tee, but a plain white wicking shirt always fits into my workout clothing rotation.  Oh well, The Mister said it was a nice shirt and he wore it to work that day.

Swag mishaps aside, this was also a good race from the people perspective.  I got to chat with and (hopefully) encourage a few runners who were on the trails for the first time.  It felt good to do so because I remember how nervous I was about my first real trail run.  I also made it a point to speak to the 2 other black girls that I saw there (one of whom was the Masters winner!) and mention Black Girls Run! Atlanta.  If you think that not many black girls run regular races, you can only imagine how many run trail races!  For me to see 5 black people out of 43 on a trail race was totally unexpected and a pleasant surprise.

I’m glad I got a chance to do this race at the last minute.  It was good to get my trail legs back because it has been a while.  This race was the kickoff to weekly trail runs from now until December.  A little bling is a great way to ring in the beginning of my trail running focus!