I ran an 8k race at Eagle Creek park this morning as part of the Hoosier Park 8K Triple Crown series. I knew it would be a trail race and I’ve only run on trails once previously, so I knew I’d be pretty dang slow! The race started out on a beautiful spring morning with temps in the low 50’s. Good weather for a long sleeve tech shirt, for me anyways.
I don’t know the trails at Eagle Creek at all, so I’m not too sure where all we ran. I just followed the person in front of me and all the red tape markers that had been laid out. We went up and down hills, across small wood bridges, up some steps, through a few mud puddles, and by the reservoir a few times. There was one water stop on the course which was perfect. It was a very nice introduction to trail running and left me wanting for more.
People came pretty close to a dead stop a few times as they tried to navigate up hills or around the mud, which was pretty annoying. The other annoyance was the single track trails that made it hard to pass at times in the first couple miles, before we thinned out. I was over a minute slower per mile than my five mile run around the neighborhood a couple weeks ago, but I still found myself breathing pretty hard at times as I ran up hills. And I really didn’t like having to climb stairs.
I got a couple scrapes and my legs were pretty muddy at the end. And my shoes were a mess, of course. The Garmin only measured about 4.23 miles on what was supposed to be an 8K course. I was pretty shocked when we spit out on to a parking lot about 30 yards from the finish; I was expecting to be running another half mile and had been pacing myself for that. They did say something on the PA after the race about having a long course on Thursday and shortening it up a bit too much. The post race refreshments consisted of water, Powerade, bananas, potato chips, fruit snacks, granola bars, and cookies. I didn’t have any of the chips or fruit snacks, but the banana hit the spot. Oh, and $10 of casino cash to user at Hoosier Park!
Garmin time for the 4.23 miles was 45:36, but the official time was off a bit. I think my bib tag didn’t get recorded when I started. I emailed the organizers and they’re going to sort it out I think.