Monday, December 2, 2013

Guana Reserve Back to Nature Trail Run - 12K - Details

Guana Reserve Back to Nature Trail Run - 12K - Details

Yesterday was the Back to Nature 12K trail run at Guana Reserve. I was thrilled I was recovered enough from my surgery on October 15th to be able to complete the event. Still, I knew that I hadn't run many miles in the past 6 weeks and that this would be my longest run since October 13th, the JRC group run before the surgery.

When I went to the check in table to pick up my number the organizers had no record of my entry. I did have the check number and date the check was written for the entry that I had sent in so I ended up with #591. Unfortunately, the only way I show up in the results is #591. It looks like if they had recorded my age correctly I would have been edged out for 3rd place in my age group by about 10 seconds.

As I was heading to the starting line I saw Chris, the leader of the JRC group trail runs walking in my direction. It was clear that Chris had already been running so I quickly surmised that he had just finished the 50K (31 miles). I said, Wow Chris, did you run the 50K? He confirmed that he had so I asked how it went. His words were "That's a whole lot of running" He seemed pleased with his 4th place finish.  

This was the 4th day of the 2013 holiday running streak. On Black Friday, November 29th I got in a little over 5 miles and then on Saturday the 30th, I kept the streak alive with a 1 mile out and back. In the 1st 4 days of the streak I have completed 14.76 miles.

OK, now for the entertaining portion of this post. You may remember that in my last trail run, I saw the photographer sitting in the bushes and slipped on the side of a culvert while trying to notify Shoeless Sonny of the camera man's location. This caused me to nearly do a face plant while crossing the culvert, all of which was captured on film by the photographer.

On Sunday, at Guana Reserve, I saw the camera man, a couple times, standing on the side of the trail. My first thought was to not fall where he could capture it on film. My second thought was to try to look like I was having an effortlessly good time.

The photo service, Speedy Banana, posted a link to the photos. I put in my bib number of 591 and found that they had captured several shots of me. I took a quick look and none to pleased was about to exit when I saw the zoom in feature on the larger "selected" photo on the right side of their site. I kind of wish I hadn't seen the words "zoom in" because the look on my face is not good. And, I was trying to smile.

Even though you can't tell from the race photos, I did enjoy this event and am glad to be back in the game. Let the streak continue.




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