5PEAKS Race Report…my first 5peaks trail race.

On July 15th I ran my first 5peaks trail race in Devon Alberta and here is my late report about it. Marilyn was a race Marshall and neither one of us remembered to take our camera so I have no pictures. People took pictures of me but where those are I don’t know. I will publish some if I find them. Maybe 5peaks just haven’t published them yet. Anyway here is the report I sent off to the penguin list. The only thing I might add now is my time at 1:54:52 which is DFL but at least I finished the 14 km:

Got up this morning at 6:15 after an uneasy night. Had a coffee and two granola bars. I felt not too bad but I did not want to eat a huge breakfast. I had to get up that early because Marilyn was a race Marshall and she had to be there early. We arrived at the race start and I dropped Marilyn off to do her volunteer work and I went and parked the car. I walked up a hill a couple times to warm up and to take the chill off the morning air. Then I went and picked up my race number, 3359. It was then I found out that the course was to be 14 km and not 10 km.

But the day was hot and sunny and conditions were very good with zero mud on the trails (as I found out after the first loop around). I tried to stretch out as much as possible before the race and I think I succeeded in doing just that without pulling any muscles. Unfortunately, I still felt very sore from doing some speed work Thursday. Thursday I walked 2 miles then raced the 2 miles back home. I have done 2 miles before at a 10:10 pace. That was a mistake to do speedwork two days before a race. But I thought “It’s only 2 miles, and the rest is walking!”

Anyway, the race did not stop just because I was worried about soreness. So I took off at 9:00AM and very soon found myself at the back of the pack, where I stayed for the rest of the day. I mean like, the pack was just GONE. There were only a few people behind me. Both the “Sport” (7km) and my “Enduro” (14 km) people ran the same trail, with the Enduro people having to run it twice. My first time around I was told that “I wasn’t last”, but by the time I was into my first km of the second lap, the last runner passed me, making me dead last. I kept thinking “I may be last, but I still beat those who didn’t enter…”

Any way I did the chip-timed race in under two hours (I assume) because we started at 9 AM and a few moments after I finished I asked someone what time it was and they said 10:58.

I had run that trail before, but only 10 km of it and the new extended distance had a lot of huge hills. All in all, in spite of my disappointing performance, I had a good race with no injuries. And the 5peaks organizers and staff did a great job handling the race. These people are professionals.