Holy s%#@!  That tree almost stabbed me in the chest, but quickly the thought was decimated by the wretched sound that only a person gasping for air can make and what felt like my heart approaching 300 beats per minute and an injection of lactic acid into my aching quads and calves.  I was also only halfway through this snow covered uphill at mile 4 of a 20 miler.

4pm, Brenda and I had coffee in hand after a long school day and had just picked up Gus Jacobson and were off to Kansas City for the Psycho Wyco Run Toto Run Trail Race.  The Trail Nerds of Kansas City were putting on their second race of a long trail calendar in 2011.  Distances of 10mi+, 20mi+, and 50k were offered.  I had been wanting to do this race for awhile, and putting it in on my calendar got me through some tough days this winter.

After an easy trip down, we grabbed dinner at the YardHouse and met up with two of Gus’s friends, Scott Schwartz and Brit Ehlers.  Great meal and great beers, 117 on tap to be exact.  That does not suck. Though my beer, Intervale, was not featured.  But whatevs.

Alarm was at 6am.  Not too bad as most races these days seem to require a minimum 445am buzzer for me.  Hotel breakfast was the usual; waffles, eggs, sausage.  Just about right for an event like this.  We hopped in Scott’s stylin’ minivan and headed over to Wyandotte County Lake Park (pdf).

Beautiful morning for February.  About 25 degrees, calm, sun coming up.  Got checked in, received race numbers, and one of the sweeter race shirts I have seen.  It is a nice lightweight hoodie.  After hanging in the van for a bit and debating clothing options (I ended up dressing to warmly and completed most of the race in singlet, shorts, and gloves) we dropped our bags and headed to the start.  Ran into my buddy Ivan Marsh from Ashland, a real trail stud.  We shot the business for a few minutes, at 8am the horn sounded, and we were off (with 10 milers starting an hour later, this plays into the story)

The course follows a 10.3 mile trail around the lake (1 lap, 2 lap, 3 lap depending on your desire for punishment).  Let me tell you it is a hilly mama jama.  Singletrack trail that was covered in snow the entire time.  Multiple folks with GPS estimated total elevation change to be upwards of around 6000′ per loop.  Not bad for Kansas.  Snow depth went from ankle deep to knee deep.  Snow quality ranged from hard pack to powder to this crazy soft stuff that was like sand.  One of the keys to this race is your ability maintain traction.  The solution? Screw your shoes. This method of traction worked surprisingly well.

Found myself in third pretty quickly, was joined by a dude named Trey who owns a running store in Manhattan, KS.  We chatted for a good portion of lap #1 of 2 for me, #1 of 3 for him.  Stumbling, sliding, laughing, we made our way along the single track talking in a way that only runners know.  When two complete strangers find themselves cruising along in a race together, they just have something in common.  Regardless, the conditions were not that bad.  Had one walk stop at an aid station to knock back half my water bottle.  At the end of lap #1 I shed some layers, refilled my bottle and took off.

Lap #2 brought some more challenges.  Not only had all of the 50k/20 milers gone over the course, all of the 10milers had as well.  They had ground up the snow, made it more slick, but even worse for me trying to be speedy, created a bump in my racing rhythm.  Occasionally I would encounter a group and if the trail was too narrow, I would have to slow up and wait for a wide spot to get around. Some people would step-off the worn trail if they could, some wouldn’t.  No big deal either way, just part of the experience.  I found myself often on the side of the trail going through some deeper snow or bushwacking a bit to make my way over the course.  This was especially true on the uphills where many people were hiking.  I prefer to keep myself in a running motion heading up the ascents, it may be a low gear, but I am still moving.  Well, too many times did I choose to surge around folks going up, and that just killed me.  This is where the tree encounter from above happened.  Probably a pretty stupid strategy on my part, but I was trying to challenge myself.  This was likely the cause of my 4 minute positive split from my first to second laps.  It was just not what I needed 16 miles into a race.  Like I said, part of the deal.

The last 5 miles of the race had markers every half mile or so.  I refuse to believe they were accurate, just seemed to take forever from one to the next.  But this is a trail race, if I want some pansy mile markers on a certified, I will go do a road race.  The crowd thinned out and I was able to make pretty good time over the last few miles.  Finishing in 3 hours, 3 minutes, and change, a bit dehydrated, definitely wet feet, but first overall in the 20 miler, and a cool finisher’s medal to show for it

Now I am new to this trail racing thing.  I had no idea what to expect or what place I was really in.  I just ran and it was awesome.  Not sure if I have a talent here or not.  Most of the people ahead of me were slighter build, but I just love running off road.  I am a roadie, but the feel of ground underneath, just pushing yourself, maxing out your heartrate, bringing it back down, flying down hills, trudging up them, looking down and ahead to see what is coming, looking up to see what is around you, reacting to what the land gives you, it all really appeals to me.  Those 50k guys in front of me are something cool, maybe an inspiration. . .

RESULTS-Plenty of Nebraska folks finished it out.

50k

20 miler

10 milers

Race photos at SEEKCRUN

Some more photos from me and the link above and my Picasa slide show on the home page.