Blue Crab Bolt Schaeffer Farms 5k Trail Race
This was a local race for me, about 30 minutes away, which was nice. Got up at 5:15am to have a full breakfast.
I got to the race at about 7am for the 8:15am start. Used the porta-potty and then did a 20-min warm-up (1.3 mi) on the end part of the race course. There were hills in there that got my HR up nicely to get me going with a good sweat to warm-up. The course photos are from the warm-up. I took some caffeine at 7:15am and my BCAAs at 7:45am. It's been so long since I've done a race short enough that I didn't need to wear my hydration vest - it was weird going with just my little running belt for my phone + keys.
I've run on some of the Schaeffer Farms trails before - this is part of Seneca Creek State Park (Maryland). The trails are also open for mountain biking, so they are nice flowy single-track, mostly, with some rocks and roots but not horribly technical. Lots of rolling hills. The 5k course had three trees down across the trail and two very shallow stream crossings (by that I mean no bridge).
There was a 10k that started at 8:00/8:02am and then the 5k at 8:15/8:17am. There were about 200 runners for the 5k, and the first wave was supposed to be people planning to run 11:00 min/mi and faster, and then the second wave for the rest. This race group (EX2, which is local), is very well-organized. Bib pick-up, etc., was easy, and both races started right on time - I started in the second wave.
The race director had said that the first 0.4 miles was across a field and then the gravel road leading to the starting area before we got into the woods. After that, he said that until about 1.1 miles, the single track would be pretty narrow so that it would be difficult to pass. So although I don't like to go out of the start very fast and the start was uphill (of course), I did try to start toward the beginning of the wave and then get a bit toward the front half, so that I wouldn't get stuck behind anyone walking.
Well, the description was right. Once we got on the single-track, I got stuck in a "peloton" with maybe 10 people ahead of me and couldn't really pass. Fortunately the pace was probably not too much slower than I would've done on my own, and given the narrowness of the trail, I didn't want to ask someone to let me pass and then end up fading and getting passed by them. So I settled in.
The first mile was 12:22. There was a lot of uphill in this section, and people who went out too fast or weren't used to hills definitely started stepping aside to walk or stop for a break (at least they did step aside). So I got to pass quite a few people.
It wasn't until a little over halfway through the race that the group really started spreading out as more people had to walk - coincidentally that was along with a relatively steep uphill section. (Grade approximately 10%.) With more room, I could kick it into a higher gear. Also, we soon got into a downhill (more or less) that lasted for about a mile. The second mile was 12:13, somewhere after the downhill started.
The downhill was fun and since I knew the area, I knew I wasn't going to have to worry about coming upon a really technical section that was going to literally trip me up. Another woman and I changed positions a few times (but she ended up finishing ahead of me). The third mile was 11:13.
Because I had done my warm-up from the finish line going backwards for awhile (and then back), I had measured that from the 3-mile marker to the finish was about 0.25-mi (trail races rarely end right on the "correct" distance). Unfortunately from about 2.75 mi to a bit over 3 mi was back into uphill - again, some of it at least 10% grade. I kept running (albeit more slowly) for the whole thing - for longer runs, I would definitely be power hiking that sort of grade. I passed a 10k runner who had stepped aside, probably to puke from the uphill (I asked if he was ok), but then he passed me again shortly. (The 10k course was partly on our course, but then kept on to another section to get all their miles).
Since I had been through there just an hour before and could tell how far I had to go, I knew I could really put in the last bit of effort and didn't have to save anything. The last 0.35 mi (on my Garmin) was 11:49.
My official time was 39:51, which I was very happy with! I forgot to note the T+D at the start, but at the end (which would have been higher anyway), T 72 F and T+D 135 (3.5%) - the coolest weather I've run in in a long time! The course was 90% shady, so very pleasant.
My Garmin gave a distance of 3.35 mi, but the race director says the course measured at 3.2 mi. That means my official average pace was 12:28. My Garmin Epix gen 2 has dual-band GPS and usually isn't that far off in distance, but what's to argue about? It was a much faster pace than I usually run on trails, and I didn't wipe out, LOL.
I picked up a few snacks and a popsicle (!). I picked up a t-shirt, tank top, and sunglasses - I almost never shop merchandise, but it wasn't too busy, so I took some time to look around. (Honestly most trail races don't have much merchandise - too small.)
I placed 113th out of 188 runners in the 5k. I was 54th of 97 women, and 12th out of 25 in the 50 - 59 age group. That's decent for me.
Given that I didn't train with much enthusiasm for this race, I'm happy with how it turned out. I could probably do better by focusing better on the training - but this made me remember how much I hate 5ks! They just never let up, LOL!
Edited to add: I forgot to record that the (corrected) elevation gain was 244 ft for the race. Honestly, it felt like more than that, but then I don't usually run all the uphills.



