Race Report: Slip Slidin' Away! The Montvale 8.4-miler

The Montvale races (5 and 8.4-milers) are the fourth in the RNUTS (Roanoke Non-Ultra) Trail Series.  I signed up for the longer one.  The race is held at Montvale Park.  I have never run these trails before, but I have heard wonderful things about them.

Trying to decide if I'm dressed appropriately

Unfortunately, it began raining around midnight.  It rained and rained and was only about 47 degrees at the start, with a bit of wind.  Talk about DISMAL conditions!  I tried to make myself feel better by saying it could be worse... it could be 34 degrees and raining.  

I elected to wear a heavier-weight long-sleeved 3/4-zip shirt.  I covered it with a water-resistant vest to help keep my core somewhat dry and warm, while allowing heat to escape more easily if I should get hot.  I wore fleece-lined tights and SmartWool ankle socks since there were two creek crossings.  I wore my Hoka Stinson trail shoes.  I hoped these old shoes still had enough tread to get me through this muddy race.

For my hands, I decided to try nitrile gloves underneath water resistant glove/mittens.  This was mainly because yesterday I had a bump cut off my finger at the doctor's office, leaving a gaping hole in my finger that I'm supposed to keep clean and dry.  I hoped the nitrile gloves would do the trick, as well as help keep my hands warm.  I wore a fleece earband (because my inner ears always hurt if they're cold) and a visor to keep the rain out of my face.

By the time the race started at 9 AM, the trails were SO MUDDY.  The race director reported that Goose Creek was "mid-shin."  So I changed into crew length Smartwools and hoped that would help keep my lower calves warmer after the crossing.  I didn't know how the fleece-lined tights would feel once wet.

It took my Garmin watch a while to find a signal, so I couldn't start it until about half a mile into the race.  We were told our watches would lose about a tenth of a mile for every mile we ran, so I didn't really use the Garmin for any kind of training information.  It was mainly to get an idea of about how far I had gone and how far there was to go.

The Goose Creek crossing was more like top of shins for a shorter person like me.  It was very cold but when I wear SmartWools, I rather like the way the cold water feels on my feet.  The Smartwools quickly warm my feet back up.

For the first half of the race, I tried running on the sides of trails, where it was mossy or leafy and less muddy and slippery, but that can carry its own risks if you don't know what's under the leaves.  I saw three people go down early in the race but all said they were okay.  I had plenty of close calls myself, as my feet slipped this way and that.  Because of the slippery conditions, I could never let myself go on the downhills.  The uphills were mentally taxing because it felt like your efforts were in vain.  In one steep place, I said to the guy behind me, "It's like with every step, we slide back a half step" and he responded that it felt like running/walking in sand.

Then it got even harder.  Between miles 5-7 was particularly difficult because of deep, slippery mud.  At one point, there were a series of switchbacks going up a steep hill.  So the trails were somewhat tilted and there was no option to go slightly off the trail where it was less muddy.  Plus, if you slid off the trail, you could easily wind up tumbling down the embankment and ending up in the creek.  It was during this section that my shoes got SO CAKED with mud that I had zero traction.  It was mud on mud.  I was crawling up the trail, bear-style on feet and hands, trying to find ANYTHING to hold onto to keep me from sliding back down as my feet slipped this way and that.  A woman and man passed me on this part.  The man put out a hand to help keep me from sliding and I took it, gratefully!  Then I told him to just go on because I would have felt terrible if I brought him down with me.

After landing in the mud

After that section, things got a bit better but it was still a lot more slippery than the first half of the race (which was slippery enough in itself).  But I just thought to myself, "Run your own race.  Don't worry about your speed or time.  Just try to stay upright."  It was about then that I came upon a really short, steep, muddy downhill.  I went off the side of the trail where it looked less muddy and held onto some trees to get down part of it but then I had to step on the trail and WHOOSH!  My muddy shoe just slid out from under me.  I landed on my bottom and slid, Tom and Jerry-style, the rest of the way down the trail on my rear end.  The only real casualty from that was landing hard on the heel of my right hand and I might have a bruise there tomorrow.  

I got up and (ridiculously) automatically tried to brush myself off which was pretty dumb, since my gloves were covered in mud.  So I wound up covering my front in even MORE mud and since I didn't process THAT in my mind right away, I then wiped my face.  Oh my, I thought, I'm sure I look just wonderful now!  At least my shirt sleeves were soaking wet, so I wiped my face with cleaner parts of my wet sleeves and hoped I got some of the mud off.

Speaking of my clothing, I was concerned at the start of the race that I might get too warm, but it turned out that I dressed perfectly for my preferences.  I was able to unzip the vest and the 3/4 zip shirt (and push up the sleeves) when I felt too warm.  But when the rain and wind picked up again, I zipped the vest back up and pushed the sleeves back down.  I took off my outer gloves about 2 miles into the race and wore just the light blue nitrile gloves because my hands were actually TOO warm in both.  Wearing just the nitrile gloves wasn't very warm but my hands were totally dry, never felt too cold, and because I didn't have any bulky mittens, I was able to use my hands well.

Finally I came out of the woods, crossed Goose Creek one more time (where I also sloshed water all over my muddy gloves to clean them a little bit) and headed for the finish line.  I finished in 1:47:46, which netted me a 2nd place finish in the 50-54 age group.  I got my picture taken on the podium with Jennifer, the first place finisher (the third place finisher had already left) and I chatted with her a bit.  She seemed very nice and we look forward to meeting again at the next race in the series.

Just like my last race, my grandfather would probably have said my finish placement was pretty crummy... 69th out of 87.  23rd woman out of 38.  But hey, I was there, I didn't hurt myself and I feel proud for doing it when I was very tempted to stay home once I saw the weather and knew what the trail conditions would be.  There was a mountain bike race starting right after ours.  I hope nobody got hurt out there today.  The trails were downright treacherous in some places for a mountain bike!

I'd like to say once again that Mountain Junkies does a wonderful job putting on these races and they have the nicest, most dedicated volunteers.  The people standing at the critical points in the woods (where you had to make sure you went the right way) stood out there in the rain for a few hours and cheered for each one of us as we passed.  The finish line food was delicious, as usual.  I can't believe I FORGOT to get some of the chocolate milk!  I won't forget next time.  Maybe I'll go to the store and buy me some Homestead Creamery chocolate milk to celebrate.

There was a motivational sign in the woods that has stuck with me all day.  "It never gets easier.  You just get faster."  Well, at this stage of my life I'm not really going to get faster anymore, but I'd like to think I can still get STRONGER.  I am proud that I have taken control of my fitness again, even if it meant giving up competitive piano.  It means getting up at 5 AM every day, which is a daily struggle against the "bed magnet" but I have done it.

Here's an "after" pic of my muddy self after getting home.  I don't know how well you can see all the mud on my rear and back of my legs - the lighting wasn't so good in my laundry room.  Time to throw everything in the washing machine.

I don't know how many people even know the Paul Simon song "Slip Slidin' Away" but the chorus "You know the nearer your destination, the more you're slip slidin' away" seemed to literally describe this race today.  Of course the figurative meaning of the song is a bit darker and sad but we will ignore that for this blog entry!  Happy Trails, everyone!