Bond Brook 5K Trail Race Series Race 3

Tonight I ran in the 3rd race in the series of the Bond Brook 5K Trail Race. I have made 2 out of 3 so far and I plan to run the rest of them.

Before the race my legs felt tired, tight and heavy, due to my high mileage in July and already having 31 miles this week. As a result I really thought that I would be a lot slower tonight than I was the first time.

I ran over 1.5 miles to warm-up and then really worked on stretching out my hamstrings which were so tight. At the start I still felt really tight and just didn’t feel like I was running very fast at all. It turns out the reason that I felt so bad was because I was running faster, not slower than I did last time.

Once we got strung out a bit, I followed a runner called Mark (I talked with him after), for most of the first mile and a half, until he suddenly tripped on a root and went ass over teakettle. I stopped for a second to check to see if he was okay and he was.

So we went back to the race, he decided to slow down and I actually started to speed up a little at this point – it was a downhill section of the course. Then I tried to catch-up with another runner who was ahead of me and finally caught her on the second to last hill and pushed the old body down to the finish after that.

To say I was surprised at my time would be an understatement! Pleased very, surprised – absolutely.

I know that I want to go and practice that first part of the race course to the first single-track. It just seems like I really struggle with this section of the race. Because once I hit the single-track, I start to get going, but until then, what a struggle.

The race results can be found at Cool Running.

Here are some photos I took before and after I finished.

I do enjoy running the Bond Brook Races, everyone is so friendly and laid back, which is what I need to help me get over this race anxiety thing I have had for so long. The biggest pressure with racing is the pressures that I put on myself, not anything external. This makes 2 races in less than a week, something I haven’t done in a very long time.

On October 21st there is going to be big 5 or 10 mile trail race and a mountain biking race at the Bond Brook recreation area, which is going to be called Treadfest – see the link for more information.