The Belt 30K

The running for me actually started at 7:30pm the night before the race. I had volunteered to help mark the course along with a few other people. (Public Service Announcement: For those who have never volunteered for a race, you should really consider doing it. Not only is it a chance to give back for some great races, but I believe you can't fully appreciate the hard work that goes into these things until you've viewed them from the other side).

Abe and I trekked down the Hill of Life at 7:30pm and had 2 miles before we got to the area we would start marking. Abe is a lot faster than me and did not plan to run the race in the morning, so he took off and I tried to follow. I have to admit, it was harder running than I planned to do the night before the race. We marked about 5 miles of the 30K course and had about a 2 mile run back to our cars. We covered about 9 miles and finished around 9:30. I went home and tried to get some sleep.

Race morning I woke up a little sore from the night before. Oops, that wasn't my goal. No big deal though, I'm just running for the mileage and the fun, and although once the race starts I always run as hard as I can, I wasn't worried about my time. I focus on my effort, and starting tired won't affect that. At 6:30am we started.

The first 10 miles were pretty easy. There were a few big climbs like the Hill of Life and the Scenic Overlook climbs, but they didn't hurt. Actually, because we had 2 nights of rainstorms, the trails were a muddy mess. This always makes it more fun, but for me it really hurt on the downhills. Normally, I run down hills pretty well and can recover from the climbs during this time. But the rocks were slippery and the mud was thick, so I had to tip-toe down the hills and this took a lot of effort and really wore down my quads on the downhills. Around 12 miles, my legs were exhausted.

No problem, I've run through much worse exhaustion than this. I was getting a little dehydrated because of the humidity caused by the recent rain. So I chugged a few cokes at the last 2 aid stations. This was a mistake, now my legs were mush and my stomach was sludge. Still, only 4 miles to go at this point, so I knew I could run right through it. And I did, finishing strong and very happy with my effort.

That was the 3rd and final race of the Rogue Trail Series. It was a great series and its a great family of Austin trail runners that show up for it. I can't wait to do it again next year!