Summer Roundup Trail Run 12k

First I'm glad to have found this again. Thanks to Tim McGuire for cluing me in this morning. Anyway, on to the race.

The summer roundup is a 12km trail/road run that is brutally hilly. See Tim's elevation profile in the other report. Overall I felt good coming in, had no real goal other then to just sort of see where the legs were.

Woke up at 4am in Denver for the 1.5 hour drive down to Colorado Springs. Got to the start line with plenty of time, picked up the packet, did a short warmup, hit the bathroom and all other general pre-race stuff. Saw there was probably going to be a problem at the start as it went from a 2-lane road down to a maybe 4 person wide path within a .10 of a mile. I had planned to start decently close to the line, but was talking to Tim not really paying attention to the time and the gun went off.

The start was interesting, as I was trying to run faster then basically everyone ahead of me. I feel like this is the way a cross-country race would feel. I started getting elbows left and right of folks trying to push through so just decided since everyone else was doing it I'd just sort of follow. Added an interesting "battle" style to a running race I'd never seen before. After about a mile we were pretty thinned out and I'd pushed up pretty far so was in good shape and could just run from then on out.

The big hill coming down was brutal, and I nearly bit it a few times, as well as nearly crashed head-on into some folks coming up due to passing going on and the uphillers not paying attention. But made it through without any scrapes and had a brutally fast descent.

Had a guy clearly pass me for position with about 2 miles to go who I tried to stalk on in hoping to kick around him. It worked beautifully save about 5 feet. He noticed me about 3 feet to early, if he'd been a little later taking notice I'd have gotten the inside line to the finish line and had him. But alas he kicked in and blocked the line to pass so nipped me at the finish.

Splits (a little off because I was late starting the watch and it's not chip timed):
Mile 1: 9:38
Mile 2: 8:19
Mile 3: 11:10 (that's the big hill)
Mile 4: 8:27 (.75 mile up, .25 mile down)
Mile 5: 6:15
Mile 6: 7:45
Mile 7: 7:35
Mile .456: 3:01

Official Time: 1:02:15, 9/35 AG, 80/438 males, 90/693 overall

You did awesome! I actually thought you had that guy coming around the corner. I was trying to get a pic of you but you blasted past.

You were just 17 minutes behind first place so for a brutal run you did pretty damn good!

MichiganBrian wrote:
Had a guy clearly pass me for position with about 2 miles to go who I tried to stalk on in hoping to kick around him. It worked beautifully save about 5 feet. He noticed me about 3 feet to early, if he'd been a little later taking notice I'd have gotten the inside line to the finish line and had him. But alas he kicked in and blocked the line to pass so nipped me at the finish.

Interesting fact...just watched the video from about .25 mile up the course, guy who nipped me at the line came through a solid 1.5 minutes ahead of me...so apparently the poor start placement likely hurt me more than I thought...

That sounds really fun and really brutal all at the same time! Reminds me of a triathlon swim start. You did really well - congrats and welcome!!!

MichiganBrian wrote:

MichiganBrian wrote:
Had a guy clearly pass me for position with about 2 miles to go who I tried to stalk on in hoping to kick around him. It worked beautifully save about 5 feet. He noticed me about 3 feet to early, if he'd been a little later taking notice I'd have gotten the inside line to the finish line and had him. But alas he kicked in and blocked the line to pass so nipped me at the finish.

Interesting fact...just watched the video from about .25 mile up the course, guy who nipped me at the line came through a solid 1.5 minutes ahead of me...so apparently the poor start placement likely hurt me more than I thought...

I didn't think we were that far back from start.

Tim M wrote:

MichiganBrian wrote:

MichiganBrian wrote:
Had a guy clearly pass me for position with about 2 miles to go who I tried to stalk on in hoping to kick around him. It worked beautifully save about 5 feet. He noticed me about 3 feet to early, if he'd been a little later taking notice I'd have gotten the inside line to the finish line and had him. But alas he kicked in and blocked the line to pass so nipped me at the finish.

Interesting fact...just watched the video from about .25 mile up the course, guy who nipped me at the line came through a solid 1.5 minutes ahead of me...so apparently the poor start placement likely hurt me more than I thought...

I didn't think we were that far back from start.

From the start no...from the stop at the trail pinch and the run slower because of the crowds vs. the relatively open trail he appears to have had...

I thought it was funny at the beginning before you guys disappeared. You could see runners at the front and then a long line of walkers. That must have been tough when you can't pass them. Glad you put the elbows out and powered through.

The picture above. You can hardly see the runners but on the left side were runners and there must have been a group of walkers in the middle somewhere because it was a sudden change to walkers. Not sure how long it lasted.

Hope you don't mind me posting pics

MichiganBrian wrote:

Tim M wrote:

MichiganBrian wrote:

MichiganBrian wrote:
Had a guy clearly pass me for position with about 2 miles to go who I tried to stalk on in hoping to kick around him. It worked beautifully save about 5 feet. He noticed me about 3 feet to early, if he'd been a little later taking notice I'd have gotten the inside line to the finish line and had him. But alas he kicked in and blocked the line to pass so nipped me at the finish.

Interesting fact...just watched the video from about .25 mile up the course, guy who nipped me at the line came through a solid 1.5 minutes ahead of me...so apparently the poor start placement likely hurt me more than I thought...

I didn't think we were that far back from start.

From the start no...from the stop at the trail pinch and the run slower because of the crowds vs. the relatively open trail he appears to have had...

Oh yes, the bottleneck at the trail. That was a bitch. I didn't know it was okay to throw the elbows. I remember that for the next one.

Welcome to 365! And way to pounce on the scene with a nice race

Tim M wrote:

MichiganBrian wrote:

Tim M wrote:

MichiganBrian wrote:

MichiganBrian wrote:
Had a guy clearly pass me for position with about 2 miles to go who I tried to stalk on in hoping to kick around him. It worked beautifully save about 5 feet. He noticed me about 3 feet to early, if he'd been a little later taking notice I'd have gotten the inside line to the finish line and had him. But alas he kicked in and blocked the line to pass so nipped me at the finish.

Interesting fact...just watched the video from about .25 mile up the course, guy who nipped me at the line came through a solid 1.5 minutes ahead of me...so apparently the poor start placement likely hurt me more than I thought...

I didn't think we were that far back from start.

From the start no...from the stop at the trail pinch and the run slower because of the crowds vs. the relatively open trail he appears to have had...

Oh yes, the bottleneck at the trail. That was a bitch. I didn't know it was okay to throw the elbows. I remember that for the next one.

Haha...i don't normally agree with it. Then I got clocked in the right kidney and left stomach at the same time. That's when I said screw manners, it's get the elbows out or get elbowed.

Great job. As in the other post looks like a fun time.

Congrats and Welcome, Brian. Great run!

Congrats, sounds like a great event! Thanks for sharing.

Nice job Brian!

Nice job on the race, Brian.