Story
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been watching my points total shrink every time someone lays down a new leading time on a course. I wanted to respond with a new leading time of my own and Fall Creek Trails was the only course that I hadn’t yet run hard from start to finish.
My run was a few days in the making. I had planned on doing this last Saturday, but my legs were overcooked from trying to make a big jump in mileage that week. I ran easy instead and decided to try again on Sunday.
On Sunday I felt much better. I started my time trial and was making good progress until I made it to the Byway. That little horseshoe of a road looks a lot like a driveway and my time-trial brain was unable to distinguish it from an actual driveway so I missed the bend back to Forest Home. I decided to run the rest easy, recover, and come back on Tuesday and do it again with no mistakes.
Rain on Tuesday forced me to reschedule again. I wouldn’t be able to run as fast on muddy trails and wet grass. So I came back today (Wednesday) after everything had dried out and finally made it happen.
I had a great run and managed to set the course lead with a 34:45. I also bumped my average age grade over 65% with this run. This has been a goal of mine for the last few years but I have always fallen short (64.25% in 2023 and 64.40% in 2024). It’s still not enough to compete with Caitlin (who is in a league of her own), but I’m still proud to own the #2 spot in that category for the time being.