That felt good. Good to be back at a race. Good to start feeling like I’m getting back to normal. And good to get out there and mix it up again. It’s been more than a year since I hurt my hamstring and it has been a grind getting back to a point where I felt like I could pin a number on and attempt to race. It’s been a lot of work and I’m still not all the way back, but man am I glad I was able to give it shot.
Harbins Park is the third race of Dirty Spokes Fall series and it’s the first real goal I’ve been able to hit in quite some time. Prior to this point, it seems like every goal or benchmark I set, came and went and I still wasn’t ready. I did a couple races in the spring but then shut it down before jumping in Peachtree, but after that my hamstring and groin were pretty sore. After Peachtree, I decided to only focus on working to get my hamstring 100 percent. Every run since then, I’ve done 10-20 minutes of resistance band work before running and I’ve put more focus into preparing to run than I’ve worried about my mileage.
That has been a good formula for me. Halfway through September, I started to feel like I might actually be able to try and lift the pace a little bit. I decided I’d give Harbins a shot, but it would be more of a tempo test than a real race.
The Harbins Park race is run almost entirely on the park’s hiking trail. It’s wide with mostly rolling terrain but features a long grinder of a climb in the middle and then works its way uphill for most of the final two miles. It’s a race that can really make you pay if you go out too hard.
I settled on a plan to go out conservative and try to run as even an effort as possible. I knew that my fitness level wasn’t race ready, so I didn’t want to spike my heart rate. The other concern I had was doing too much accelerating and stressing my hamstring. The best approach, in my mind, was to stay as even a possible, take the hills as they came and try to see if I could gradually accelerate on the flats.
It really was good to be back. Dirty Spokes runs roughly one race a month for the entire year but after the series finale at Sawnee Mountain, I missed the next couple of races due to work and travel. It was great to see everyone and get a chance to catch up with all of the regulars.
One positive to dealing with this hamstring issue is that I got to the race nice and early. Since I really have to get it warmed up, I got out the door on time and was at the venue more than an hour before the race. A few years ago, I was showing up like 15 minutes before the start sometimes, not super smart of me.
After getting my number and spending a few minutes chatting, I started my resistance band work and did drills. I caught up with Mitch Novy, who in a rare case decided to jump in the longer race – 10k vs. 5k. We met up with Matt Johnson, who I’d been running with a little over the summer as he prepped for a 50k. Matt and I jogged a mile to get loose and then the three of us regrouped at the starting line to get things kicked off.
At the gun, everyone took off. Matt and I hung back a little bit as we made our way around the short parade lap. After the starting lap, we followed the multi-use paved trail as it descended toward the start of the hiking trail. Matt and I began to pick our way through the field and Mitch latched on to form a strong group. There were a couple of guys that had a solid gap on us but we agreed that they most likely were running the 5k and we shouldn’t worry about trying to chase that fast, that early.
We dipped into the trails after a little more than a half mile, with Matt leading our trio. We rolled through the mile mark and a quick glance at my watch – 6:05. A little quick, but the first mile was mostly downhill so that wasn’t a major concern. Shortly after the mile, we passed the course split and the race director, Tim, told us we were running 1-2-3. Honestly, I was little surprised that we ended up out front that early. I thought it would take a little bit longer for things to settle down.
Matt continued to lead, with Mitch and I following behind. I could see Matt’s ultra-training paying off as he was starting to pull away. He seemed like he was able to hold that early pace a bit easier than Mitch or I could. As we approached two miles, Matt had opened a pretty good size gap and Mitch moved past me as I was slowing down on the short, steepish, rollers that we hit.
Part of that was me being conservative and part of it was how I was feeling. I was able to stay in contact with Mitch and shortly after two miles, I moved around him into second place. With a race’s main climb coming around three miles, I figured if I was in front of Mitch going into the climb, I’d be able to slide back a bit and still maintain contact.
It worked out really well that Mitch ran the longer race. It gave us both someone to run with, since Matt was long gone and the two of us were well up on the group behind.
As I suspected, Mitch closed the gap easily as we started going uphill. After he race, he said he could tell I was running conservative, especially on the up-hills, but to be honest I was just trying to take the race as it came. Despite how relatively short the race was, I went through a couple of up and down periods. I felt comfortable with it. I figured that I needed to enjoy the times when I felt good and work through the times I didn’t. That was all part of getting back into the mindset of racing.
I was having one of the aforementioned bad times when we started going up, but the climb levels out a little bit after you get half way up it and a started to feel a little better the closer to the top that we got. I moved back in front of Mitch when we crested the climb, with the goal of giving myself some space to slide back when we started to climb again.
The next half mile or so drops you off the back side of the climb, then you cross a long wooden bridge over some exposed granite before the two-or-so miles of climb-flat-climb type running to the finish. Mitch caught back up as we went through four miles and we ran together for a while. At this point my race brain started to kick in. I really didn’t want to go into the final half mile of paved path with Mitch. He does a decent amount of speed work and even though I’m confident that I could go to the line with him, I didn’t want to get into a situation where I was going to have to sprint. I’m still a little wary of opening things up too much.
At the same time, I didn’t go into this race with any expectations. Second or third didn’t really matter. It was about running tempo, running even, and recovering from the effort. I didn’t want to jeopardize those goals for a second-place finish. I settled on focusing on my form and if I got away by running even, great. If Mitch dusted me in a half mile road drag race, so be it.
With about a mile and a half to go we hit a long flat stretch of trail and I was able to open a gap without changing the tempo or effort. I could feel Mitch sliding back a bit and the racer in me wanted to surge but I had to force myself to stay calm.
After the race, Mitch told me that he could see the lifetime of miles and race experience in that moment. I just started to pull away without any noticeable change in pace. Even after I got away, I had to survive a couple short ramps before the trail leveled out and made its way back to the pavement. Fortunately, when we hit the pavement, I had a good gap and I was able to run relaxed to the finish. I looked back a few more times than I’d like to admit, as I figured that Mitch would be charging as soon as he hit the paved path.
Matt took the win, I crossed second and Mitch came through shortly after me in third. Like I said at the start, it felt great to be back out there. It was nice to go into it without any expectations. That helped me feel relaxed for pretty much the entire race, which was a nice change of pace.
Unfortunately, I’ve missed a couple of the races in the summer-to-winter series, so I won’t be able to finish on the final podium, but I felt like I recovered well from the effort. My legs were a little tired and sore the next day, but aside from some residual soreness in my hamstring, no real alarm bells for now.
I’m hoping that if things continue to progress well, I’ll be able to run a few more Dirty Spokes races this year before getting back to normal in 2020. The big thing for me is going to be sticking to the warm up routine and continuing to work in some hip, glute, and hamstring strengthening exercises. Oh yeah, and I need to make sure I don’t overdo it…as I am want to do.
Certified Rollers 