Dances with Dirt Race Report

Dances with Dirt - 10th May 2014

Team placed 2nd overall

Strava data for my legs: Leg 1; Leg 7; Leg 10

Dances with Dirt (DWD), Gnawbone is arguably the biggest race of the year for the Quaff ON! Race team.  It's a trail race festival hosted in our "backyard" of beautiful Brown County - there are 10k, half marathon, full marathon, 50k and 50 mile solo races as well as the 100k team relay race - all these events are off road and cover some pretty extreme hilly trails as well as some bush whacking.

I've participated in the team relay race regularly since 2009 when one of my neighbors put a team together - we were much more in it for the experience and atmosphere of the event than the racing at that time, with fancy dress and fun being top of the agenda.  Last year was the first time I ran for Quaff ON! being part of the second team and this year we were able to enter 3 teams, each named after one of the signature beers - Busted Knuckle, Hare Trigger and new for 2014, the Six Foot Blondes, our all female team.

The Quaff ON! Crew

The relay event involves teams of 5 each running 3 legs spread throughout the day.  The nature of the legs varies between long & fast mostly on trails to short, technical & nasty bush whacking, the challenge is to try to match up the strengths of the team members to the different demands of each section.  The two male teams were, on paper, pretty evenly matched in terms of running strength but the Busted Knuckle team had a distinct advantage of consistency, 4 of the 5 members had run (and won) the race for the last 3 years.  Familiarity with the course and the same people running the same legs year after year really makes a difference - knowing which way to go as well as when to push hard.  I was on the other team, Hare Trigger and we had a collection of great runners most of whom had done something in previous DWD events but none of us had run together as a team before and experience on specific legs of the race was practically zero.

Team Hare Trigger (from L to R): Pat Thomas; Jeff Yoder; Scott Breeden; Logan Worley and Tim Proctor

The race started well, after leading the whole first leg, I made the first hand over with something like 15 secs over Busted Knuckle.  The next team to exchange was the Six Foot Blondes, some 3 minutes back - Quaff ON! racing held 1-2-3 and it looked like that is how the race would continue.  However, after leg 2, Busted Knuckle had taken a 2 minute lead and never looked back, stealing a little more advantage on just about every leg.

My second run of the day was on Leg 7 and pitched me against Danny Fisher over 5 miles - I knew that I would lose time but was determined to minimize the loss.  The leg was about 3 miles of fast singletrack trail and then 2 miles of bush whacking, including about 3/4 mile directly along a creek and climbs so steep I needed hands and feet to scramble up.  The briers took their toll and I ended the run with bloodied and torn legs.  I was pleased to finish only 2 mins slower than Danny's time but this was just another add to our growing deficit in the race for the lead.

Briar'd & Bloodied

My final stage, Leg 10, was a relatively easy 2.8 mile run all on trails, unfortunately the other team now had such a lead that I shared the first mile with Cole Smith who was their runner starting the leg ahead of mine!  This did give me something to chase down and I was able to close a ~15 sec gap over the first mile before our paths separated.

With the lead team being a complete leg ahead of us, the rest of the race was pretty much a solitary affair.  We saw them briefly at the remaining exchange points and we were by this time so far ahead of the 3rd and 4th placed teams we didn't see them either.  It turned out that the Quaff ON! girls were having an epic battle for 3rd place finally stretching this to just over 15 mins after over 8 hours of running.

At the finish, we cheered home our anchorman, Logan, and took the obligatory trash talk from the winners whilst the after-party started.

The race was sponsored by Quaff ON! and our trusty beer truck, Smokey, was already serving beer to the thirsty runners who had already completed the 10k, half and full marathon distances.  The girls brought home 3rd place to complete the Quaff ON! domination of the event.  Not long after they got home, we were able to cheer in Joe Bell, Quaff ON! team mate who had chosen to run the 50 mile race (yes, 50 miles all on his own!).  He finished in 9 hours 33 mins and took 7th place overall, a truly awe inspiring result.

DWD is a great event - it can be a serious race (and we love that), but equally it's a wonderful way to spend a day with 4 companions enjoying the beautiful countryside and natural resources we're so fortunate to have so close to hand.  I know that I'll be back for more and I hope that we can keep the Hare Trigger team together to capitalize on some course knowledge and close the gap on Busted Knuckle!

Getting older... getting faster - Seymour Half Marathon Race Report

Seymour Half Marathon (5/3) - P1 overall - race time 1:16:42 (13.1 mile time 1:17:26)
Strava data from this race

On May 1st I turned 44 - not a momentous age milestone, not even a change in age group, and I didn't really pay it much attention.  The age group fact isn't strictly true because of a strange quirk in season start / end definition I actually have a Cyclocross racing age of 45 now!  I only started running seriously in 2010 and I've enjoyed a continuous improvement in both my 5k and half marathon times.  With my recent PR at Louisville, I was wondering if this would be a turning point.  It's hard to imagine running faster, the training intensity and race effort were quite daunting - I was starting to think that things would be downhill from here, certainly for the half marathon - I still have aspirations to break 17 mins for a 5k race this year!

The Seymour half marathon is a small race promoted by the Crossroads of Indiana race series, it's the same weekend as the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon but has only 200-300 people vs 30,000 in Indy - far more relaxed and easy to access.  I'd signed up ages ago with no real agenda, two weeks after Louisville and two weeks before the Dances With Dirt team relay race, it was always going to be "just another run".  I had a plan to make it a training race - run 4 miles hard, take a mile easy, run 3 miles hard, take a mile easy, run hard to the finish.  My race preparation was very different to Louisville - instead of careful diet, focusing on good things to help my body perform, I had my birthday meal out, drank more than I would normally in a week and ate a lot of birthday cake.  The night before the race, Clare and I went to Bloomington on a date night and consumed hot dogs, pulled pork nachos and dips at Quaff ON! Bloomington as well as couple of beers and a late night!

I set out fast at the start of the race per the "training plan" however, when I got to 4 miles (on schedule @ 5:50 min/mile) I still felt good, the next couple of miles were both sub 6:00 and then I started to think that I could perhaps break my PR, a year older than I just set it!  After a pleasant run out into the country north of Seymour we made a turn-around and I face a block head wind for about 1.5 miles back into town, despite this, my pace stayed good, all below 6:00 min/mile which meant with a push in the last 5k I should be able to go under my Louisville time.  I was conscious that the race course mile markers were coming early relative to my GPS watch markers, coming into the finish I knew that the official distance would be short of 13.1 miles but with a PR in mind, I resolved to run on after the finish to get to 13.1 miles by my GPS - which in fact is probably still short of an official USATF course distance despite my efforts to run the shortest course.  I'm sure I looked ridiculous continuing through the finish shoot at race pace and running off down the road, but I wanted to know what a real half time would have been.  My GPS watch measured the race at 12.98 miles with a race time of 1:16:42.  I ran on to a GPS distance of 13.11 miles in a time of 1:17:26 which I feel is a legitimate PR, some 19 secs faster than my Louisville effort.

All this goes to show that preparation isn't everything - sometimes it all just comes together when you're not really expecting it.  I certainly put less pressure on myself for this race compared to Louisville, maybe that is a factor.  I also went out harder than I would normally, I am a conservative pacer and paranoid about "blowing up", going out hard and holding on to a pace at the finish is something I'm rarely brave enough to do and I think that was a bigger factor in this race than anything else.

My team mate Joe Bell came home 3rd overall and Sara Martin took first place female with a PR, cheered home by her parents.  Joe and I were also able to cheer on Chasity Smith (although not wearing a Quaff ON! jersey, she's the brains behind our race kit design and logos).

Joe Bell; Tim Proctor; Sara Martin
Quaff ON!

Carmel Sprint Triathlon - Race Report

Carmel Sprint Tri (4/27) - P3 Overall - race time 51:34.6
Strava data from this race : Swim (no data) ; Bike; Run

I raced the Carmel Sprint Triathlon at short notice.  It had been a long time since I'd been in the pool but managed to get two swims in during the week preceding the event which gave me confidence I wasn't going to drown!  My Quaff ON! team mate, Erin Webb was competing in her first ever triathlon, I was there for moral support and to help with things like transition set up as much as to race myself.  In the end I came 3rd overall after a comically slow swim (124th out of 300 starters) - my bike and run redeemed me!  I often wonder what it would be like if I could swim - everyone assumes that my bike & run speed would mean domination but I doubt that I could retain that level of performance with the amount of time in the pool that would be necessary to get good at swimming.  And besides, I hate treadmills for running, and the pool is just a treadmill with greater sensory deprivation - I can't see me finding the motivation to make the leap to competent swimmer!  Erin had a great race, taking her age group and 6th overall female - I was able to run the final 1/2 mile with her yelling motivation as she finished strong.  As with most first time triathlon racers, the intensity of the race vs typical workouts or single discipline races surprised her, but she's hungry for more!