This is one of my favorite races. For some reason, I could run with guys
who would clean my clock on flat road races. It has about 1200' of climb,
and runs in the chapparal of the beautiful Santa Monica mountains. I'd run
it in '84 and '86 in the low 38's. Here's the website:
http://www.topanga10k.com/course.html
First, let me trot out the excuses: high mileage week, a strong 2 hour run
on Thursday, and no speedwork or fast (sub 7:00/mile) downhill running due
to a kneecap injury (finally healed). There.
I lined up at the Saturday start, for old times' sake. I was hoping for sub
50, but I knew it would be tough.
The first 2.5 miles are uphill, then it's mostly flat and down. I started
out easy in about 40th place, and gradually reeled in 8 folks by the first
mile marker: 10:03, about a 500' climb. I ran comfortably hard, at about
155 hr. If my legs started to burn, I backed way off, and whenever I hit a
short, sharp rise, I chopped up my stride and slowed to maintain an even
effort.
Four or 5 guys passed me on steep uphill, but I got 'em all by the
turnaround. Don't they know they're wasting fuel charging up hills? When a
hill flattened out, I took off, and they were still recovering. My plan (as
it is on all races) was to run comfortably hard on the uphills, and put the
hurt on the flats and downs.
One young teenager would fly up the hills, then stop and walk! I've seen
this phenomena before at local mountain races. Must be something going
around...
When we hit the turnaround at 5k, it was mostly down, save for a single
gradual 200' climb. I focused on relaxing and not *trying* to run fast --
which is good, because I've got zero legspeed after 4 months of kneecap
hell. Nevertheless, I was able to muster something, and clocked 6:00/mile
on the long downhills. (A far cry from the 4:45's I could run on this
course a billion years ago). A young kid flew by me, but I caught him on
the 200' climb, then he moved ahead over the last mile. Then at mile 5, the
second woman came up on me and I just couldn't match her (sorry gals, but
that irked me!). I think she put 30+ seconds on me over the last mile.
Finally, I turned left to the famous uphill finish, about a 40' climb up to
the clock. I looked over my right shoulder to see if anybody was in view,
and it looked clear, so I eased up just a bit. Halfway up, I heard frantic
footsteps and a 20-something I'd passed on the way down blew by me. I'd
been jumped. He must have been off my left shoulder. I threw on the
afterburners and clawed my way back to him, then he moved ahead with about
20' to go, and I gave it my all, nearly falling as I leaned into the
imaginary tape, and nipped him. Note to Lance: I love this stuff!
He moved ahead of me in the chute as I caught my breath and turned his
number in before mine. I didn't think to correct it, so the official record
has him first. But hey, I got witnesses!
Net result: 51:09 (a personal worst for this distance!) 21/440, 2nd in the
50-54 (next year, I'm 55). The guy who took first in my AG was a 2:1x
marathoner who went to the Olympic Marathon Trials, so I can forget about
any woulda-shoulda-coulda's. Anyway I got a very nice engraved brass medal
to hang in my Running Shrine (which only Charlie P of this group has seen.
He bought a $2.00 candle, which really helped with the maintenance budget).
Anyway, that 51:09 is 34% slower than the last time I ran this in 38:10 as a
34 year old. Yikes! So much for the wava tables which predict about 14%
slower...The winner ran 40:30 ish this year. Now I'm fired up, and plan to
be both speed-trained and tapered next year, and hope for a 3-4 minute
improvement and top 10.
I'd forgotton how much fun these short trail races are. I'm going find some
more and use them as hard tempo runs.
-- Dan