5 Peaks BC Race 1 - Golden Ears Race Report

Warning: although this is officially a race report, I don’t write succinct race reports. I ramble, go off topic, and generally use them as a bit of ‘get-to-know-me’.

I had mentioned doing a trail race in my plans for 2015, but had been thinking about doing something later in the summer after my goal race (the Subaru Vancouver Triathlon) was over: I was scared of injuring myself on the trails and not being able to do my triathlons, doubly so given the length of time my toe injury had me sidelined this winter. But plans change. In this case, an opportunity fell in my lap; I won an entry to the 5 Peaks Golden Ears race in April by retweeting a tweet from one of the race organizers (@SolanaLeigh). It was totally unexpected, but something I didn’t want to pass up. I do my long runs on Saturdays, so I figured I’d just treat this as a shorter but harder long training run with inspiring scenery. I didn’t know if I’d be able to handle the Enduro distance, so I opted for the shorter Sport course. Listed at 8.8 km, it seemed doable given my current road distance of just over 12 km.

I had to get up earlier than I like to to make to the race venue, but at least it was local and so something I could do from home. My little guy (who just turned 6) normally has activities on Saturday morning, but I mentioned a kids' race to him and he insisted on coming. That meant dragging my husband along. He wasn’t too thrilled about it, but I bribed him by suggesting he bring his road bike and ride home. So, long story short, we left about 15-30 minutes later than I wanted to. I don’t like being stressed by travel the day of a race, especially given that this was supposed to be a just-for-fun race. We got there just in time, but to a parking lot full of racers and a long check-in line. Husband barely got the car parked, kid out of the car and registered for the kids' race. But he did. I had to run off to the car to grab my gear and so missed seeing my son race, but the little guy didn’t mind. Husband ran alongside him so he didn’t feel parentless. He got to show me his finishers’ ribbon just afterwards, which made it all seem official and made him feel very important. For racing he also got a kid’s Clif Bar and lip balm. Not bad for a free race! So despite the rushing around, the day got off to a great start as far as my kid was concerned, and so, as far as I was concerned too.

My race started about 20 minutes later. I positioned myself in about the middle of the pack. I had a friendly chat with some people next to me in the chute. It would have helped me relax if I had been at all nervous. Since this was just supposed to be a slightly challenging training run, I was unusually calm. The only worry I had was getting lost. But given the hundreds of runners around, I was pretty sure I could keep up with at least a few of them, and just follow them. Turns out I didn’t need to be worried about that at all. The course was very well flagged and there were volunteers in places that really needed a person (e.g., a med person near the top of the tough climb). Great job to the organizers!

It was mostly uphill for the first 5 km or so. Most of it was easy enough and in this first part I got passed quite a bit, but I also passed about the same number of runners. There were two stream crossings very early on. I knew there were water crossings and I was ready for wet feet; I was wearing thing fast-drying socks (a benefit of being a triathlete – I have quite a selection of fast-drying socks), and I brought extra shoes and socks to change into. I have trail shoes, but I’ve never gotten them wet and so I didn’t know how well they’d dry. Since I wasn’t thrilled about having wet feet right from the start, I hopped from rock to rock and stayed dry. I rolled on my right ankle a little after about 25 minutes but it was just a brief tweak and the pain didn't last thankfully.

Shortly after 4 km the one really challenging ascent started. It was steep, rocky, a little rooty, and long. I mostly power walked it, although from time to time I ran a bit. I figured if up, then down, and if the down was anything near as rooty/rocky as the up, I was going to need some solid legs to make it safely down. For me, that meant not arriving at the top totally knackered. There was nice little waterfall pool/stream that had to be crossed near the top. I considered stopping to take a picture, but I was feeling pretty good and didn’t want to lose time for a photo. But it was a nice reward for making it up.

I wasn’t wrong about the descent and what I needed to do it well. It was a tough, for me at least. Not sure how technical it was (given that it was my first trail race I’ve got nothing to compare it to), but it required mountain goat-like nimbleness to descend with any real speed. I regularly run in a local park with some (shorter) uneven rocky trails. They’re not as technical, but they at least have me used to running downhill on terrain that requires the same kinds of skills. Part of tackling a trail like that is just being comfortable with the kind of running, so mentally I was in good shape for a descent that required quick, lightfooted movements. I’m not saying I was the fastest person down the trail - I was passed by a few runners – but I passed more than I got passed by. On a bike, downhills are not my strength, but I have learned how to run downhill fairly well. And to tell the truth, it was fun! Not because of passing people, just the doing of it was fun. It was a mental and physical challenge all in one, which is my kind of thing. It got less rocky as the descent continued, making it easy to go even faster.

Until the tree obstacle that is. The fallen tree was a little too low to easily go under and a little too high to easily go over. Jumping was required, meaning my plyometric training really came in handy. The race photographer was positioned right there. I’m looking forward to seeing those photos…mine almost certainly shows a contorted grimacing face, which is too bad because it was actually kind of fun.  From there it was a pretty short run out of the woods, by the lake, up a little incline and across the finish line. My family was at the bottom of the little slope up to the finish so I got to wave at them and that helped spur me on a bit.

The whole thing reminded me of my childhood – running through the forest, wandering up streams, and jumping over fallen logs. I enjoyed the race and I’ll do another. Not sure about this year, it depends on my family schedule. But I’d do this one again for sure. Maybe even the Enduro. I understand the appeal of trail running, it’s more challenging that road racing which is appealing. I’m not about to give up triathlon and take up ultra trail running instead, but I’m really glad I got the opportunity to do this race.

I had a goal of about 1:15-1:20. I figured it might take me about time and half, and anything faster than that was gravy. I have no idea what my official bib time was. By my watch I finished in 57:17, but I wasn’t very exact with starting or stopping it. Still, it was under an hour and I’m really happy with that. When I find out my real time, age group place, etc., I’ll update.* (see the bottom of the page for the update, which is now there.) It was a good use of my training time. I was really wiped for the rest of the day, but was feeling pretty good the following day, so I know I didn't go too hard.

I did want to point out something I noticed that was really great. The organizers had planned to wait until all runners had finished before doing the awards, but they had to get on with the awards while a few runners were still out on the course. Often back-of-the-packers get ignored. But they announced the later runners, and asked people to cheer them across. So the awards stopped when the last runner crossed, and they got applause and encouragement from a lot of people who were still there. I thought that was the way it should be, recognizing the accomplishments of the fastest people while taking the time to acknowledge the accomplishments (and congratulate) the slowest.

The finish line

Spectacular setting!

The little slope up toward the finish

*The race results were posted sometime between my writing this post and the following morning, so here's the update. My official time was 57:16, so apparently I did a pretty good job with my watch. There were 293 participants and an average time of 1:01:17, meaning that I beat the average time! I placed 51st out of 183 women, and 19th out of 53 women in my age category (40-49). I'm very happy with these numbers.