Sidewinder 10K Trail Race Report
Posted on Jul 11, 2011 under Race | 1 Comment
The Sidewinder 10K Trail Race was less than a week after the Scripps Ranch 10K. But the distance is so short (relative to a half or full marathon), I rarely get sore now. Quick recap on results: 5.98 miles (this one was shorter, while my trail half was 13.62 miles!), 45:15, HR: 181/200, AG: 9/17, Overall: 31/183. I would have been very happy with low 40’s so I was very pleased with the results and how I felt during the run. Splits: 7:09, 7:34, 8:26, 7:49, 7:35, 6:53 (elevation profile seems about right when comparing with the splits.)
Last week’s 10K was on Monday, the 4th of July. I took Tuesday off as rest/recovery, biked to work on Wednesday but finally ran (5) on Thursday. I also played basketball that night, but stubbed and bruised my right big toe! It’s the same toe that I had previously bruised and had the toenail fall out. It’s not that big of a deal, just annoying to have to wait (literally months!) for the new nail to grow out. I biked again the next day and was just going to rest the Saturday before the race, mainly because the toe was in pain and I felt like running on it might make it worse. But I signed up for a free trial at the gym so decided to go for a few miles (2) to see how the toe felt and to use that as a warm-up for the workout. Fortunately, I barely noticed the toe on the run (and race) and had a very productive and muscle-aching workout.
The last time I asked the race director (of the same race series) for a course description, I was totally mislead. So when he replied with the following course description, I was skeptical, “The course is not that tough. Only one or two small hills and nothing you should worry about. This is the flattest race we put on.” The website had no elevation profile handy and I couldn’t find any race reports online. So I was left to trust what he had to say. And after running it, I had to agree.
Right after running the race, I tweeted, “First time saying ‘trail race’ and ‘easy’ in the same sentence, well it was definitely not the hardest :)” None of the hills that we had to tackle were too steep or at very UN-timely parts of the course. It really was a relatively flat course. Now, since I’ll be running the SF half marathon in less than 3 weeks(!), I kind of wanted some hills to help prepare me for what is supposed to be a pretty difficult (although scenic) course. I’m hoping I could do some hill workouts this weekend, but it’s going to be tough since I’ll be driving to LA on Saturday to spend time with the family for my birthday and then driving back to SD Sunday. But I’ll do my best to try and get out for a run at least, if I can’t work in the hill workout.
