Week of March 17th - 23rd, 2014

Monday:
9mi/60min in Pisgah with Griffin.  Awesome run!  Knee felt good.  Trails really icy, but my micro-spikes are the bomb.  30 degrees F and sunny.

Tuesday:
0mi.  Just a lazy day.

Wednesday:
6mi/39min in Pisgah with Griffin.  Knee good again.  Snow and sleet was coming down hard the last 2 miles of my run.  Feeling good.  Solid yoga session after.

Thursday;
9mi/62min in Pisgah with Ferenc and the girls.  Trails were slushy but the traction was ok.  Knee a bit stiff after 40min of running.  Lifted in the morning and got jacked.

Friday;
2mi/13min in Pisgah with Griffin.  Knee still a bit stiff.  Did a good yoga session before jumping in the car and driving down to Rhody for the Brrrlingame 10mi trail race tomorrow.

Saturday:
12mi*/1:18.  Brrrlingame 10mi trail race - 1:03:08 (6:19) 2nd place
Started the morning off with a sighting of 2 snowy owls at Charlestown Breachway with Jen.  Very cool.  Saw an adult (all white) male and it looked like an adult female (grey streaks).  It could have been an immature owl but it seemed to be hanging out with the adult male.  At one point they flew up and together and touched talons.  Jen was so excited to see the owls as she's been dying to see snowys after hearing that they were hanging around the south county beaches. 

Now for  the race.  I knew I was not in top shape with the knee injury and low mileage for the last couple of months.  I was really looking forward to racing on clear trails and seeing where my fitness stacked up against the Rhody guys.  Derek Jacoboski took the race out fairly fast and I followed in 4th place sitting behind Jonny and Bob Jackman.  After about 10min or so of racing, Derek had a good little gap and Bob was getting separation from Jonny.  I was uncomfortable with the pace, but decided I needed to pass Jonny and catch up to Bob.  I caught Bob and was impressed with how hard he blasted the downhills.  He was racing the exact way I love to race this kind of fast twisty course.  After the ridge section, I passed Bob on the open double track before the sand pit climb.  I tried to catch up to Derek, but I was red lining and was making no ground on him.  I was able to put a little distance on Bob before I hit the bridges.  I glanced back and could see Chris Garvin now in 3rd place about 20 sec or so back.  I was starting to struggle a bit as I exited the bridges and glanced back a few times to see if Chris was gaining on me.  I took a nasty digger near the end of the first loop, as I glanced up at Derek to try to judge how far ahead he was and I smashed my right big toe on a large root.  I went down hard and it felt like I broke my toe.  I got up slowly and limped for a few strides, but soon I was able to run normally again but the toe was hurting and I could feel blood squishing around in my shoe.  Finishing the first lap in 31 flat, I stopped to pound a Gatorade.  I would normally never need to do this in a race this short, but I was hurting from the fall and my lack of fitness, the break was more of a mental break.  Chris quickly passed me and I hurried out of the aid station to catch up to him and start lap 2.

In lap 2, I knew there was absolutely no way that I was going to even split, time to hang on for dear life and not fade too badly.  Chris started to gap me and he probably got 10 seconds up on me.  Derek was completely out of sight.  My new goal became to catch back up to Chris at all cost, at least go down fighting for second place.  I caught up to Chris at the ridge trail and just tried to relax for a little bit and gather myself while letting him lead.  I wanted to try and pass him soon because I didn't want it to come down to a kick, but I was hurting.  Passing him too far out would be a gamble, but passing him too late would be certain death in the form of his 1:59 800 wheels.  After the sand pit on the wide road before the bridges, I could see Derek for the first time in the second lap.  I got excited by this and decided it was now or never and went by Chris.  I was able to pull away just before the bridges and I now was charging and thought maybe I still had a shot to catch Derek.  It wasn't to be.  The move tired me out and I was hanging on the last 8min of racing.  I finished exhausted in 1:03:08, 27 seconds behind Derek and 13sec ahead of Chris.  My 2nd lap was 32:07.  It's interesting to see that if I didn't stop for a drink, I probably would have had the fastest 2nd lap of the entire race which would have been a small victory for me, but then again, I felt I needed that mental boost.  It was a ton of fun being out there racing again and I was happy that my knee held up very well.  My big toe on the other hand, was a bloody mess when I took my shoe off and it's pretty obvious that I will lose that toe nail soon.  It was great chilling with family and friends post race and winning a growler of BBC Drayman's Porter for my efforts.  I also enjoyed the vacation from snow and ice covered trails.  It got up to 57degrees F in the afternoon and the spring peepers were out at night.

 I can't wait to come down and race at Big River in a couple weeks.  The extra 3.1 miles will make it interesting for sure.  Time to recover and get after it.  Thanks to Mike Galoob for putting his heart and soul into these awesome events for the Rhode Island trail running community.

Sunday:
0mi.  My big toe is quite painful but not broken.  I'll try running tomorrow.

Total for the week:
38mi.