#dirtyspokes

Saturday was the sixth of the seven race Dirty Spokes Trail Race series. For the second straight year the series has included a 5.5 mile race at Haw Creek Park in Cumming, GA. It was also Amanda's first ever trail race, so congratulations to her. This is a fairly flat and fast course and the trail is nice and wide. It's a more of a cross country race than a trail race as the trails are only a couple years old and were machine cut to be beginner mountain bike trails. Even though I run a lot of trail races, there aren't that many that I would say are in my wheelhouse. This race would be an exception to that rule. 

After making the short drive out to the park, I got in a good warm up, about 15 minutes, after which I was nearly drenched in sweat. Fortunately most of the race took place in the shade, but the half mile power line stretch was wide open and it got hot fast. I wished Amanda good luck then made my way to the start a few minutes before 8:30. After a few strides, I took my place on the line next to Jesse Rappole and the other usual suspects.

At the gun, Jesse and I took the lead and ran side by side through the parking lot before I took a step lead onto the trail. After opening up the Deep South 15k hard and seeing Jesse struggle a little bit, I knew my best chance at winning would be to try and keep the pace high for as long as I could and use the course to my advantage. Jesse is really strong on the technical stuff, but sometimes in spots where I can get into a rhythm I am able to pull away. I led through the first 1.5 miles before Jesse took the lead after we hit the power lines. 

I focused on keeping him close and not letting him use the two small climbs to break away. We traded the lead a couple of times over the next half mile and with a half mile to go in the first lap I felt like he was letting off the gas a little, so I jumped into the lead and tried to break the string with a strong surge. I built up a small lead but he was able to pull me back in fairly short order. 

I made another bid for the race breaking move just before we finished the first lap on the newly added switchbacks leading back to the parking lot. This time it worked and after cresting the small hill I pushed the down hill to try and carry the surge as long as I could. That move opened up a good gap and from there I told myself to keep pushing and race hard until I reached the power lines again.

After the race, Jesse said that move was the end for him and he wasn't able to recover. I've been on the other end of that pretty much every time we've raced this year, so it was nice to flip the script for once. 

When I hit the power lines the second time I wasn't sure what kind of lead I'd built up but on a fast course I felt like if I could just maintain, I'd have a really good chance to win. At that point, I started focusing on catching as many of the lapped runners as I could. That helped me stay in the race and put the increasing heat and fatigue out of my mind until we hit the five mile mark.

Seeing the marker was a relief, but with it felt like the longest half mile and it was a huge relief to finally reach the parking lot and know I just had to roll it out down the hill to the finish. It was a great feeling to take the win, my second of the series, after struggling through a lot of these races this year. My consistency and long runs haven't been there so I have not been able to find the same form I had last year, which is frustrating.

The win was a big confidence booster going into Peachtree next week. My initial goal of sub 32 is probably out of the question, but I think sub 33 is a possibility. I'm not running as well this year (almost a minute slower at Haw Creek), but being able to run well on a faster course and get away from Jesse gives me confidence to get after it on the 4th.

My Garmin had the race at five miles, but Tim wheeled it as 5.5 so pace wise I was happy being under six minutes. Here's the info from Strava.