Leatherman's Loop 10K

I entered the Leatherman's Loop 10K race back in January through their lottery system. Luckily I got in at my first attempt but the way things worked out it turned out to be one week, actually just six days, before I do my main goal race, The North Face Endurance Challenge Bear Mountain Marathon.

I should be okay as it was soft enough in places (see below!) that I don't have the same soreness normally associated with 10K trail events and another good reminder of how good it is to get back into the countryside and get some proper off-road running done.

I shared a car ride up with one of the guys from the Prospect Park Track Club and we left at 6am to avoid the long wait to get access to the car park we had heard about if you didn't arrive before 8am.
We got there at 7.40am which felt really early but by 8am the place was heaving.

The warning pic form their website!

This was my first event competing in my new PPTC club kit which lead to me getting my first shout from a spectator of 'Cmon PPTC'.

It was the 29th running of the event and apparently it is one of the largest fields for a trail race in the US that isn't a Spartan or Tough Mudder event, there were over 1200 finishers this year.

The start was like a cross country, wide open over a rough dry meadow with the herd of runners trampling their way to a left hand bend and sprinting to get to the front as the path narrowed to single and double file for most of the next mile. 

Where's Chris?

Ready, Set, GO!

I had heard the first three miles were the hardest but without knowing the course it was difficult to know how hard to push it from the start. We started near the front but I was definitely delayed due to the number of people around me. A little here but more once we turned into the woods and the path and roughness underfoot meant it was difficult to run close or pass people.

Once the field separated and things settled down I began to enjoy the varying terrain, being able to see where you are going helps!

There were rough forestry trails with gnarly (a favourite word with a lot of REI employees) tree roots and rocks, then the mud flats!

Small video of the mud.

Then after a bit of narrow trail action it opened up to a dirt hill that was short but so steep everyone was using their hands to claw their way up.
Just before that I had a smile on my face as there was both a bagpiper and a mariachi band!

There were two mini water crossings during the first 4 miles and after a bit of a downhill stretch towards the finish there came the infamous water crossing where all the spectators lined the exit up the bank cheering as you jumped up and sprinted the final few hundred meters to the finish.
One of the best finishes to a race I've ever done.

There were tonnes of photographers there and they post the photos on their website for free!

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Despite the above 'technique' surprisingly picture 4 was me exiting the water and not falling face first in as you might have expected.
I felt good towards the end and finished with 7.03 and 6.47 mile splits.

Not everyone was so lucky:

On purpose??

I came in 17th and had heard beforehand that under 45mins was considered a good time. I did 45.41 and as is my thing nowadays I thought I might be close to the age group awards but similar to Scotland the 40-49 age group is very competitive in the rougher, hillier trail events so I could only manage 7th!

Definitely one I'd travel up to do again.

Hopefully not as wet next week!

Secret show and secret trail race

On Sunday it was announced that Mumford & Sons were playing a kind of secret show at a small 500 capacity venue in the city. The tickets went on sale the next morning but we couldn't get any.
Late Monday night they announced they were playing a second night so on Tuesday morning we tried again and after a couple of page refreshes after entering my card details I managed to get two tickets!

They were playing all the songs from their upcoming new album, basically practicing the songs live before they go on tour. Because of this, they specifically stated there would be no phones or cameras allowed inside and you would have to leave them at the door.
As it was close to my work we left our stuff there and headed over around 5.30pm, Heather wanted to be close as normally she struggles to see over tall folk at standing gigs!

The doors opened at 7pm and they were due on at 9pm. We ended up being about the 10th people in line and I wandered around the corner to get some mexican food which we ate in line then we went in and ended up right at the front corner of the stage basically a couple of feet away from the bass guitar every time he swung it round.
The two hour wait inside was pretty painful on the feet and back, old people problems, but once they started it was pretty amazing. So close, so loud and brand new songs!

Of course there was the odd person that smuggled in their phone as there were a couple of pics floating about the internet the next day buy the singer commented that it was amazing to look out and see actual faces and not phones and ipads staring back.

As we were up front we were also lucky enough to come away with one of the guitar picks jettisoned at the end of the gig.

REI has been trying to boost its running business, specifically leaning towards the trail running market. They started a running group and are organising a trail race series, the first of which was last Saturday.

I wasn't planning to do it as it was an hour and a bit drive North at the Blue Mountain Reservation but a couple of other people at work said they were doing it and would drive if I wanted to go so I jumped a the opportunity to get some proper trail practice.

They hadn't really advertised it much on purpose as they wanted to keep it low key as it was their first real attempt at orgainsing a running race. The other races in the series are later in the year.
There was only 40 something in the 10K and maybe 30max in the 5K so of course I hit the front within the first few metres and lead the whole way round, coming home first by a good distance.

The course was good, rough in parts, little climbs, and a good warning reminder to not go off too fast in this upcoming marathon with pacing being more difficult to judge.

The course was a little short at 5.9M but I average a solid 6.50 pace overall and represented work, coming away with a nice silver mug.
Annie from work finished 5th overall and 1st female but they only did awards to the first three across the line so we gave them feedback, maybe something they can think about changing for their next ones!

Four weeks to go!

Still training well, just got over the cold which really only made me miss one of the speed sessions.
Last weeks key weekend workout was 18M with the last 14M of that around 7.30 pace. Felt good during but lay on the sofa absolutely knackered later that afternoon.

Then now that we are outdoors for the speed workouts I stepped onto a running track for the first time in years to do a session. 10x400m with a 200m jog rec. Not much lighting when the sun went down halfway through and light drizzle that turned to rain as we finished but in the absence of the two faster guys I led the pack round in fairly consistent 75 to 72 secs.

One of the hardest workouts I've done in ages, the short recoveries were hell.

A slightly different week this week. On Monday, I went with a couple of colleagues and managers to our off-site warehouse (freight company) storage place in New Jersey and basically did a days tidying up of the entire stock we had there.
This mostly meant throwing fixtures away, taking stock of fixtures left there, finding two pallets of stock we didn't know was there and then lining up a pallet of old backpack hip belts to dispose of  due to a (very stinky) dead squirrel being found inside.

It's getting near to my three year anniversary of arriving to stay in the USA.
Three years ago who'd have thought I'd be sitting on the ground, in a warehouse car park, in New Jersey, eating a Subway sandwich!

Thursday our (flagship) REI store had a big event instore. The US National Parks have their centennial celebrations and REI are a main partner associated with this.
This meant a tidy up before a visit from some various big wigs! Just at the end of my shift we went upstairs and provided the audience for the CEO of REI and the Director of National Parks to make their announcements.

The bad news was I was on the edge of the photo and just got shrunk out, the good news, I was one of a few he shook the hand off. I thought that was a pretty cool thing.

This weekend Heather and I went out for a nice meal then went to the Beacon Theater to see Damien Rice.

Apart from one song where he was joined onstage by fellow Irishman Glen Hansard, plucked from the audience no less, he did the whole concert himself.
Similar to KT Tunstall (& Ed Sheerin) he uses the recording loop effect to make different background sounds and even backing vocals for himself.
Really good gig, really strong voice, one of the best I've seen in ages. The Beacon is a really nice old style theater venue too with comfy seats and plenty of leg room, what we look for now, ha ha.
Even though it has some strange Roman architecture thing going on.

Home late but up this morning to do my latest long run, 17M and I threw in a few random hills along the way as I ran through a lot of small parks.

A productive busy week!