Q50 Races Bleua Moon Trail 10 Miler Race Report:
This past Saturday was the first time in a while that I ran a race that I trained for. The race was at Fountainebleau State Park in Mandeville, LA which is about a hour and a half from my home. The race starts at 8:30 PM which is a little different from most races that I have run. To start the day off, instead of running the family and I went to the farmers market to get some goodies for the week. Got home around lunch time, ate a light lunch and finally got around to installing baby locks on the cabinets. Took a nap around 4 PM and started to prepare for the race around 5:15. Left home for 6:00 and arrived shortly after 7:15. Picked up my bib and shirt and took in some sights. Meant to take a picture along the lake of the sun setting but I missed it. Instead all I got is this moment right before the sun finally went down.
After I took this photo I went to my truck and changed into my race stuff, applied a lot of bug spray and went for a nice easy warm-up mile. During my warm-up a saw a few deer which is always nice! I went back to my truck and got my fuel belt, took a GU and some fluids and went to the starting line. According to the race director this was the largest turnout for this race. They have two options for this race, a 5 or 10 miler. The 10 milers run the same route twice, after the first 5 miles you are required to check in before going back out. The race starts in a open area and you run towards Lake Pontchartrain, and then along it for a short distance. This part was nice as you get a nice breeze. You then turn away from the lake and run through some sand and mostly grass. Two things I learned quickly here, sand will kill you pace, the other OMG the amount of bugs was out of control. Once we got into the woods the bug were no longer a problem and shortly after I hit mile one (9:47). My goal was 1:35:00 which would have been around a 9:30 pace. The first mile was also a bit crowded so I was not overly concerned at that moment. The next few miles are spent in the woods. Since I am taller than most, the spider webs at my head level have not been knocked down by the runners in front of me, so I got to deal with that lol. As I approached mile 2 I realized that styaing on goal pace was very unlikely to happen. Mile 2 (9:56). During mile 3 I had my first few sips of water and decided to change my goal up to just running on the effort I would a 10 miler on pavement. There were to many things for me to overcome with roots, holes in the ground that are hidden by the grass I decided to take it a little slower and hit mile 3 in (10:29). Mile 4 I took down another GU and finished my second bottle of water. At this point I am drenched, it did not feel hot outside, but it was humid. I think it was around 82 at the start of the race. I make it back to the check in point. I decided to fill up my water bottles with some water and then take back off. Starting back out, the bugs were gone now!!! Was very happy about that development. Mile 4 (10:34), mile 5 (10:05), mile 6 (10:18) all went well enough. Took my last GU during mile 7 (10:51) and did a little walking during mile 8 (11:11) when I felt something burning in my left foot. So I lost a safety pin before the race and looked all over for it. During this point of the race I thought I had found it and it was bothering my foot as I run around with it. Decided not to completely stop since I was almost done, mile 9 (10:53). The last part of the race is mostly out of the woods so I was able to pick things up a bit and finished with a 10:01 pace. My overall pace was 10:25 and per my Garmin the distance was short at 9.68 miles. Close enough for me for a trail run. My Garmin finish time was 1:40:51, which I started when I crossed the starting line, but since the race was not chipped time the gun time is the only thing they went by. Official finish time is 1:41:00 which I think is the first time I finished a race with zero seconds lol.
Post race I grabbed a water and head to my truck to figure out what exactly was in my shoe. Turns out nothing was in my shoe, but I did have a blister! I havent had a blister from running in years, so maybe that explains why I did suspect that earlier during the run. Grabbed my chocolate milk out my ice chest and head back towards where the post race activities were happening. They had cold pasta salad and seafood gumbo. I passed on both as I cant have the gumbo and not a fan of pasta salad. Stuck around for awards, which I did not win any and did not expect to. Before heading home I changed out of my wet running clothes and prepared for my drive home. Below are post race pics with finishers medal which happen to be a homemade medal. Thought it was really cool. Also is a picture of the route.
Overall I am pleased with my experience. It is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I achieved my primary goals which was get a POT race and get into decent enough shape to do so. According to
@DopeyBadger s thread on POT this race should be good enough for corral D placement which is 4:30 -5:00 marathon. I also can cross off another goal after the race which was to run 100 miles in a month. When the race was completed I had 104.28 miles so far for August.
Weight wise I weighed in this morning at 220.9. This is a good sign because I typically weigh the most on Mondays and this is where I left off before the weekend. I may also give 125 mile for the month a run before the end of the month but that will require adding a few miles here and there to my current schedule so we shall see.
Thanks for reading along and hope you enjoyed.
Next Race is Space City 10 Miler on October 7. Last chance to move up a corral or two hopefully!