This race was a blast and so different from all of the same old flat and sometimes bland 5k road races I’m used to running down here in South Florida. The trails of Oleta River State Recreation Area in North Miami set the scene for an Eco or Ranger like challenge running right left and up and down (yes, up and down). There were three water crossings as well as a log crossing.
Running in the woods is different in nature (no pun) than road racing as you spend most of your time looking down to avoid twisting an ankle. You also can’t see too far past the next turn of the trail. This adds minutes to your time compared to road race of the same distance. But it also seems to give you a bigger gas can. Maybe its the slower pace or the fact your head can’t play head games with the distance you would have been able to see further down in a road race.
Anyways, the race itself went well. I finished with a time of 54:53. That’s about a minute faster than the last off road 10k about six weeks ago and yet I came in 10th instead of fifth. Go figure. I thought I did better too because of a believed screw up that turned out to be blessing.
There was supposed to be a 15 minute gap between the start of the half marathon and both the 10k and 5k starts. After the half starts I run to the bathroom one last time. As I’m running back I hear a blast of the air horn – way less than 15 minutes after the half marathoners took off. I get to the starting group for the next start and ask one of the runners if the 10k group had already started. He must have misunderstood me and said yes. The air horn goes off again and I think I’m running with only the 5k’ers. The first twenty minutes I ran as hard I passing people in hopes of making up time. Turns out the 5k and 10k started off together as planned.
The race was small in comparison to the run of the mill road race yet the experience was equally or more pleasant. I talked to some great people after the race. That never happens at the other races unless I run into someone I already knew. I wish I would have stepped out of my shell more and talked more to one stunning runner in particular.
Theses smaller races mean the promoter has less of a budget for the thrills like tech t-shirts and chip timing. The promoter Marlon Jael is a great guy and aptly named his Down to Earth race series (http://www.worksmartplayharder.com). I was happy to see his races growing in turn out. His races are fun and creative and offer runners an exciting but doable change. Hopefully the larger turnout can help with the chips:)
MALE 10K
231 0:42:32 Scott Reiter 49 10 K m
9 0:42:44 Gil Pol 10 K m
158 0:43:45 Lewis Price 18 10 K m
10 0:47:25 Josh Tobin 10 K m
247 0:47:30 Andrew Sendry 10 K m
174 0:48:16 SERGIO SUPERVIELLE 39 10 K m
87 0:49:13 john robbins 32 10 K m
238 0:52:29 Dave Miller 10 K m
15 0:54:30 Roberto Cordero 10 K m
148 0:54:53 Paul Buijs 32 10 K m
219 0:55:35 Daniel Rodriguez 46 10 K m
179 0:57:51 Jeremy Gleason 34 10 K m
237 0:57:52 Victor Heras 10 K m
187 0:58:59 Nicholas Tucker 30 10 K m
143 1:04:24 Tavis Ramsay 31 10 K m
225 1:04:58 JC Ryan 28 10 K m
190 1:05:50 Frank Gonzalez 25 10 K m
181 1:07:17 German Llanos 33 10 K m
183 1:08:27 Luis Diaz 40 10 K m
129 1:12:36 Bertrand Piller 33 10 K m
98 1:14:06 Glicer Umbaugh 54 10 K m
165 1:16:37 Patrick Lunn 34 10 K m
249 1:16:37 David Gomez 10 K m
133 1:24:27 Romeo Treviño 31 10 K m
132 1:55:54 Isaias Matancillas 31 10 K m
88 Patrick O’Connor 35 10 K m
177 Chris Garone 49 10 K m
135 Sean Kennelly 30 10 K m
