A Muddy Mud In Your Eye 8k

What a great race! I don’t think I’ve ever competed in a muddier cross country event. Yesterday’s showers, coupled with driving rain before and during the race, made for perfect “Mud In Your Eye” conditions – in my opinion anyway.

My legs were a tad achy this morning after yesterday’s solo World Media Run, but after a brief warm up in the rain, and 4 or 5 minutes stretching, I was raring to go. I could tell many of the race entrants were not sharing my enthusiasm and the bizarre pre-race thunder and lightning didn’t help their mood either. After a brief warning to be careful on the sodden course and a couple of quick “have a good race” exchanges, the horn sounded and we were off.

The first 200 meters were a lot of fun – a huge stampede of adrenaline pumped runners, charging through the puddles towards the first turn. I must have been in about 50th place or worse as were traced the outline of a lacrosse field and headed back towards the start line where a pleasant surprise was in store – a neat stack of hay bales to be jumped, hurdled or climbed over. Instead of hurdling as I did last year, I chose to step onto the first bale, up onto the top pile and push off to land on the ground – great fun!

Just around the next couple of turns we passed the one mile marker, which came in at about 6 minutes 8 seconds. I soon realized today would not be a day for a fast time, but with nearly four miles to go, there was still a lot of racing to be done. The next portion of the race headed out to a narrow trail around the back of the college campus on which we were running, and signaled the start of the mud! I closely tracked a couple of runners but made sure I looked ahead to follow the best [least muddy] route. Before we knew it, however, we were off the trail and onto a road which would take us to the two mile mark and the only “hill” of the course.

Mile 2 was a bit slower (6:12), and although I’d passed several struggling runners by this point, I was starting to feel rather fatigued myself. Approaching the three mile mark we had to navigate the hay bales once again – this time they were significantly softer than on the first loop, and I almost lost a shoe in the soggy haystack. Mile 3 came in at 6:30 (my slowest) and once again we headed out to the muddy trail which was now quite badly cut up and even soggier than just 15 minutes earlier.

With the incentive of catching a couple of runners ahead, I somehow quickened to a 6:25 fourth mile, and realizing there was less than a mile to race, pushed on to the finish. I managed to catch two of the runners in front of me, but was passed in return by two other runners in the final half mile. As the clock ticked well into the 31 minutes, I sprinted through the puddles and towards the finish line, unaware that I’d quickened a little more to a 6:21 final mile.

I finished the 8k in 31 minutes 44 seconds, good enough for 12th place overall and 1st in the 40-44 age group – not my fastest 8k XC race, but a solid effort after yesterday’s 5k and in today’s challenging conditions.

About an hour later at the post race awards ceremony, and after a 1.5 mile cool down and a change into semi-dry clothes, I found out I’d won the 3 race series 40-44 age group by about 6 minutes. Also, I’m now the proud owner of a very cool and unique trophy (above left) which has been added to my growing collection.

This is the fourth year of the Mud In Your Eye XC Series and I’ve been lucky enough to compete in every race. Today’s race, although cold, wet and miserable to many, was so much fun and a great test of strength and character, but I must admit I’m feeling a little jaded tonight after 2 big efforts in 2 days. I’m looking forward, however, to picking myself up and preparing for tomorrow’s Colonial Half Marathon – a challenging, hilly 13.1 mile race that takes place about an hour away in Williamsburg, Virginia. Luckily start time isn’t until 1pm, so at least I can use the morning to get myself mentally and physically ready.