Running with Eric

On wednesday night I ran the Dirt Cheap Trail Race at Black Creek Park in Chili. I finished the course in 43:18 although given how different the course was from previous years, I don’t have much to compare that time to. Compared to the crowd I was rather fast, finishing 34th overall, and in the top 20 percentile.

While the course felt shorter than previous years it was a fun course, with lots of single track trails. While it was nice that most of the course was in the shade, it was still a very warm night to run. Still it was fun to get out there as this was my first mid-week race in a very long time.

On Wednesday night I ran the first Dirt Cheap Trail Race of the year at Black Creek Park. This was my first race in over five months which I believe is the longest gap that I have had between races in the past decade.

As the first race that I have run in the middle of the pandemic a few things were a bit different. The race operated as a time trial with runners free to start at any point within a two hour window. With the starting times so spread out, and the field limited to those who (like me) signed up for the series back in March, it was a bit lonely on the course. I only saw five other runners the whole time, and (by definition) none of them were running at a similar pace to me. I understand that the race has to follow whatever the current state guidelines are, but I would have preferred to see a traditional race format. For a race through the woods with such a small field, everyone was going to spread out fairly quickly anyhow.

For the race itself, I finished the course in 47:20 which placed me as the 22nd fastest finisher, but was slower than 2019 and 2018. Perhaps I was slow because I lacked the energy and adrenaline of a standard race. Perhaps it was because I am out of shape after having an empty race calendar all summer. Or maybe the 85 degree heat, and that fact that I had been working outside all morning meant that I wasn’t going to put up a great time on this day even if this had been a normal year.

Overall I found this race format a bit uninspired. While I will complete this series (another race is scheduled for next friday), I don’t plan on going out of my way to sign up for many races until they start looking like races again.

On Wednesday night I ran the fifth Dirt Cheap Race of the year. I finished in 45:05 almost a minute quicker than last year.

While it was warm in the sun, most of the course at Black Creek Park is thankfully in the shade. The course was dry, and more uphill than I remembered, but the wide trails were easy to run. I felt like I was getting passed a lot, but the improvement in my time from last year shows that it was actually a decent effort.

My next two races will also be on trails as I start September with the final Dirt Cheap Race and the Webster Trail Classic.

Wednesday night I ran yet another trail race at Black Creek Park. This was part of the Dirt Cheap trail series, and a good bit shorter than my last two trail races. I completed the run in 46:00, which placed me as the 100th finisher. My time was quicker than last year, but this is rather meaningless as the course was a bit shorter.

The weather was great, and the trail was fairly dry, so everything was set for this to be a good run. However, for some unknown reason I couldn’t get mentally ready for this race. My overall finish time and placement points to my pace being roughly as expected, but I just felt slow. The second time up the hill my legs felt dead, although I did manage to run all the way up. (If this was tactically a good idea is probably up for debate).

The next dirt cheap race is September 5th, although I may run another race before then.

On Wednesday I ran the second Dirt Cheap race of the year at Black Creek Park. I finished the course in 53:44 which placed me 104th and among the top third of finishers.

The race was originally scheduled for earlier in the month, but got postponed to avoid ruining some trails that had been flooded. Unfortunately this placed the race just days before the Buffalo Marathon, so I made an effort to take it easy in this race instead of going at full pace.

Next up is my first marathon of the year, on Sunday morning in downtown Buffalo.

Yesterday I ran the second Dirt Cheap Trail Race of the year at Black Creek Park. I finished the course in 45:35 which is over a minute quicker than I was last year.

Once again I started way to quick (I was one of the first twenty runners to reach the top of the hill), and then felt sluggish in the rest of the race. Despite not feeling great about the run, the results indicate that I actually did ok. I finished in the top 25 percentile, which is better than both this year’s first Dirt Cheap race, and last year’s race at this same park.

Yesterday saw me complete my second trail run of the year at Black Creek Park. I finished the slightly over five mile course with a time of 46:57. While there were a few hills, the course was flatter than most of the Dirt Cheap races, which is why my time was a bit quicker than my last trail race despite a slightly longer distance.

My time put me in 103rd place and the top 32nd percentile, which is slightly ahead of where I finished in the first trail race of the season.