Running with Eric

Wednesday night I ran my first trail race of the year at Durand Eastman Park, ironically at the site of my final trail race from last year. I finished the course in a rather slow 47:55 which was well off my pace from last fall.

I had gotten almost no sleep the night before, so I knew that my performance wasn’t going to be great from the get go. I actually fell into a nice pace on the flat sections, but the trail was mostly hills, and I ended up walking too many of the uphill sections.

Both the Flower City Half and the Buffalo Marathon are scheduled for June, but I may find another race to run before then.

On the morning of Halloween I ran the final Dirt Cheap race of the year at Durand Eastman Park. I finished in 40:25 which was quicker than I was last year. In fact this is a course PR for me, and while this year’s course did not include the opening loop around the shelter the 1:46 improvement over my 2017 time should more than make up for that.

The morning of the race was very cold, and I regretted not wearing gloves, but the ground was fortunately dry. I had a few minor slips as I slid down the side of a leaf covered slope, but no major tumbles on the course. As with the last race this was a wave start, and I had a good amount of company for the first half of the race. It was probably the best that I felt in a race all year, even if I am aware that my training doesn’t really have me prepared for marathon distances I was running last year.

Anticlimactically this looks as if it might be my last race for the year. I didn’t end up running a single road race. Hopefully the running calendar looks more normal in 2021.

On wednesday night I went up to Durand-Eastman park to run in the monthly Dirt Cheap trail race. I finished the race in 43:05 quicker than all but one of the past four years. Three minutes quicker than last year, and less then a minute behind my PR.

The race started out pretty steady, and the early trails were in good shape. I didn’t fall at all, but the middle section included some sections where I needed to slow down to avoid sliding off the side of the trail. I walked one of the steeper hills in the middle, but pushed on the final two two climbs to get a good finish.

My next trail race will be a but longer as I head down to Letchworth to run 26.3 miles at Sehgahunda.

Wednesday night I ran the second Dirt Cheap race of the year at Durand Eastman Park. I finished the run in 46:21 which was quicker than 2015, but slower than I was the past two years.

I was thankful that this trail was more dirt than mud, yet I tripped once a little over halfway through. Overall I felt ok, but am feeling unprepared for the Buffalo Marathon at the end of this month.

Wednesday night I ran another trail race through Durand Eastman Park. I finished in 42:06 which is a PR for this course.

In the three years that I have been running this race, I am fairly certain that I have yet to complete this course without at least one wrong turn. Still, I finished in 79th place and in the top quartile of runners.

On Wednesday night I took part in the penultimate Dirt Cheap race at Durand Eastman Park. I finished the 4.4ish mile course in 45 minutes and 11 seconds. This is a five minute improvement from last year, and I felt good during the race.

It has been over a month, but I have finally done a race that didn’t involve any biking or swimming. On Wednesday night I ran the penultimate leg of the Dirt Cheap Trail series at Durand Eastman Park near the shore of Lake Ontario. I finished with a time of 50:09. Unfortunately some of the later waves ended up taking some major shortcuts so I am unable to compare my time to the field.

Surprisingly I was more or less recovered from the Tri, but it was an extremely hot day which slowed down my run a bit. Were I to do the course again on a cooler day (and not taking two wrong turns), I think I could easily improve my time.