Trail Dawgs 10k - Training Race 4.26.08

The Trail Dawgs Triple Crown Race took place on Saturday. This is one of the only local trail races that I know about, and it is a lot of fun. The morning starts with a marathon, 5 minutes later the half-marathon goes off. When the half finishes they hold a 10k followed by a 5k. All in the trails of White Clay State Park, just miles from the house. For those who want to participate in the Triple Crown, you must run the half, 10k and 5k - almost amounts to a full marathon.

Last year we participated in the 10k; this year I had not planned on it since the half ironman was just the week before. Shawn signed up early in the week, so I decided if I am going to go and watch I might as well use it as training - so I signed up.

It was a pretty uneventful run, I remembered the two steep hills at the end and held back for them. I had a nice chat with a friend that was in the race, ran with Shawn for a bit, and sucked some wind up the hills at the end. I ended in 57:56 and Shawn shortly behind in 1:00 flat. We both dropped significant time off our results from last year.

Fortmann was running the 5k and they have a nice picnic throughout all the races so we packed our cooler. When the 5k went off we walked down to the car and rewarded ourselves with a nice ice cold beer, got some burgers - they even had veggie burgers - and waited on Fortmann. He finished in great time, and was very happy with his finish. We all shared some more beer and enjoyed the lazy afternoon to follow.

Next up - this weekend we travel to North Carolina for our first Xterra of the season.