Dirty Dog 10K Trail Run

On Saturday I ran in my third Dirty Dog Trail Run. This year unlike the past two years, the weather was not in the single digits (or negative with the windchill), but a balmy 30 degrees! Actually with the wind coming off the lake, I was still cold I must admit!!!

Three carloads of us met in Parkman and headed down to the run. Upon arrival we picked up our packets. Bob got a $20 gift card to Dicks and several others got random give-aways. That particular race stuffs goodies in the bags at random and does not do awards at the end. Something different that I can imagine some people appreciate...at least we don't have to wait around after the event in the cold waiting for awards!

So after picking up our stuff we headed to the car to stay warm before the start. As we lined up on the icy parking lot we were told that it was slick and to be careful. Yet with the start I saw a couple people go down before we journeyed onto the single track trail in the woods.

I started out a little faster than I had planned to go. I had been planning on treating it as a fun run, but I charged out like bull into the arena. As we ran through the woods I found that even though the snow was not deep, the icy uneven footing was really slowing me down and make me work harder than I felt like I wanted to do.

The course offers some gorgeous views of Mosquito lake where the ice fishers were out as usual. I did manage to catch a stabbing to my calf from some evil little stick...okay so it was more of a scratch, but it still hurt! As we journeyed on to the road section, even with the ice I found it to be the only time I could remotely get into a rhthym. As we encountered the long stretch next to the Route 46 where we would run through the brushy field I slowed down. I was trying to be careful of my footing and spending way too much time trying to keep my feet dry. Right before the end of this section my friend Bob caught me and I was happy to have a friendly face to run with. As we headed up the grassy hill and back down the the water stop, I was relieved to be past the worst of the footing. As we entered back into the woods we encountered a road with a slight uphill grade for some ways. Though it was uphill, I was feeling better as I finally was not jockeying so hard for foot positioning.

On the last bit of single track I was actually starting to get a nice second wind and as Bob and I came around a developement, I started picking up the pace a bit as I knew the end was near. About the half way point I had soaked my foot and from that point on I quit trying to avoid the water. That was a good thing as there was plenty of it the last mile or so.

As we hit the finish line, Bob and I finished in 50:38, which is about 5 minutes better than last year. Granted the course was changed and the snow was not deep, but I think we also ran it better. While I was not thrilled with the time, I reminded myself I was trying to run it as a fun run and I actually had managed to come in as the Overall First Female finisher!

The best part of races I have found is being done. I congratulated Bob's brother Bill who finished about 3.5 minutes ahead of us as we munched some cookies and waited for all our other pals to finish.

We had intended to all go out to breakfast in Parkman afterwards but the restaurant was closed. So we headed up the street to Middlefield to Mary Yoders for some good ole fashioned Amish cooking (which definitely trumped what I would have ate in Parkman) and then me and my full belly headed home for a lazy afternoon!