Otter Creek 8-Mile Trail Race

In my quest to become an official "trail" runner, I completed the Otter Creek 8-Mile Trail Race this morning. Though I had limited training (just five training days in the past six weeks), I felt relatively good on the up-and-down, very! muddy course. And it was a great experience for future trail runs.

While running with the lead pack, I lost a shoe less than a mile into the race. After around 20 seconds of running shoeless, I decided to go back to get the shoe since it was so early in the race. I lost about 2 minutes total time and about 20 places (it took me a while to actually get the shoe out of the mud and get it back on my feet). I sprinted around the runners that went past me while I was making a fool of myself in the mud, and eventually settled into around the fifth position.

Surprisingly, I felt good for most of the run, though a majority of the course was through almost un-runable mud. And the hills made it very tough to get decent footing or make up ground on the front runners. The downhills were just dangerous at times.

I won this race a few years back, when I was in much better shape, and finished third overall today. My time was around 1 hour and 1 minute, about five minutes slower than my best on the one-loop course.

Well...the race kind of got me pumped up to do more trail running, and longer distances. My plan is to run the Louisville Lovin' the Hills 50K (31 miles) on Feb. 16. After that, I might go to longer distances, find a marathon to run or get into triathlons.

My best times include 55 seconds for 400 meters, 2:04 for 800 meters, 4:20 for 1,500 meters, 16:30 for 5K, 27:05 for 8K, 33:50 for 10K, 1:16 for the half-marathon and 2:59 for the marathon. I also ran a 9:22 50-mile race in Chicago last year, but had a very rough second half (running the first 25 miles in 3:20 and the second in 6:02).

After too many "short" races to keep count, and four years of intense running in college, I'm now ready to make the leap into the ultramarathon world. Besides my one 50-miler, I've rode my bicycle from my house in Kentucky to Daytone Beach in Florida (averaging about 150 miles per day for 7 days), and I've run from Indiana to Tennessee (averaging around 40 miles per day for 6 days).

I will now concentrate on longer runs in training. Hopefully I'll be ready for the 31-miler!