A lot more people were running in this small trail located in Kirkland WA. More than 100 were running 5.2 miles (1 loop), another 100 were running 10.4 miles (2 loops), a little more than a dozen teams were running 50 Km relay, and about 50 people were running their 50 Km solo.
The race started with 5 milers at about 3:10 pm, followed by 10 milers a few minutes later. Finally all 50K relay teams and solo runners started at around 3:20 pm when sun was still hung over the horizon. Despite the wave start, the first lap was truly messy with the crowd of runners in the narrow muddy trail. Especially passing the tailing end of 1-loopers and 2-loopers was really tricky not to mention to the technical and muddy trail condition. I came around the aid station after the first lap for 43 minutes which was faster than my goal pace of 50 min per loop. I pulled out my head lamp from my drop bag and continued for the 2nd lap.
It was getting dark and my headlamp with fresh batteries made me feel comfortable in the beginning of 2nd lap with all 1 loopers were gone. I tried to slow down my pace slightly since I sped a little too much in the 1st lap. True night-time trail running started under dark sky. Even with head lamp, footing was very tricky so I gave up evading muddy puddles. My feet were all soaked and muddy from there. At the end of the 2nd lap, I got a hot spot on my left foot but kept going. After using potty, eating some food, and refilling water bottle at aid station, I went out for the 3rd lap.
About 1 mile into the 3rd lap, I got a blister issue on my left foot. I regretted not treating the blister in the previous aid station. I had fresh and dry socks in my drop bag there. Well, I had to slow down my pace a little more. Other than the blister on the left foot, I felt good. Several speedy runners passed me in the 3rd lap. I assumed they were relay teams or really competitive solo runners who were at their 4th lap. I arrived at the aid station, pulled off the wet socks, popped the blister, put a bandaid on it, and pulled up new socks on. I felt really good for the moment.
My 4th lap didn't go fast either. I needed to wait for my popped blister to settle in the bandaid and new socks. Probably, it wast the slowest lap out of all 6. At the aid station, Tony warned me that Shawn was very close to finish her 5th lap and might catch me up pretty soon.
I decided to put together and make a good run on my 5th lap. I felt pretty good with increased pace. No one had passed me in my 5th lap which took me 45 minutes. It happened to be my 2nd fastest lap. I grabbed a few things at aid station and went out for the last lap.
Knowing that I was almost done, my legs were getting heavier. So, I just slowed down and enjoyed the last lap of the race. My batteries were getting low since the light was getting dimmer. I needed to carry some extra batteries or run really fast. But it was just good enough to finish.
I came back to the parking lot and got changed. My shoes (Brooks Cascadia 4) looked horrible after running through muddy Bridle Trails. Without comprehending how to make them look like shoes again, I just pounded them on the ground repeatedly and threw them in the trunk. Another lesson that I learned in this race was to bing some gallons of water to wash after the run.
It was a great training course for night-time trail run. 5:27:17 finish time was 26th place out of 46 solo finishers.
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