Flirt with Dirt 5K Race Report

Yesterday was the Flirt with Dirt 5K at Lakeshore Park in Novi. The park has mountain biking and hiking trails. The race took place on the bike trails.

The temperature was in the low 50s so in other words, perfect. The skies were cloudy. The park is small and we arrived early because we figured parking would be a nightmare. We were wrong - they were very organized and we parked quickly. I'd already picked up my race packet on Friday so David and I just milled around until it was time for the race to start.

They started us off down a grassy hill and we ran a lap around a soccer field, then along the driveway to the trailhead and finally onto the trail. I positioned myself about midway back in the pack and I really don't know if that was a good idea or not. The trail was mostly very narrow singletrack so there weren't a lot of opportunities to pass or be passed. There were a number of times that I was right on someone's heels and could have been going faster but there was no way to get around. Of course, there were also times when someone was on my heels and couldn't get past me, so I suppose it all evens out in the end.

About 3/4 mile into the race, it started to rain. Fortunately, it wasn't raining very hard and the trees shielded us from most of it, anyway. I quickly forgot that it was raining and never even noticed when it stopped.

At one point the girl in front of me tripped on a root or something and fell forward, arms splayed out, right on her face. Ooof! I stopped to ask if she was okay and she said yes, then apologized to me for blocking me! Sheesh, I was just glad she didn't get seriously hurt. We continued to run and she said "ouch" and kept looking at her left palm. I bet she ended up with some fun bruises and scratches.

The trail had hills but not any that were as long as the hills on the first trail race I did, so I didn't have too much trouble. I was really pleased that I didn't walk during this race at all, unlike the previous trail race. It was uphill to the finish so I was huffing and puffing by the time I got there and didn't exactly cross the line in a blaze of speed, but that's okay.

I had two goals for the race:

1) Don't fall. (I fell during the first trail race, ugh!)
2) Keep a faster pace than the last trail race.

Mission accomplished on both counts! Woo hoo! I finished 10th in my age group, which sounds pretty awesome until you find out that there were only 15 racers in my group. :) I finished 96 out 155 overall. Good or bad? I don't know, but I was happy with my performance.