5/17/15 - Paul Mitchell XTERRA White Clay Creek 21K Trail Race-RD- Adventure Geek Productions
Adventure Geek Productions Link
This is one race out of a series of 5 Paul Mitchell XTERRA events put on by Adventure Geek Racing. (I missed the first 2 due to running in other races) This is also a qualifying series to be invited to the XTERRA Nationals later in the year. (See site for more details.)
Last June I ran the Big Elk Half (one of the races in this series) as my first ‘longer’ trail event and was hooked! So I patiently waited for this year’s dates to be posted so I could get them on my calendar because I wanted to try to qualify for my invite…… sadly when the dates came out, I was only able to run 2 of the events due to calendar conflicts. I still took advantage of the early sign-up discounts and got signed up for this and the Big Elk event.
I have been looking forward to this event as it was held at my main training grounds for trails, I was hoping it would give me an edge…..
Weather was a concern all week building up to this race as there had been thunderstorms rolling in on a non-consistent basis and while it poured at my home the night before, the park seemed pretty dry when we arrived. There was a chance of rain all morning (it did start to rain with about 3 miles to go). The bigger issue was that humidity was very high and my concern, once again, was getting enough water in during the race.
Check-in went smoothly and we got a nice white tech shirt with the race logo and sponsors on it along with some goodies in our swag bags. I have worn the shirt and the fit was great! (On a side note, not a big fan of white as it is hard to keep white…..) The park had ‘plumbed’ facilities so it was nice to not have to use porta-pots.
Race start- The RD gave some last minute directions and we waited for the start of the race. Kind of strange, but everyone seemed to be waiting for someone to go into the corral to start the positioning game for the start of the event. After the first guy lined up, we all filed in. The 10k and 21k both started together. Shortly after we were off…….
The first 1.5 miles is mainly run on a mown meadow grass trail with some bare single track here and there. The terrain was rolling hills and that made it hard to settle into a grove because once you found a good pace, you were going up or down. Also, in the first mile there was lot of jockeying for position. By the time you finish the loop out in the meadow field, the runners had spread out so you did not have to worry about being bunched up. Once out of the field we crossed back over to single track trails in the woods and the 1st aid station. Once on the single track the 10k folks really seemed to put the burners on and I felt a little ‘pushed’ on my pace as I had 3-4 10k folks on my heels.
About a mile into the single track I took my first fall of the race, I was pushing pretty hard and tripped on the basic rock….. I took a good roll off the trail but quickly recovered and got on my way. I was already concerned about my heartrate before I fell, but after my HR went through the roof! I felt a little banged up and could tell I hurt something. During the rest of the race my shoulder was sore, but in the end it turned out my wrist that was what I really hurt and did not feel the pain until after finishing (more later…). About ¼ mile after the first fall we came to a hanging grapevine and down tree, I tried to shuffle to swing around the grapevine and over the tree, but miss calculated and ended up catching my toe on the jagged end of the down tree, ripping the top off my left shoe and scraping my big toe on that foot. My body slammed into the tree trunk with a good thud….. but I quickly recovered and was on my way. About another ¼ mile and the 10k’ers split off and I was off on the 21k course.
Once the 10k’ers split off things seemed to come together for me, but I was all alone and upped my pace to try to catch the group in front of me. The terrain at this point was mostly downhill until we got down to an access road and the 2nd aid station. I stopped and got some water and headed on down the access road. There were recreational folks hiking/running on the access road but they stayed out of the way of us runners. Once dropping off the access road we took the Nature Preserve Trail that followed the White Clay Creek. It wound along the shore with minor ditch crossings here and there. Overall very runnable with a little sand here and there. At the end of the trail I popped out onto a road and at this point felt lost. There was not a real good marker on what direction to go, so I ran up the road, and way off in the distance I could see a sign with an arrow on it. By this point, another runner had caught up to me and we both agreed it had to be the right direction.
I paired up with this other runner as we entered on the David English Trail on the clockwise direction. I train on this trail on a regular basis, so I was prepared for the rolling trail that is well maintained, it has some decent inclines and declines. The thing about the trails on this side of the park are they seem to ‘roll’ and there are lots of what appear to be ‘man made’ humps with rocks placed in a nice pattern. My guess is, this is done for the mountain bikers? Speaking of mountain bikers, there were not any on the trails that day! About 3/4 of the way around the David English Trail we dropped down and crossed over to the Whitley Farms Trail. There was a well-stocked aid station at the crossover. We traveled around the Whitley Farms Trail clockwise and I also train on this trail often. Knowing the trail I knew that the first half would be mainly an incline and the back-half was a decline so I chugged along. I and the other runner with me had not seen another runner for 3-4 miles and I did start to question if we were on the correct trail. If I had not known the trails, I would have slowed down and tried to find markers, which there were none. We came to another aid station about halfway around the Whitley Farms Trail and took some time to get some more water in and asked how many runners ahead of us? They thought about 10. At this point I knew the rest of this trail was downhill so I took off and tried to catch the next runner. The guy I had been running with quickly let me know he could not hold my pace and I finished up the rest of the Whitley Farms trail alone. I hit the aid station at the crossover back to the David English Trail and took in a lot of water here. Sweat was pouring off me from the humidity. I quickly finished up the rest of the David English trail and passed a few runners that were still on their way out to the trail loops as I backtracked to the Nature Preserve trail.
Once back on the Nature Preserve trail I was able to see a few runners ahead of me and they were fading quickly as I caught them. I crossed back over the access road and hit the aid-station for a few more cups of water before hitting the final stretch.
I should of known when I turned off the access road back onto the final trail that is was horror ahead. I was able run up the major incline and past 2 more runners only to be brought to a walk shortly after from the steep incline that went on for most of the next mile. When it got flat or downhill I ran. By this point we had merged back onto the 10k course so we could see the markers. Shortly after passing the marker that said ‘mile 4’ for the 10k and new then that the 21k course was longer than 21k, my GPS had me at mile 12 of 13.1. Hope was, it was a miscalculation. You had to take advantage of the flatter ground to get your pace down. Somewhere in here I hit the last aid station and thanks to the staff there, got back on the correct trail, an up-hill trail none the less………, uuuuggggg. To add to the hill climb, it also started to rain at this point.
Once I got to the top of the hill I popped out on another dirt access road and chugged along. At this point I was looking for any marker to make sure I was on the correct trail and was very concerned a turn had been missed. Again, way in the distance I saw a sign with an arrow. I knew I was very near the finish line as I could see the parking lot where I parked, but the arrow pointed me away from the finish so I followed it downhill and at the bottom started the next major incline back to the start/finish line. Once I popped out of the woods for the final incline into the finish I passed a few more runners that were running on empty and ran it in for the finish.
I finished well past my expected finish time and really felt the humidity had taken a toll on me. All the talk at the finish line was that most runners GPS was coming up with 14+ miles (mine said 13.89). I would quickly respond that is was a trail race and that is just the nature of a trail race, LOL. I was happy with my overall effort and placed 2nd in my age group. After I got some more water and lots of fruit in me, I went to go get cleaned up and this is when my wrist pain started pretty intense. We hung around for the awards and I gathered my pint glass for placing. (Update on my wrist: The next day my thumb and wrist turned black & blue. A few days later my wrist became very swollen and more black & blue. As of today wrist is still sore but no black & blue.)
Overall, I think most of the runners would say that this was a well-run event and things went off without a hitch. There could have been a few more trail markers (I did see some finishers cut the course where I could see the parking lot, or I missed a marker that led me to the parking lot?) Aid stations were well stocked and had enough staff. The course is challenging and even more challenging for the average ‘road’ runner. A lot of the folks I talked too came from the roads and did not know what to expect. I am looking forward to the next Adventure Geek Event in June!
My GPS course: http://www.mapmyrun.com/us/newark-de/white-clay-21k-course-1500280
21k Time: 2:12:01
Shoes: Montrail Fluidflex II (Started with toe rip on right foot, finished with both ripped…. L)
Gear: Cheap calf sleeves, shorts, tech shirt, Headsweats cap.
Pre-race Food- Cliff Bar, 1 banana, coffee, Vega Pre-Sport Energizer drink, Mamma Chia Squeeze.
Fueling during the race- Water at every aid station, Mocha Cliff Shot at mile 4.75, Choc Cherry Cliff Shot at mile 9.5
Post-Race Food- Bananas, watermelon, water, Nuun tab in water.
Adventure Geek Productions Link
This is one race out of a series of 5 Paul Mitchell XTERRA events put on by Adventure Geek Racing. (I missed the first 2 due to running in other races) This is also a qualifying series to be invited to the XTERRA Nationals later in the year. (See site for more details.)
Last June I ran the Big Elk Half (one of the races in this series) as my first ‘longer’ trail event and was hooked! So I patiently waited for this year’s dates to be posted so I could get them on my calendar because I wanted to try to qualify for my invite…… sadly when the dates came out, I was only able to run 2 of the events due to calendar conflicts. I still took advantage of the early sign-up discounts and got signed up for this and the Big Elk event.
I have been looking forward to this event as it was held at my main training grounds for trails, I was hoping it would give me an edge…..
Weather was a concern all week building up to this race as there had been thunderstorms rolling in on a non-consistent basis and while it poured at my home the night before, the park seemed pretty dry when we arrived. There was a chance of rain all morning (it did start to rain with about 3 miles to go). The bigger issue was that humidity was very high and my concern, once again, was getting enough water in during the race.
Check-in went smoothly and we got a nice white tech shirt with the race logo and sponsors on it along with some goodies in our swag bags. I have worn the shirt and the fit was great! (On a side note, not a big fan of white as it is hard to keep white…..) The park had ‘plumbed’ facilities so it was nice to not have to use porta-pots.
Race start- The RD gave some last minute directions and we waited for the start of the race. Kind of strange, but everyone seemed to be waiting for someone to go into the corral to start the positioning game for the start of the event. After the first guy lined up, we all filed in. The 10k and 21k both started together. Shortly after we were off…….
The first 1.5 miles is mainly run on a mown meadow grass trail with some bare single track here and there. The terrain was rolling hills and that made it hard to settle into a grove because once you found a good pace, you were going up or down. Also, in the first mile there was lot of jockeying for position. By the time you finish the loop out in the meadow field, the runners had spread out so you did not have to worry about being bunched up. Once out of the field we crossed back over to single track trails in the woods and the 1st aid station. Once on the single track the 10k folks really seemed to put the burners on and I felt a little ‘pushed’ on my pace as I had 3-4 10k folks on my heels.
About a mile into the single track I took my first fall of the race, I was pushing pretty hard and tripped on the basic rock….. I took a good roll off the trail but quickly recovered and got on my way. I was already concerned about my heartrate before I fell, but after my HR went through the roof! I felt a little banged up and could tell I hurt something. During the rest of the race my shoulder was sore, but in the end it turned out my wrist that was what I really hurt and did not feel the pain until after finishing (more later…). About ¼ mile after the first fall we came to a hanging grapevine and down tree, I tried to shuffle to swing around the grapevine and over the tree, but miss calculated and ended up catching my toe on the jagged end of the down tree, ripping the top off my left shoe and scraping my big toe on that foot. My body slammed into the tree trunk with a good thud….. but I quickly recovered and was on my way. About another ¼ mile and the 10k’ers split off and I was off on the 21k course.
Once the 10k’ers split off things seemed to come together for me, but I was all alone and upped my pace to try to catch the group in front of me. The terrain at this point was mostly downhill until we got down to an access road and the 2nd aid station. I stopped and got some water and headed on down the access road. There were recreational folks hiking/running on the access road but they stayed out of the way of us runners. Once dropping off the access road we took the Nature Preserve Trail that followed the White Clay Creek. It wound along the shore with minor ditch crossings here and there. Overall very runnable with a little sand here and there. At the end of the trail I popped out onto a road and at this point felt lost. There was not a real good marker on what direction to go, so I ran up the road, and way off in the distance I could see a sign with an arrow on it. By this point, another runner had caught up to me and we both agreed it had to be the right direction.
I paired up with this other runner as we entered on the David English Trail on the clockwise direction. I train on this trail on a regular basis, so I was prepared for the rolling trail that is well maintained, it has some decent inclines and declines. The thing about the trails on this side of the park are they seem to ‘roll’ and there are lots of what appear to be ‘man made’ humps with rocks placed in a nice pattern. My guess is, this is done for the mountain bikers? Speaking of mountain bikers, there were not any on the trails that day! About 3/4 of the way around the David English Trail we dropped down and crossed over to the Whitley Farms Trail. There was a well-stocked aid station at the crossover. We traveled around the Whitley Farms Trail clockwise and I also train on this trail often. Knowing the trail I knew that the first half would be mainly an incline and the back-half was a decline so I chugged along. I and the other runner with me had not seen another runner for 3-4 miles and I did start to question if we were on the correct trail. If I had not known the trails, I would have slowed down and tried to find markers, which there were none. We came to another aid station about halfway around the Whitley Farms Trail and took some time to get some more water in and asked how many runners ahead of us? They thought about 10. At this point I knew the rest of this trail was downhill so I took off and tried to catch the next runner. The guy I had been running with quickly let me know he could not hold my pace and I finished up the rest of the Whitley Farms trail alone. I hit the aid station at the crossover back to the David English Trail and took in a lot of water here. Sweat was pouring off me from the humidity. I quickly finished up the rest of the David English trail and passed a few runners that were still on their way out to the trail loops as I backtracked to the Nature Preserve trail.
Once back on the Nature Preserve trail I was able to see a few runners ahead of me and they were fading quickly as I caught them. I crossed back over the access road and hit the aid-station for a few more cups of water before hitting the final stretch.
I should of known when I turned off the access road back onto the final trail that is was horror ahead. I was able run up the major incline and past 2 more runners only to be brought to a walk shortly after from the steep incline that went on for most of the next mile. When it got flat or downhill I ran. By this point we had merged back onto the 10k course so we could see the markers. Shortly after passing the marker that said ‘mile 4’ for the 10k and new then that the 21k course was longer than 21k, my GPS had me at mile 12 of 13.1. Hope was, it was a miscalculation. You had to take advantage of the flatter ground to get your pace down. Somewhere in here I hit the last aid station and thanks to the staff there, got back on the correct trail, an up-hill trail none the less………, uuuuggggg. To add to the hill climb, it also started to rain at this point.
Once I got to the top of the hill I popped out on another dirt access road and chugged along. At this point I was looking for any marker to make sure I was on the correct trail and was very concerned a turn had been missed. Again, way in the distance I saw a sign with an arrow. I knew I was very near the finish line as I could see the parking lot where I parked, but the arrow pointed me away from the finish so I followed it downhill and at the bottom started the next major incline back to the start/finish line. Once I popped out of the woods for the final incline into the finish I passed a few more runners that were running on empty and ran it in for the finish.
I finished well past my expected finish time and really felt the humidity had taken a toll on me. All the talk at the finish line was that most runners GPS was coming up with 14+ miles (mine said 13.89). I would quickly respond that is was a trail race and that is just the nature of a trail race, LOL. I was happy with my overall effort and placed 2nd in my age group. After I got some more water and lots of fruit in me, I went to go get cleaned up and this is when my wrist pain started pretty intense. We hung around for the awards and I gathered my pint glass for placing. (Update on my wrist: The next day my thumb and wrist turned black & blue. A few days later my wrist became very swollen and more black & blue. As of today wrist is still sore but no black & blue.)
Overall, I think most of the runners would say that this was a well-run event and things went off without a hitch. There could have been a few more trail markers (I did see some finishers cut the course where I could see the parking lot, or I missed a marker that led me to the parking lot?) Aid stations were well stocked and had enough staff. The course is challenging and even more challenging for the average ‘road’ runner. A lot of the folks I talked too came from the roads and did not know what to expect. I am looking forward to the next Adventure Geek Event in June!
My GPS course: http://www.mapmyrun.com/us/newark-de/white-clay-21k-course-1500280
21k Time: 2:12:01
Shoes: Montrail Fluidflex II (Started with toe rip on right foot, finished with both ripped…. L)
Gear: Cheap calf sleeves, shorts, tech shirt, Headsweats cap.
Pre-race Food- Cliff Bar, 1 banana, coffee, Vega Pre-Sport Energizer drink, Mamma Chia Squeeze.
Fueling during the race- Water at every aid station, Mocha Cliff Shot at mile 4.75, Choc Cherry Cliff Shot at mile 9.5
Post-Race Food- Bananas, watermelon, water, Nuun tab in water.
