Hairy Gorilla Half Marathon
Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005
2005 Hairy Gorilla Half Marathon results
Hairy Gorilla Half Marathon info
2005 Hairy Gorilla Half Marathon photo slideshow
A week of feeling fairly lousy (tired, achy, low energy), combined with the race being moved to Thacher Park where I’ve run 9 miles of trails multiple times for the Indian Ladder Trail Run, and the race director pushing this as a costume-fest complete with costumed animals attacking the runners, left me less than enthused about this one. On the plus side, it was only half an hour away, so I was able to get up at 6:45 and still have plenty of time to get ready. But my expectations for this run were pretty low – I wasn’t even convinced I would be able to finish, given the two short runs I did this week.
So I’ll get the “bad” parts out of the way right at the beginning (1) Some dummy installed new insoles in his shoes this week and then ran 13.1 wet, muddy miles on them – so I have a nice blister on my left arch. (2) Some dummy wore a new fleece vest to stay warm during the breezy conditions of the run, which probably contributed to his first ever blister on the small of his back due to his waist-pack rubbing. (3) Some dummy left his film at the local Wal-mart despite the fact that every other time he’s been there, the 1 hr machine has been broken – and surprise, when he went back the machine was broken and if he’s lucky he’ll get his race photos tomorrow. (4) We didn’t get to run along the cliffs… what can I say, I like running along cliffs.
Now for some big “good” parts – I ran 13.1 wet, muddy miles (I think I’m paying some kind of karmic debt for calling myself a turtle so often), the furthest I’ve done since getting back on a steady training schedule, and I finished in 2:28, or about an 11:18 mile pace. AND I ran in some cool parts of Thacher Park I’ve never seen before, on a nice sunny October day. And despite previous warnings, no animals attacked and thus had to be harmed during the running of this race.
By now you’re familiar with the basics – got there, strapped up all my busted bits, picked up my stuff and dropped off my bananas, and hung around waiting for it all to start. It was sunny but COLD – the wind was whipping over the mountaintop! After a fairly strange song sung by someone who definitely should not quit his day job, we set off along a start section littered with cardboard “tombstones” – fun dodging THOSE seconds into the race. When we got to the trail, we quickly hit the first of many, many “mud-and-water” sections… and things ground to a halt as people carefully tiptoed past the mud. I resisted the temptation to make a sarcastic comment and settled for a slight shake of my head as I just blasted through the mud – I did hear someone mutter “That’s one way to do it, I guess.”
photo courtesy of www.albanyrunningexchange.org
photo courtesy of www.albanyrunningexchange.org
Much of the first 6 miles was on trails we run at Indian Ladder, though there was one section I hadn’t seen since they changed the IL course back in 2000. That was cool. Had a few chatterers… why is it people who are running in the woods feel the need to yell conversation at each other? Anyway, before I knew it (OK, about 70 minutes later) we were at the point where the 6-milers peeled away for their finish and the crazy half marathoners headed into a different section of the park. I had run about ½ of those trails, but in the opposite direction – so that was cool. And the course went into a section I had never been to – also cool.
As we were running along I was “treated” to another conversation that had me shaking my head. I was picking my way down a wet, muddy hill and two gals came slipping and sliding down behind me, with one of them grumbling the whole way about how she had run a marathon in 4 ½ hours, so she expected to finish this in 2 to 2 ¼ hours, and with all this mud and hills, THAT wasn’t going to happen NOW. (Gotta love trail newbies. I was really hoping to beat her to the finish, but she and her friend stayed close enough behind me that when we got to the last half mile, which is fairly flat and clear, they were able to make some speed and passed me. Darn it.)
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So I finished, WITHOUT doing a gorilla imitation (they gave an award to the best “gorilla” finish) and without picking up any bananas (they scattered bananas on the ground half a mile from the finish, and gave an award to the finisher holding the most bananas – no packs, etc, allowed.) Managed to snag a couple of burgers and headed off for my futile trip to Wal-mart to get my film developed. (With luck they’ll have my pictures by tomorrow evening…) And up until the Wal-mart part, had fun (in a torturous kind of way) in the process.
Would I do the race again? Maybe. Have to see what else is on the agenda for next year. If this one grows like their Dodge the Deer race (75 runner last year, 300 this year!) it may just get too crowded (they probably had around 250 runners today, between both races.) As penance for my pre-race negative attitude, I’ve already sent the race director an e-mail thanking both him and all the volunteers, and congratulating them on putting together such a good event.
Next up – the After the Leaves Have Fallen 20 K (12.4 miles) next Sunday down at Lake Minnewaska State Park, one of my absolute favorite places to go! I’m REALLY looking forward to that one (and keeping my fingers crossed for a sunny day!)
After that – there is the possibility of a NINTH Strenuous Weekend on Sunday, Nov. 20 – depending on what I hear from a friend of my who lives near there, I may run an 8 mile trail run in a park in Rhode Island. And I haven’t ruled out my crazy Pine Bush run as big finale for the 2005 “events” – but I need to get some decent distance estimates for the PB trails to see if it’s doable with my current level of training (ie. under 15 miles.)
JMH
(somewhere under all the mud)
