Indian Ladder 15k Trail Race
Sunday, August 3, 2008
2008 Indian Ladder 15k results
Sigh. At almost 2 hr 5 min, that's the longest I've ever taken to run this race. I suspect several factors combined to give me such a pitiful performance - lack of training, running a 7 mile trail race yesterday, and much of the last 4 miles being either shoe-sucking mud or just plain under water. At least I finished... I know there were half a dozen runners behind me during the first mile or so who apparently didn't.
click for a larger image of the view from near the start
Indian Ladder has the distinction of being the race I've run the most times... even when I had seriously slacked off in my running, I still ran this one. Today's race was the 14th one (and the 9th on the the present course) - I've run it 8 times, twice on the old course (which I think was easier than the current one) and six times since the course change in 2000. So in a lot of ways this race is like an old friend to me... one that generally kicks my backside, but still an old friend.
Today's race was unusual in a number of ways... it was at the start of August rather than the middle of July, and unlike the last three times I ran it, Ann wasn't there. A good thing for her (watching a trail race is falls somewhere between watching paint dry and watching grass grow in terms of excitement, especially when the runner is as slow as I am) but I definitely missed having her there t0 cheer me on and eat lunch with afterwards. The weather was also cool and breezy, instead of the usual hot and humid (though it did warm up a bit as the day progressed.)
I took it easy for the first stretch, along the escarpment and up onto the trails above the Paint Mine picnic area. I'd like to think that was good sense winning out, since I usually go out too fast in this race, but it was really probably just my tired legs. Overall my running felt pretty good... a little bit faster than my usual pace, somewhere around a 12 minute mile. It was nice to hear water rushing down the stream alongside Paint Mine Road, and it was really nice to have plenty of water to run through at the stream crossing... of course, I probably shouldn't have been thinking that, because from then on I had all the water I could ever wish for! The trail behind the Haile's cave picnic area was flooded in several places, and I started having flashbacks to the first two Hairy Gorilla races (except everything was green instead of brown, gold, and orange.) I also ended up slowing down a bit, since I couldn't be sure what was under the water and didn't want to risk either a fall or an injury.
The stretch through the field wasn't as bad as usual, thanks to the clouds, though I did end up dodging returning runners all the way to the top of the climb up onto the ridge. That was a muddy mess, no surprise... the only thing worse than a slippery muddy path is one that 150 or so other runners have been on before you! The loop along the top of the ridge was muddy for a lot of the way... more slow going. The stretch between Carick Road and Ryan Road was the worst... parts of the trail were completely underwater. The trail along the beaver pond was better than I expected - only the two ends were submerged, and those weren't too deep, though not long after that I ended up in a flooded section that was almost a foot deep.
The trek back down the muddy hill was slow going, but once I got to the bottom I kept a pretty decent pace to the finish... not enough to finish in under 2 hours, unfortunately, but enough to keep me ahead of the one other fellow who stuck it out and did the whole thing. Guess it's a good thing I hadn't planned to run the 3.5 mile race - they started 8 minutes before I reached the finish line!
So a very slow time, even more so than I expected... that seems to be the norm for this year, but so it goes. Even though I ran this more like a training run than a race, I still had a good time on some nearby trails... and afterwards spent a little while enjoying my picnic lunch of chicken, a baked potato, and cole slaw (another plus to this race... afterwards is the annual Hudson Mohawk Road Runners Club picnic, and running the race gets you a free lunch!)
JMH
2008 Event Totals
Run 125.5 mi / 27 hr 53 min
Bike 32.4 mi / 2 hr 19 min
Snowshoe 45.7 mi / 13 hr 19 min
states visited: CT, MA, NH, NY, PA, VT
