Running with the Angels 10k Road/Trail Race
Sunday, October 6, 2019
As much as I was looking forward to running this race, it was clear before I even finished the 1st 5k of the ACORNS race that my legs just didn't have the juice and the best I'd be able to do is walk it - and I really didn't want to do that. So Ann and I enjoyed driving around Genesee County Park & Forest for a bit, so she could see more of it, and then had a leisurely lunch in Batavia since we didn't have to hurry back to Rochester.
I suspect if I'd had 4 or 5 hours between the races, rather than 2, I might have been able to pull it off.
So the positives of the fall torture test are (1) I finished 2 of the three 10k's and earned a nice finishers' medal at Run with the Deer, and (2) we discovered a new park near Rochester which is definitely a pretty cool place. The folks organizing the ACORNS races were also incredibly nice - Ann had a good time spectating, which doesn't always happen, and (3) Sunday afternoon ended up being a lot more relaxed than originally planned.
The minuses? (1) The Run with the Deer course was boring, which I should have realized ahead of time - how else is a former Army base going to be laid out other than a grid pattern? And regardless of the name of the race, there was no way any of the deer were going to hang out near the course, not with a few hundred people running around the place. (One plus to this minus - I didn't stick with the half marathon, which I had originally signed up for - and I don't feel any real desire to run the half in the future, given that it's just another 7 miles of back and forth on the connecting roads the 10k didn't use.) (2) My ability to run Monroe next Sunday is seriously in question. Between the distance, the climbs and descents (which make today's ACORNS run look flat), and the technical trails, I have to wonder if I'll end up hiking an even greater percentage of Monroe than I did the Midsummer Nights Madness back in August, and I'm really not that interested in doing that, as much as Monroe State Forest is beautiful this time of year. (3) I also have to question my ability to be ready for the After the Leaves Half in November - much less technical trails, but still substantial distance and elevation, and my "plan" to get back into shape has clearly not gone the way I was hoping it would. So this weekend has left me with some serious decision-making regarding some of the races I'm signed up for over the next month and a half.
JMH
2019 Event Totals
Run 192.2 mi, 52 hr 56 minBike 0 mi, 0 hr 0 min
Snowshoe 16.3 mi, 5 hr 57 min
Kayak 0 mi, 0 hr 0 min
states visited: CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT
