Rocky Raccoon 25K Race Report, Part 1

It's Saturday evening. I'm watching Game 1 of the World Series and I'm beat! Facetiously, I'm not sure if doing the Rocky Raccoon 25K was such a great idea.

Somebody who has run trails a lot will have to confirm this for me, but I think you use a few leg muscles that you don't on the road. There are times, especially when trying to dodge tree roots, that you are both running forward but also kind of side-to-side. Surprisingly, I hurt more in the joints around my knees now than I do with road races. However, I ran pretty hard, including the inclines, for the first 10 miles. After that I started to tire, basically, I think, because I didn't have enough getting to my legs. Cardio-wise, I was fine, but I wasn't hydrated enough as my calves cramped up after that last aid station.

So was the timing of this run/race good? I'm not sure. A case could be made for both. But I'm in no way upset about the effort and the outcome.

My "splits", however you want to define them, are as follows:

Gun to cross the start line - 19.97
Start line to first aid station - 44:34.14
At first aid station - 49.96
..... (had gatorade, water and ran off with two pieces of bagel)
First aid station to second aid station - 38:41.33
At second aid station - 1:01.83
..... (had a small cup of gatorade and flat coke and something to eat that I don't quite remember)
Second aid station to third aid station - 58:29.09
At third aid station - 2:19.58
..... (took three cups of gatorade and one of water, small cookies and 4-5 banana pieces)
Third aid station to the finish line - 37:32.95

Approximate gun time - 3:03:48.85
Approximate net time - 3:03:28.88 -- 11:50/mile

The race material says that the following distances are approximate: Start-to-Aid Station No. 1 (4 miles), Aid Station No. 1 to Aid Station No. 2 (3.5 miles), Aid Station No. 2 to Aid Station No. 3 (5 miles) and Aid Station No. 3 to Finish Line (3 miles).

If that is the case, then my per mile splits were as follows:

Start-to-Aid Station No. 1 (4 miles) -- 45:24.10 -- 11:21/mile
Aid Station No. 1 to Aid Station No. 2 (3.5 miles) -- 39:43.16 -- 11:21/mile
Aid Station No. 2 to Aid Station No. 3 (5 miles) -- 1:00:48.67 -- 12:10/mile
Aid Station No. 3 to Finish Line (3 miles) -- 37:32.95 -- 12:31/mile

However, if the folks at Aid Station No. 3, which was manned by the Houston Trail Runners Extreme, are right, they said that it was 2.6 miles to the finish. However, everybody said that the distance between the last two aid stations was indeed 5 miles.

I really slept well and I had last Friday night/Saturday morning as well. I was up at 4:30 a.m. and out the door by 5:30 a.m. I got to Huntsville State Park and was back at what is known as "The Lodge" probably at around 6:30 a.m., if not a little sooner.

I got my bearings straight and went inside to pick my packet and T-shirt up. They had my name spelled "Joe Walk". Just to make sure that that was "me", I checked with race director Paul Stone, the associate editor of the Palestine Herald-Press, and he said that it was probably more his bad handwriting than anything. (Paul worked with a good friend of mine, Kevin Taylor, a sportswriter who now works for the Fort Smith (Ark.) Southwest Times-Record.)

After chatting with Robert Duncan of the Seven Hills Running Club (SHRC) and seeing a number of Houston Striders (namely Carole Flad, Sam Ogundele, Lynlee Linke, president Sandy Wollangk and Chris Murphy), I back outside and went to my truck to get some more to drink and go to the rest room. The one thing I didn't do while I was there was to check and see what my hydration level was.

I saw SHRC member Melissa Broussard (who piqued my interest last Saturday about definitely doing the event today) sometime after she had picked up her packet and we walked over to the start line to see the 50K runners take off at 7 a.m. (Last year, the 50K had 91 starters and 85 finishers, but I believe Stone indicated that there was between 100 and 125 50K runners today.)

Melissa and I chatted quite a bit during the next hour as well as seeing SHRC president Ken Johnson, SHRC members Jan Parks, Hans Jaegar, John Cook and Chris Wilson as well as fellow Striders Pam Paling, Lisa Ruthven and Frank Halter. I also spoke quite a bit to a gentleman who I believe his name is Fred Dwyer. (I saw him first at the Webster Bicycle Duathlon last year as well as at this year's USA Space City 10-Miler.)

(Part 2 later ... lots to report and remember!)