Dash Point State Park Trail Run - 10K - Run

I had never run on the trails here at Dash Point. I took a look at the course and the profile and saw the female course record was 52:xx. It seemed like a stretch but my secret goal was to break the record. Trail runs are always hard to gauge in terms of time but it seemed like a fun goal to chase.

A teammate was also racing this. She is much faster than me (a 1:16ish HM runner) So my goal was to just keep the time between her finish and mine as narrow as possible.

The half marathoners took off about 15 minutes before us. Additionally, there were about 200 of us 10K rail runners. Which is a lot for single track! I knew I had to line up near the front if I didn't want to get caught behind.

We took off into the trail and were immediately heading up hill. About a half mile in there were a few stairs, a bridge and then some more stairs. Once you hit the top you ran along a ridge and then headed down another set of stairs. We had a water crossing and then some more stairs up. I was careful to be relatively conservative here so as to not zap my legs before the single track climbs AND so that I didn't slip on the wet stairs. The climb was successful and we slipped into the single track, filing into a single file line.

The course wound through the woods with little room to pass. I felt pretty good about my positioning. I saw a couple runners ahead and very slowly caught up to them. To get around them I really had to get up into the bushes a little as it was mostly single track. I was thinking, I sure hope there isn't any poison oak/ivy in there!

There were some pretty challenging ascents and my legs were burning a little. I tried to moderate a little as there was a lot more race left. Around the halfway point I started catching up with half marathoners. For the most part, a simple "on your left" was all it took and people moved over, sometimes completely into the bushes giving me a straight shot past them. But there were some challenging passes. One woman had headphones on and could not hear me. Finally I just had to fully charge into the bushes to get around her after many, many failed attempts at yelling.

My rhythm was a little broken with the constant acceleration and deceleration of passing the half marathoners but that kind of sums up trail running on single track.

I was closing in on two 10K runners I had in my sights for a while. I took a nice wide berm to get around one but was unable to get by the second. He was a young kid, very young. Maybe 10 years old?

Seeing him gleefully run through the woods brought a smile to my face. I thought to myself how I wished I had started so young. I called to him, "On your left!" and he sped up. Alright, so the kid wants to race...

I kept accelerating up to him, then would move over to his left into the bushes and he would block me! My smile of endearment quickly left my face and I decided this competitive little kid needs to be taken down!!!

I tried, and failed to pass him for about 10 minutes. I am not kidding. The little shit.
Finally I said, "Eff it" and ran thick into the bushes, accelerated HARD and got around him. It was frustrating. I get being competitive but if someone has it in them to pass you, you have got to move. Whether you like it or not.

I had wasted a ton of energy trying to get around the little shit and was exhausted. This was the point where a trail 10K and a road 10K feel very different. For the trail, you start to get a little close to that hour threshold and you can really feel it.

I tried my best to sustain my pace. I just kept pushing.

I saw some more people ahead and used them as motivation to keep accelerating and passing. There were plenty of half marahon runners to pass as well but luckily the trail had opened to a more double track type of format. The running was fairly smooth through this section but I could tell I was starting to struggle more and more and we weren't even to the stairs (which meant a half mile out..)

Finally, finally I saw the stairs. My legs were super wobbly so I had to be a little cautious, especially on the descent. Once I got through all the stairs I gave it all I had and ran through to the finish. I hadn't been wearing a watch but looked up at the clock to see I had gotten in under the 52:xx to take down the previous course record!

Of course there were a few women in front of me so I don't OWN the record, but I pat myself on the back regardless.


This was one of those races where the results (time/place) don't exactly match up with the accomplishment. I gave Dash Point my all and had NOTHING in the tank at the end. I was very, very proud of this race. I ended up finishing about 2.5 minutes behind my much faster teammate proving that I can really start to close that "talent" gap on the trails. I look forward to working hard and narrowing it further.



Train more! Always!

Went down to the beach and ran a little in the sand. It felt spectacular.


Had been sick, just need to keep training though!