So this past Sunday I ran The North Face Endurance 10K in DC.
This race series’ main focus is ultra-marathons with a 50 miler, 50K, and Marathon
held on Saturday and a Half Marathon, 10K, and 5K held the following day all on
trails.
Last year the DC races were held in June and I had
registered to run the 10K but due to getting injured during the Zooma Annapolis
Half a few weeks before I was unable to participate and my little cousin ran in
my place. This year the race was moved to mid-April because June got too hot…the
issue with this April…lots of rain = lots of mud.
I have never run trails before but I decided to run the Half
Marathon with my cousin…yes I signed up for the half and yes my first paragraph
says 10K…keep reading…
Packet pickup for the race was the Thursday or Friday before
at the North Face stores in Georgetown and Tyson’s Corner or on race day at
Algonkian Park. The race packet included a North Face tech shirt that you could
have plain or screen-printed at the race and a pair of Smartwool running socks.
So anyway the race took place at Algonkian Park in Sterling,
Virginia so I decided to spend the night at my aunt’s house since it was closer
to the race and I was running with my cousin. Apparently I did not read the
directions very well because come race day my cousin and I arrived at what we
thought was the start for all the races but after seeing no one with half
marathon bibs discovered we were at the wrong place and that the half started
about 30 minutes away at Great Falls Park…so we had no choice but to switch to
the 10K since our moms had dropped us off and headed to get some breakfast and
the race was starting in less than 30 minutes…so the day before the race I was
trying to figure out where the race was because I did not want to take the
shuttle to the race start since I did not have to park…I looked online and I
guess I rushed through it because all I could really find was a map with the
Finish Festival Location and the parking lot for the shuttles so I figured the
website said Algonkian Park it must be there…if I would have taken the time to
open the Half Marathon course description PDF booklet I would have seen that it
started elsewhere…I did come across a sentence saying that the half marathoners
should take the shuttle to Great Falls Park but after finding no address and
Apple Maps showing several locations for this park I figured it would be
somewhere close to Algonkian not 30 minutes away…oh well now I know for next
time.
So the 10K ran us around Algonkian Park and the terrain was
a mix of grassy muddy rain soaked fields, golf cart paths through the local
golf course, and the actual dirt trails. I had never run trails before but I
had heard that they are much more difficult than street running and they were
right. Our course was supposedly not too technical and it probably wasn’t for
an experienced trail runner but I for me I was pretty darn hard. In the first
mile we ran through a rain soaked field where several people lost their shoes
to the mud and you had to push extra hard to get through then around mile 4 you
ran through some trees and more thick slippery mud…a few people wiped out but I
managed to stay upright after skidding a few times. We jumped over small
ditches and ran in some puddles with many rocks that caused some people to
almost roll their ankles…like my cousin…I literally stopped and walked gingerly
over these rocks to avoid any such injuries…I need to be intact for my summer
marathon training J
I eventually crossed the finish line in 49 minutes flat and
according to my Garmin the 10K was actually 5.9 miles…later on when I checked
my results they indicated that the official distance was 6 miles… 0.2 short of
a full 10K.
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| My muddy ankles and shoes...they got a little less muddy when I ran through the puddles |
The finishers’ village was pretty fun with massage tables
for runners and a Sierra Nevada beer garden. We stuck around a little while
since our moms like to collect all the free goodies…including our free beer…neither
of us really felt like a beer that morning. Overall I thought the race was
pretty fun but I think it was probably a blessing we did not do the half as
both my cousin and I (she finished about 9 minutes after I did) found the 10K
to be much harder than we thought.
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| Me with my 10K finisher medal and my post race beer |
I’m planning to run the half next year but this time I will
probably do some trail running along with my normal street running to better
prepare and I will also read the course for the half start more carefully…I
still don’t plan on taking the shuttle…I find shuttles to be stressful as you
have to wait in line and get there extra early and then stand around at the
start for about an hour…I usually avoid
races that require you to take a shuttle unless a friend or family
member can take me to the start or like the 17.75K where the prize at the end
is something I really want (MCM entry). So I suggest if you are adventurous and
don’t mind mud or potentially tripping over roots and rocks try this race out
it’s lots of fun and trail running is pretty awesome…just make sure you know
where your starting line is and perhaps get a few trail runs in before race
day.
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