So Saturday we (myself, my "pacer", Kona (my runner pal) and her "pacer) rolled down to Kansas for the PsychoWyco "Run Toto Run" 20 mile trail race. Nice that they have a dog included in the name, but I'm think'en Toto ain't got nothing on me. Maybe they should change the name to "run Oly Run". Bwahahaha! Of course I say this in jest, and am grateful that they allow the better species to show them up. I mean really, we all know that four paws are better than two. Right?
Please PsychoWyco Ben and peeps, (if you read this)
I'm just kidding. You guys put on a first rate race and we look forward to coming back. Seriously my pacer was impressed at the organization of this race and it's venue as well. Well done!
Race morning came early at 5:30. We got up, had some breakfast and then my "pacer" took both Kona and I into this traveling box thing, it goes up and down, so we could go out and spread some morning dew.
After that we headed to the race...
It was a cool sunny morning around 20 something degrees, perfect for me and Kona to run in I thought. We hit the packet pick up and got our race numbers. We also got to see "Uncle Greg" and our friend Bob there too. I'm not really sure who they were pacing, cause I didn't see any dogs with them, but anywho...
The course is set up in ten mile loops, with three races going on simultaneously. A Ten mile, Twenty mile and Thirty mile. Kona was signed up for the Ten mile race, I was signed up for the Twenty. After some discussions with Kona the night before I agreed to run the first Ten mile loop with her, and then my "pacer" and I would go and do our second loop hard. We also decided to start from the back, stay out of the crowd and work our way through the field, giving us some time to settle into the whole event. Good thing we had already planed that out, cause my pacer wasn't even ready to go when the field took off. I guess I got a little bit excited and jumped up on him and ripped the bib # off of him. So with like three paw coverers on each of his upper paws, he was trying to re-attach his bib number at the start of the race. Took him a bit to get that done. Which meant that we in-fact started, dead last. No worries, we got game!
At the start of the race is about a quarter mile of open ground before you hit wooded and hilly single track. We took off and started passing humans left and right. Even on the single track we were able to make quite a few passes despite the rock and brush and uneven terrain. That, we are used to, the masses and trying to get around them were the most limiting factor in our progress. But Kona and our "pacers" kept moving forward through the crowd. Kona was doing awesome!
Here she is, on the move in one of the wider trail sections. Looking Awesome!
Here's the four of us in the same spot. Unfortunately Kona's "pacer" went a bit lame in one of her lower paws from an old injury and wasn't feeling too spry at the moment, but she soldiered on.
We saw "Uncle" Greg out on the course and gave him a hard time about his Jane Fonda head band thing. Hahahah!!! Let's get physical Uncle Greg! Hahahaha!!! But he looks great and happy to be racing so we'll forgive his wardrobe faux paws. Hahaha! Get it?
Then we came up on one of the several water crossings. As you can clearly see, I'm tracking at this point. See that chick human ahead of me? She was pacing two dogs! My dad says those are crochet mittens, but I don't believe him. They look like miniature yellow poodles to me. And she's carrying them! They aren't even running! Either way, props to the gal, she did a great job of running and we kind of stuck in that group with her till the end of the first Ten mile lap, where we had to say goodbye to Kona and her "pacer".
While we enjoyed our first lap with Koni for all the spirit in which it was intended, it was now time to open it up a little bit and let things FLY! It was time to get our RACE on! "Pacer" shed his vest and even left our water bottle behind it was time to go light and fast. With all the Ten milers out of the way the course opened up quite a bit and we were able to run. We smoked across the open field and hit the single track, made much muddier now because of all the previous traffic. It wasn't frozen ground any more, but rather slippery and at points it felt like we were doing the electric slide or even the moon walk. Thirst was quenched by streams, and there was no playing see-saw with other runners. We just passed. We owned this trail and it seemed that everyone that we came up on knew that too. Being gracious to this fact, every runner that we came upon gave us the right of way, by sliding (literally) off to the side of the trail to let us pass. Being thankful, in return we said "thanks" or "good job" or some affirming remark to all that we passed on the trail. This is one of the great things about trail running that you don't find in many sports, respect and compassion for others out towing the line no matter what your given ability. I for one, love it! And this is why we do this sport!
I love running with my "pacer", we know each other well. When things get technical, I slide in behind him and let him lead the way. When things widen up, I move to the front and pull. We work well in tandem, as a sole unit, and can even work on paw signs. We did run into one problem and that was food. I normally will eat GU (a high energy, glucose, fructose gel) but it just didn't sound good to me on the day. I do loves me the Cheez-its, and "pacer" tried to do the hand off, but at race pace and dealing with the small size of the food objects proved to be an issue. So we had to improvise.
This pic is of me and "pacer" rolling into the aid station at mile eighteen. He was a bit worried about my fuel intake at this point. We only had two miles to go but he wanted to get some food in me, so he grabbed a PBnJ sammy (my second of the race) and I wolfed it right down. I think he took note and that will be in our future nutritional race plans.
Here we are leaving the last aid station at mile eighteen. Yep, we passed everyone that you see in front of us.
Yep, that's me with my medal. We got the race done. We had a super smoken second lap split and even managed to (if we had been included in the official results) take fourth overall in the mens and fifth overall in the twenty mile race. Whatever! It was great hanging out with Kona and Her "pacer", and seeing Uncle Greg too. Ohh, I need to give him a big shout out for having an awesome race! He set a new course PR for himself. Way to go brutha! Saahweeeet race! And Kate as well, sorry about that foot thing. Thanks for running with me.
This race was so much fun, but it didn't even tax me. "Pacer" tried to take a few post race photos, but I saw me some ducks and had to go chase em... With my medal on no doubt. Click that pic, it's even more awesome!
More to come.
Bark!
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