Lost Trail 5K - A Race Report

Remember that time I said I'd tell you all about Gomi's adventure at my trail race over the weekend? And remember all those other times I said I'd talk about something later and then totally didn't? This is so not like any of those times, because here's the post! It's like I'm on my game or something...

On Saturday I was scheduled to run the Lost Trail 5K. Originally, I registered for the half marathon. However, given my almost complete lack of training since my last half marathon, I contacted the organizers and asked to be moved to the 5K. Because I'm only so crazy.

Because I'd contacted the organizers in advance about my race chance request, when I showed up Saturday morning for packet pickup, they had to change me to the correct race. Fortunately, TBF Racing staff are really adept at quick changes, so it took mere moments for me to have the correct bib.

I milled around for a bit and then headed over to the port-a-potties just in time to catch the start of the half marathon:

I milled around some more and then, when I heard the ten minute warning announced, I had SweetPea pin on my bib, gathered my stuff and headed towards the port-a-potties again. I was somewhat concerned by the sudden distinct lack of runners milling about, and then someone saw me and told me the 5K had already started.

That's right.

I missed the start of the race.

On the plus side, it's not like I'm fast enough to have placed, anyway.

On the even more plus side, even though I missed the start, I didn't even come in last!

Uh huh, that's right.

I also checked the results, and, even if I had started on time, I probably would have come in the same place (just a couple minutes before). Personally, I think that's pretty impressive.

More than that, though, it was a good race and I had fun. It was challenging, but not in the "this sucks, I hurt, the fuck was I thinking" way that other races have. I listened to music for awhile, but, when the course transitioned to the single track trails, I stopped listening to music so that I could hear if a cyclist or other runner was coming up behind me.

When I saw the sign that said "Mile 13" (the half marathon course had, obviously, merged with the 5K course at this point), I was kind of excited. Already? I still had so much left in the tank!

I'm really glad I ran this and that I did it as a 5K. I was definitely unprepared for a half marathon, but instead of skipping entirely, I went out and had a good time.

While I was out running, SweetPea took Gomi down to the lake bed. We've had a really dry winter, so there's a lot of lake bed to hike on (check out this ride report for some awesome photos of the area). SweetPea let Gomi run off leash and took her all the way down to the water. Neither of them are big fans of going in, but Gomi had herself a nice drink before they headed back to the car to wait for me.

They started the awards ceremony a few minutes after I was done, and I totally randomly won a raffle prize:

Pretty awesome, right? I haven't tried it out, yet, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunity to.

This is my official race photo from James Pratt Photography. Because I missed the race start, he was totally unprepared that I was still on my way to where he was set up, so he was all packed up when I came over the hill. He took off on his bike to get down the course so that he could make sure to get my picture. He was cheering and cracking jokes the whole time. He is probably my favorite local race photographer and, yes, I bought the digital file of this photo.

Last but not least, here's Gomi, who seemed mostly underwhelmed by the whole day. Don't worry, though! She was even less whelmed by her bath the next day!