Mosaic Trail Marathon 2020 race report.
Long story short: running has not been going well lately, and this race did not either.
My running has just been kinda terrible lately. Both my hamstrings are problematic currently, and even though the weather has been great, even when I feel like I feel okay, my runs have been almost a minute per mile slower on average lately. No idea why.
I had already decided that Bandera 100k just wasn't in the cards on the training I'd been able to do, so I dropped down to the 50k, figuring I'd do that Saturday and the 25k with Matt on Sunday. Except both of those races were waitlisted, so it wasn't certain.
That meant the Mosaic marathon was a little less pressure-laden. At first I had wanted to do the marathon and still do another longish run the next day. When I decided to do the 50k instead at Bandera, I figured if I could do the Mosaic marathon, I'd feel good about Bandera 50k, it's only a few miles more (if a lot harder course). As Mosaic approached and I wasn't feeling any better, I decided to just let go of a marathon, and do however much my body felt like it wanted to do. I knew the odds of 26.2 miles were low, and I didn't want to end up even more injured or fall or anything. So I went out to DNF, the only uncertainty was how many miles I'd get in.
Unlike the 8:30am start we had at Wild Hare, this one we got a much earlier slot at 7am. And the weather was MUCH better, 40s? 50s? It changed while we were running. Started foggy and a little warmer, got cooler and windier. Anyway, weather wasn't an issue, it was lovely. It was pretty dark still at 7, so we waited a few minutes and then got going. Matt headed in the opposite direction, because he was doing the 15k, which started with the shorter, 3.1 mile, loop, and I headed out for the marathon course, which started with the ~3.4 mile loop.
I don't even feel like dwelling on this race, so I'll tell about the first loop, then sum up the rest.
I wasn't far into the first loop, and I already almost missed a turn. Then I got confused and took a left, and stopped to look around, and the girl behind said, "I think it goes into the woods here" and sure enough, there was a blaze. She said she was glad we'd caught that, because her friend had run there Friday, and added 2 miles onto the course. Foreshadowing.
People were running toward us. It was a lollipop loop, allegedly, so it didn't seem odd to have people going both directions at the beginning. Except then people started telling me I was going the wrong way. Eventually I came to grips with the fact that this was true. Except I had no idea how far I'd gone, or how to get back on course. So I figured if I just ran the whole thing backward, it would still be the same distance, right? That was the theory. Foreshadowing.
Eventually someone passed me, going very fast, and I said something about him also going the wrong way. Which freaked him out, and he was sure he wasn't, but I was sure that I was, or at least had been. He ran on. And the next arrow pointed.. the way I was going. It didn't take me long to realize I'd someone gotten back on the course going the RIGHT way. Which probably didn't mean anything good. And sure enough, I asked a girl if she was on her first loop, which she was, and she was at mile 1.7. I was at mile 3.2. Of the 3.4 mile loop. And we were at the same place, going the same way. So I just resigned myself to having added on over 1.5 miles to my race. And I ran out the rest of the loop correctly.
It didn't feel great. I was pretty flustered. The extra mileage didn't matter, because I knew I was unlikely to do the marathon anyway. I even cut off the little bonus leg that the half and marathons do that the 15k people don't, because I didn't need even MORE extra distance. And that loop came out to 4.7 miles.
The first loop going the other direction was better. I finally settled into a groove a bit. But my head and heart just were not in it. This course is tough on people who are protecting hamstrings. Spoiler: I never fell. And I never even pitched forward to the dismay of my hamstrings, like I did repeatedly at Wild Hare. But there are so many stumps and things sawed off on the ground that you're constantly stepping over things, and there aren't a ton of low hills, but there are several very steep short hills up loose dirt or mud, and those hurt the 'strings.
Anyway, I quit several times. "Maybe I'll just do one total loop", or "maybe I'll just do the 15k like Matt, then we can go home" or "would I be satisfied with a half marathon?"
After Matt was done, the first time I saw him he was asking me what I needed, and I was saying just a water refill, and that I wasn't going to do the whole marathon. I'd warned him this would probably be the case, but he was offering me kind words and reassurance and stuff, and I just really didn't need that. I wasn't sad or uncertain. I was doing what I knew was smart and right. Just had to convince him I was okay.
As I finished two full circuits, I decided that even though my body was clearly getting very tired and I was tripping over more things, my brain needed to do more than a half marathon, so I told Matt I was going out for one more 3.4 mile loop and then I'd be done.
And so I did, and then I was.
All told I did somewhere around 17.6 miles, and my body was tired and my brain was relatively content, so we'll call it a win.
And I didn't even try to run the next day, because I also decided not to do Bandera at all. No 50k, no 25k. No hotel during a pandemic. No feeling uncomfortable around a bunch of people, 'cause even though most people socially distance and wear masks around the start/finish line, people are constantly passing and being passed and that's a lot to deal with.
So no more events on my plate until .. April? And we'll see if that ends up happening or not. (It will. But we'll see if I do it.)
My running has just been kinda terrible lately. Both my hamstrings are problematic currently, and even though the weather has been great, even when I feel like I feel okay, my runs have been almost a minute per mile slower on average lately. No idea why.
I had already decided that Bandera 100k just wasn't in the cards on the training I'd been able to do, so I dropped down to the 50k, figuring I'd do that Saturday and the 25k with Matt on Sunday. Except both of those races were waitlisted, so it wasn't certain.
That meant the Mosaic marathon was a little less pressure-laden. At first I had wanted to do the marathon and still do another longish run the next day. When I decided to do the 50k instead at Bandera, I figured if I could do the Mosaic marathon, I'd feel good about Bandera 50k, it's only a few miles more (if a lot harder course). As Mosaic approached and I wasn't feeling any better, I decided to just let go of a marathon, and do however much my body felt like it wanted to do. I knew the odds of 26.2 miles were low, and I didn't want to end up even more injured or fall or anything. So I went out to DNF, the only uncertainty was how many miles I'd get in.
Unlike the 8:30am start we had at Wild Hare, this one we got a much earlier slot at 7am. And the weather was MUCH better, 40s? 50s? It changed while we were running. Started foggy and a little warmer, got cooler and windier. Anyway, weather wasn't an issue, it was lovely. It was pretty dark still at 7, so we waited a few minutes and then got going. Matt headed in the opposite direction, because he was doing the 15k, which started with the shorter, 3.1 mile, loop, and I headed out for the marathon course, which started with the ~3.4 mile loop.
I don't even feel like dwelling on this race, so I'll tell about the first loop, then sum up the rest.
I wasn't far into the first loop, and I already almost missed a turn. Then I got confused and took a left, and stopped to look around, and the girl behind said, "I think it goes into the woods here" and sure enough, there was a blaze. She said she was glad we'd caught that, because her friend had run there Friday, and added 2 miles onto the course. Foreshadowing.
People were running toward us. It was a lollipop loop, allegedly, so it didn't seem odd to have people going both directions at the beginning. Except then people started telling me I was going the wrong way. Eventually I came to grips with the fact that this was true. Except I had no idea how far I'd gone, or how to get back on course. So I figured if I just ran the whole thing backward, it would still be the same distance, right? That was the theory. Foreshadowing.
Eventually someone passed me, going very fast, and I said something about him also going the wrong way. Which freaked him out, and he was sure he wasn't, but I was sure that I was, or at least had been. He ran on. And the next arrow pointed.. the way I was going. It didn't take me long to realize I'd someone gotten back on the course going the RIGHT way. Which probably didn't mean anything good. And sure enough, I asked a girl if she was on her first loop, which she was, and she was at mile 1.7. I was at mile 3.2. Of the 3.4 mile loop. And we were at the same place, going the same way. So I just resigned myself to having added on over 1.5 miles to my race. And I ran out the rest of the loop correctly.
It didn't feel great. I was pretty flustered. The extra mileage didn't matter, because I knew I was unlikely to do the marathon anyway. I even cut off the little bonus leg that the half and marathons do that the 15k people don't, because I didn't need even MORE extra distance. And that loop came out to 4.7 miles.
The first loop going the other direction was better. I finally settled into a groove a bit. But my head and heart just were not in it. This course is tough on people who are protecting hamstrings. Spoiler: I never fell. And I never even pitched forward to the dismay of my hamstrings, like I did repeatedly at Wild Hare. But there are so many stumps and things sawed off on the ground that you're constantly stepping over things, and there aren't a ton of low hills, but there are several very steep short hills up loose dirt or mud, and those hurt the 'strings.
Anyway, I quit several times. "Maybe I'll just do one total loop", or "maybe I'll just do the 15k like Matt, then we can go home" or "would I be satisfied with a half marathon?"
After Matt was done, the first time I saw him he was asking me what I needed, and I was saying just a water refill, and that I wasn't going to do the whole marathon. I'd warned him this would probably be the case, but he was offering me kind words and reassurance and stuff, and I just really didn't need that. I wasn't sad or uncertain. I was doing what I knew was smart and right. Just had to convince him I was okay.
As I finished two full circuits, I decided that even though my body was clearly getting very tired and I was tripping over more things, my brain needed to do more than a half marathon, so I told Matt I was going out for one more 3.4 mile loop and then I'd be done.
And so I did, and then I was.
All told I did somewhere around 17.6 miles, and my body was tired and my brain was relatively content, so we'll call it a win.
And I didn't even try to run the next day, because I also decided not to do Bandera at all. No 50k, no 25k. No hotel during a pandemic. No feeling uncomfortable around a bunch of people, 'cause even though most people socially distance and wear masks around the start/finish line, people are constantly passing and being passed and that's a lot to deal with.
So no more events on my plate until .. April? And we'll see if that ends up happening or not. (It will. But we'll see if I do it.)