Fools 25K Trail Run

With the winter that does not seem to end in Northern Ohio this year I knew the trails would be questionable. The day before the race there almost an inch of rain followed by 6 inches of snow. There was no question the trails would be a sloppy muddy mess.


The morning of the race the temperature was 27 degrees with an afternoon high in mid 30's. My pre-race warm-up consisted of spending 90 minutes helping direct cars. When 15 minutes to start was announced I quickly changed had a Hammer Gel and walked over to the starting line.

The 50K runners had started an hour before the 25K which help packed some of the snow on the trails. There was range of conditions on the trails from snow, ice covered rocks, ankle deep shoe sucking mud, and lots of muddy standing water.

My fueling plan was to stick with what works for me. I carried a bottle with 2 scoops of Perpetuem and plan to have a Hammer Gel around the 1 hour and 2 hour mark. There was HEED available at the aid stations so I topped of my bottle twice.

I had survived the sloppy trails until about a half mile from the finish when I tripped on a down hill section and slid about 50 feet snow and mud. My goal for the race with the conditions was 3:15. I was pleased with my finish time of 2:56:05.  



There were 207 starters 183 finishers I was 30tht. The winning time was 2:21 my time 2:56:06 was good for 4th place in the men's 40-44.