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Shannon Trail Series #3

Today was a perfect day for running here in San Angelo.  It was in the upper 40s when I woke up this morning at 7 with sunny skies and little wind.  A perfect day for finishing up the Shannon Trail Series.  I volunteered at Shannon Trail Series Race #2 a few weeks ago and it motivated me to run today's race.  This was not one of my "A" races and I'm in the middle of PT test training, so last night was still a 5 mile night leading up to this morning's race.  Mila isn't a fan of trail races, but she was nice enough to come support me.  She took many of the photos in this post.  I took a couple, but I was lucky to have Bill Cullin, a writer for the San Angelo Standard Times, let me use some of his pictures.
I had 3 goals for this race:
1) escape getting bit by a rattler or gored by a longhorn
2) have a good time
3) run a good time
I guess you'll have to read further to find out how I did.
As I said, the weather was perfect for a race.  It took place at San Angelo State Park, but in an area that I'd never visited before.  We met at the Burkett Trailhead to go through what used to be parts of O.C. Fisher Lake.  I didn't realize this until, during my warmup, I came across what used to be a boat launch, at least a mile from the closest water.
The Burkett Trailhead.  I like these little gates that they have in the park



See the lake wayyyyyyy over there?
I saw many familiar faces from the last race and some new ones as well.  The race only cost $15, so there weren't any frills (except shirts for the series runners) but a good selection of fruit and snacks pre-race.  Probably for Eric's sake more than anyone else, the races started separately.  Us short racers went first, with the 15K starting 10 minutes or so afterward.  After looking at the San Angelo Road Lizards 2017 shirts (I need a tank!), and getting a race brief, we headed to the starting line.  BTW, during the race brief we were told 2 important things - follow the pink and that the race was actually 3.4 miles  Hey, at least we were getting 10% more for free!
checking out who's there



Pretty sure I'm petting Hope here
 The race started with a mad dash down a hill and a nice flat first mile.  My big mistake was not tying my shoes as I had to stop and tie them after about half a mile and 10 people passed me up.  Most of the race after that was single track and I had to pick my passing spots carefully.  
5Kers bombing down the hill

Looking like I'm about to judy chop someone, but I was just making sure my arm didn't get snagged on a bush
After picking my way through some runners, I eventually spotted a small group of runners.  I spent the rest of a race trying to catch a high school girl that I just couldn't reach.  My first mile was too fast (7:15) as I tried to make up for lost time and take advantage of the amenable trail.
15K runners lined up

The guy on the left had won the first two long courses but came in second today.  The man on the right took third.

The early 15K chase pack

Bill got an action shot of George

I never was able to pass that teenager, but we did catch up to a couple of guys that took off sprinting at the start.  I didn't see any rattlesnakes or longhorns, so that goal was achieved.  One part of the race brief that I should have paid attention to was about the "rollercoaster" at the 2 mile mark.  There were a lot of ups and downs in short succession.  This is the only time that I had the main chase pack (3rd-9th place) in sight but couldn't close as well as I'd like. I didn't bite it but I certainly put some thought into it.  I slipped backwards at the top of one hill and going down another I rolled my right ankle and while compensating came down hard on a fully straightened left leg.  The race finished with a downhill sprint on a park road.

no, that guy with the kid on his shoulders didn't run it... but his wife smoked me.  She's wearing the bright yellow shorts in front of me in the race start pictures

You can tell I was feeling it here

Cliff waiting to grab tabs from everyone

Done!
It was a tough race, to be honest.  My Garmin immediately told me it was going to take 2 1/2 days to recover and I heard one finisher say it was the hardest thing she'd ever done.  I'm just glad the temperature was perfect and the trails were in good shape.
 The race was fun (goal #2 achieved) but I'm not completely happy with my result.  I finished in 27:42, 7th overall out of maybe 70 and 2nd in my age group of 9 or 10.
I grabbed some of Bill's pics of other finishers as well.  Next weekend I'll be volunteering at a track meet for the first time!



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