Ran a race on Saturday. It was the Spiral Drive 4 mile in Salida (actually 4.08 by my watch). Race goes 540 ft. up to the top of the iconic Tenderfoot Mountain and then back down on a dirt road.
No track meet this weekend with high school prom in Salida, so I figured I’d give it a go.
In terms of competition, the race was led out by Jaeson Murphy, who is a two-time top-ten Hardrock guy, Leadville top-20, and otherwise rock-solid mountain trail guy. He’s got some decent wheels and he went out super quick. I knew my fitness well, and so just let him go, but he came back to me pretty quickly. Passed him at about a mile and then led the rest of the way.
The last time I ran this race, I led to the top and then got beaten on the way down, so I ran scared the whole way down.
I got to the final turn in 23:3x, which is about a quarter mile from the finish. I figured it wasn’t crazy that I could close in under 5:20 pace and get the course record, which is Tom Sobal’s 24:57 from 2003. But there was a gusty east-west wind that put an end to that fantasy, and I let go of the rope the last 200.
I finished in 25:17, which is nearly 40 seconds faster than I ran six years ago, in worse conditions. Won by about a minute over Jaeson. 6:40, 7:18 up then 5:26, 5:19 down, with a 30-second last .8 where I was toasted. 6:10 pace average for the distance.
I thought it was a fun, well-organized, low-key race. I’ve run with Jaeson before, but I had never raced him, so that was fun, too.
I probably won’t race again for a couple of months with the end of track season, and I will probably transition to some longer mountain stuff over the summer. We’ll see if the fitness I have developed over shorter distances will translate.
