I plotted my return to the US from Scotland to coincide with the Moosalamoo trail race on August 1. At 36 miles it was my first ultra last summer, and I thought running it again would be a good test to see if Carnethy and the Scottish hills had made me a better runner. It’s a fun race, with only one real hill and all on marked trail. It’s quite a bit more like Scotland that your typical New England race, mainly due to the number of muddy boggy parts, quantity of nettles, and sections of very rough ‘trail’ that isn’t quite what a typical trail runner would be used to. My goal was to beat my time from last year, as I thought that would be proof I had improved. Of course, there are all kinds of factors that are beyond my own ability that could affect this – trail conditions (muddier than last year), course (a little different – though I don’t know if it was harder or easier), and the trickiest one: the weather. While it was not a very hot day by our summer standards, it was hotter and muggier than just about any day I’d run in in the last year.
Overall the run was very sweaty and I lost a considerable amount of skin. Notable moments include a woman playing Chariots of Fire on a hurdy gurdy to mark the first turn off a gravel road, taking a nice dive/belly slide on a ledge and grinding to a stop just inches from a small cliff (the the horror of my friend who was just behind me at that moment), and keeping my shoes on the whole way. I didn’t feel like I was running my best, but I passed a few people in the second half and that kept me going – especially since I expected them to come back past me at any moment and am really good at hallucinating footsteps behind me.
I ended up coming in at 8:08:08 – a very nice number both due to its symmetry and the fact that it is precisely 12 seconds faster than last year. It was good enough for 10th overall and 4th lady, though I have to admit that at least 2 women in front of me were considerably faster but had the bad luck of missing a turn and going off course (maybe because they were running where I was trudging) and so that and the small size of the race mean the placing is a bit inflated.
So it looks like my year of wonderful running with you all did improve me, a whole 1/3 second per mile! If I get a chance to come back for several more years I could probably get that down to like two seconds. More than that though it gave me a lot more endurance, more experience moving quickly across very messy terrain, and most importantly a chance to be in the company of some of the very, very toughest, most adventurous, and nuttiest runners I’ve ever met. Thanks for letting me join you in your adventures for the past year. I hope I’ll be able to come back for more, and in the meantime if you find yourself anywhere near Boston or New England let me know and I’ll show you some of the better spots.
Race results here: http://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=31844, pictures maybe here at some point: https://www.facebook.com/groups/281949005221229/
Annie Gagliardi