Run to Win

The Bradbury Bruiser Trail Race was this past weekend on October 28^th, and since I was out of town I was not able to be there. From what I have heard, the vast majority of people had a great time, even the ones that got to compete in the “Best Bruise” contest.

Stephen Wells has written a very thorough write-up of the day from both a race director’s and a competitors perspective. You can read it over on his site, Live Strong Maine.

There are a lot of great pictures and he covers the race from first thing in the morning right through finding the last lost runner hours after everyone had left.

Tom Tero sprinted to the finish ahead of David Roberts and Tom Page in a near photo finish. Out of the 130 people registered, 108 started the race and 98 finished the race. That is really good for the first year of any race, and doubly impressive because of the grass roots nature of this race. Two months ago, the race had not even been conceived of yet. The race raised over $2000 for Bradbury Mountain State Park to help with trail upkeep.

(Race Report w/Photos - Race Results)

I was about 4 people away from the starting line when the gun went off.

It took all of about 1 second for me to cross over the line. My goal was to run between 2:40:00 and 2:45:00, and I was hoping to be at 2:45:00 pace halfway through and then run negative splits. Any sort of a PR would make my slowest goal, so I needed to run faster than 2:51:37 at the very worst.

Mile 1: 7:37 / 7:37 (+1:19)
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I am not a big fan of traveling, and getting down to Virginia this past weekend has not made me a fan of it. The only flight that was on time was the one that left Portland for JFK. I’ll leave it at that.

When we arrived in DC, it was raining pretty hard. We met up with my friend, went back to his place, and had a great dinner that him and his wife prepared for us. We did not even bother trying to get to the expo since the plane had been late getting in.

The rain had not let up the next morning when we went into town, but we got to the Armory just after they opened the doors so we did not have to wait out in the rain for very long. The whole packet pickup situation left a bit to be desired though. “There’s a right way, there’s a wrong way, and there’s the marine corps way,” to bastardize the popular saying.
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In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about things that deserve more attention throughout the month of October. This week, I will finish the month off with a discussion about off seasons.

Competitive athletes need an off season, and recreational athletes would probably be better off with one as well. An off season is a span of time, usually 1 to 3 months, where the athlete is not competing in their chosen sport. Some athletes will not work out at all during their off season, while others will use it as a chance to do something other than the normal grind.

Off season options

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Sorry to everybody for the echoes here at the finish of the race yesterday!

I was a little worried when my wife kept receiving alerts after I finished running that that had happened, but there was not anything that I could do and when I got home past midnight after the race I just wanted to go to bed. I’ve cleaned it up and moved the various comments into one thread about the finish, so it isn’t quite as monotonous on the site any more!

The race was a lot of fun. I will be writing about it (as usual) over the next few days. Thank you for your kind thoughts in both the comments and the emails both before and after the race! It means a lot to me.

BLAINE MOORE, 02:48:00 @ Finish, Pace 6:24.
MCM presented by EDS - EDS Supporting The Marathon!

BLAINE MOORE, 02:19:07 @ 22M, Pace 6:19, Predicted 02:45:36.
MCM presented by ROSSLYN - Rosslyn Finish Festival Awaits

BLAINE MOORE, 01:53:26 @ 18M, Pace 6:18, Predicted 02:45:10.
MCM presented by ARLINGTON - Back to Arlington & Finish Line Fest