This past weekend was the second annual Bradbury Scuffle. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and by beautiful I mean in the traditional sunny sense and not in the rainy way that it was beautiful last year. We still had plenty of mud, though, because before the race there had been maybe 4 days of sun in the past 40.

In fact, the trails were much more difficult to run this year because of all the rain that we have been getting. Parts of the snowmobile trail were especially washed out, making footing treacherous. We also had no fears about the knee deep puddles drying up.

The race was almost twice as large this year as last year, with 112 finishers. Almost everybody seemed to enjoy themselves, and nobody got too lost on the course. The one person I’m aware of that went off course was called back by the runners behind him after he ran right by not 1 but 2 large white signs with red arrows telling him to turn.

I ran almost a minute slower this year, finishing in 41:41.41. I attribute the slower time to not only the tougher conditions, but that I had nobody to push me. Eric Mauricette, who finished in 2^nd place, was over a minute behind me in 42:47.

In fact, other than about a mile during my warmup jog and about a 1/3 mile walk while cleaning up the course, I ran the rest of my 15 miles on the day by myself.

I turned back to look at the field when I was less than half a mile in, and I already had a 100 meter lead.

Nobody else was willing to take the pace out as aggressively as I did, and I had no interest in letting somebody cut off my view of the trail in front of me so I ran harder for the first mile than I did at any other point in the race. I wanted to be the first to the single track. So far, that strategy has worked out for me 2 years in a row.

This year, I should be running all 3 races in the Bradbury series, so if you get the chance I’d recommend coming out to the Breaker (9 miles) or the Bruiser (12 miles) later this Summer.

Other Race Reports:

• Photos by Don Penta
• Kevin Robinson
• (more to come as I find them…)

(More Info: Race Website – Full Results – Course Map [PDF])