Cedar Ridge Trail Run

Another trail race in the books for me. I ran the Cedar Ridge Trail Run 18k last weekend at Cedar Ridge Preserve which is just 20 minutes outside of Dallas.  This is a place that I run at often so it was fun to know exactly what to expect from the trails coming into the race.

It was another early morning Saturday to get to the start line in time for the 6am gun.  I have been working on running "shorter" distances at faster paces the last month or so in hopes to be able to compete to win this race (18k = roughly 11.5 miles).  I had no idea what the competition was going to be like but I knew I wanted to get up with the leaders and stick with them.  If that meant I was going to have a blow up towards the end of the race, I was fine with that.  I wanted to push myself as much as I could.

The race was two laps around the Preserve.  I run there a couple times a month so I knew exactly what to expect.  For the first time in a race, it was completely dark at the start.  Headlamps were on for the first 25 minutes of the race.  We took off from the line and I found myself in the lead pack of three from the start. We ran the first three miles at a pace that I knew I wasn't going to be able to hold for the entire race.  Around mile 4, I let the two guys in front of me take off.  I wasn't able to keep up with them on some of the steeper climbs.  My hope was that they would tire out and I would be able to catch them later in the race.  Cruising along, I finished the first lap in around 49.5 minutes.  I dropped off my headlamp and shirt with Sara, grabbed some water and gel from the aid station and continued on.  I kept hoping that I would get a view of the guys in front of me so I knew where I stood but I kept catching the slower 36k runners (there were 36k, 18k, and 9k races all going on at the same time) but couldn't catch up to the two guys leading my race.  The second lap was a bit slower for me.  I walked many of the uphills that I ran during the first lap.  My legs (and lungs) definitely the increased pace.  I ran the last couple miles of the race scared thinking someone was going to catch me from behind.  Ultimately no one did and I finished in third place with a time of 1:43:46, five minutes slower than the winner.  Overall, I was happy with the effort.  I was hoping to possibly win the race but I gave it all I had and just got beat by two guys that were faster than me on that day.

RESULTS