Backyard Burn #2 - Wakefield Regional Park

The week leading up to the second installment of the Backyard burn was packed full of problems.  First, it snowed 10 inches on Wednesday...problem, not really but given the condition of the last race, we were even wondering if this trail would be runnable.  The snow was short lived as it was 50+ the next day.  Then I got this massive ear infection and swollen neck...to boot, it was painful to run..did 8 on Thursday and 7 on Friday...all in massive pain....you don't know how much you need your neck to run until its really swollen...so I get some antibiotics and anti-anflamatory medicince, all of which F's with you stomach.  So today finally arrives and all is pretty much feeling good...I am working on a 35 mile run week and my stomach is doing roller coasters..who knows how well I will do.  Before we get to the park, we stop off at MiccyD's for some fresh bathroom action.  So we get there around 7:30, pick up the packet and BIB number:

Its around 30F in the morning which was not what I was expecting but as Vincent says in Collateral "Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it" Anyway, after 23 visits to the shitter, I am finally empty or at least empty enough to run.  Jim does his pre game talk and we are off, drop a 7:30 first mile thinking get out in front of these people before the trail clogs up with people.   The first 5.5 miles goes pretty uneventful as I have a 45+ minute 5.5 mile time, miles 6 and 7 I run with this guy who ran with me last race however I dropped him thinking I run a little harder.  From miles 8 until the end, I passed around 5-6 people and was only getting stronger.  I ended up with a time of 1:21:31 which got me 14th out of 40+ 40-49 year olds.  Looking back, I really didn't run that hard until the end but oh well - I just did not know how I would feel....Final results were 54th out of 173 overall, 14th out of 31 in my age group....  Compared to hemlock, this bitch was nothing which explains the 7 minute difference.  As always, this race is my new PR since I have never ran this trail before.  Here is a quick pic of the tents after the race:

My next race is in two weeks, a 17.75K trail run down at Quantico, VA.