Medoc Mountain Trail 10 Miler DFL race report

10/15 race 93 mins @ Medoc Mountain Trail 10 Miler in Altra Instincts

temp 40's
HR avg 167 max 177 (this is what happens when I start in the middle of the pack and realize I don't like being passed..)

Ok, I wasn't DFL in the race, but my race report certainly is!  Here it is over a month later and I have something like 4 race reports to write...  Not only does some crazy guy in his underwear have to win the race, he has to win the race to the race report too!

Let's see what I can recall about this one.  I wore my Altra Instincts, which did a good job for the most part, although the rocks started to get to me toward the end of the race.  I ran harder than I intended on this (with Tough Mudder the following weekend) and put in my best race showing to date.  I think my average pace was a 9:22, which is pretty good for me, especially on a technical course with some elevation.  I was ready to be done by the time I crossed the finish line and the +1 was there waiting for me, I'm not sure what she said to me as I lost track of her for the next 20 mins due to my brain fog.  I think I saw a couple of blog friends, but you can never be sure so I didn't want to come off like a crazy internet stalker.

You could say I ran a little too hard, as the following Tuesday I went out to run intervals only to find anything under about a 12:30 min mile caused me horrible right knee pain.  I must have looked like the hunch back of Notre Dame as I turned my regular interval workout into a lurching limp run between 12 and 13 min/mile.  Thankfully everything healed up although Tough Mudder didn't help things..but that's a story in and of itself.

Here's a good photo of me looking tired and sweaty.  You can see the sunglasses and the headband have come off.

you can almost smell the sweat...

Pumped Up Kicks (Altra Lone Peak)

I promise to finish my race reports for Medoc and Tough Mudder, but in the mean time, I present to you my new kicks:

Altra Running Lone Peak

I've done 2 runs in them, totalling a little over 10 miles.  One on the ATT doing mile repeats and another at Eno River on Fanny to Cox Mountain back to Fanny (the real reason I bought them).  I've been having some really bad problems with rocks and pain in the ball of my left foot after a coupe of miles.  I was hoping something with a decent amount of midsole and rock plate would do the trick.

So far I really like them.  They are definitely a good bit heavier than my Altra Instincts, but also much sturdier.  The rock plate sits directly under the foot bed, on top of the midsole, so the shoe has a very firm feel to it and ground feel is minimal.  I still had quite a bit of pain toward the end of my Eno River loops, but with the ground covered in dead leaves, it was impossible to avoid the bad rocks.  So I would think if I had worn my Instincts I would be a total cripple right now.

One feature I'm still undecided about is the trail rudder on the back of the shoe.  It's a bit of shovel shaped rubber sticking off the back with extra cleats.  I could see how it might help if your foot starts to slide out from under you, but  I've found it's very good at scooping up dead leaves and dropping them into my socks as I run.  This gets to be annoying after awhile, but I figure taller socks or gators would resolve this.  I doubt it will be a problem once all the leaves decay.

The shoe also has some nice rubberized material around the toes and lower sides to add some rigidity and durability to the shoe.  Overall I'm very pleased with them and I'll post an update after I've put some more miles on.  I plan to keep wearing my Instincts on the ATT and use the Lone Peaks for Eno, Umstead and other rocky single track.