XTerra Riverhead 2023

 

XTerra Riverhead 2023

3 September 2023

20.14km, 570m, 1:52:11

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/11932885219
https://www.strava.com/activities/9771589892
https://my.raceresult.com/257730/results

Race Day

I drove out solo with an expectation of a solid amount of rain. However the good weather during the week strangely held for an extra day, and the trails were mostly very dry and excellent for running.

Almost all of the muddy patches were able to be skirted around easily, and only 5% required getting right into the mud.

Of course (being Riverhead) there were a few downhill sections with slippery muddy damp scariness :)

Fun!

I had been feeling tired earlier in the week, and I trained right up to this run, so I had decided to just go at a steady pace and not kill myself trying to beat Chris or Glenn.

I ran the first few kilometers cautiously and just kept a good pace throughout the run. I ended up overtaking Glenn somewhat unexpectedly at about the 13km mark, but Chris beat me by about 2 minutes. This was a good result really, since I never got very exhausted during the entire run, and it has caused me to somewhat reassess how fast I normally go out on these runs... Perhaps in general I truly would do a faster time overall if I go a bit slower on the first half of the trail?

The trail was a mixture of lovely (clay) trails with decent portions of gravel road. I had forgotten how nice the single track trails are - soft with pine needles, and quite forgiving on ones legs.

The course was a new course for me (since I hadn't done Riverhead since 2019!)