Type One Outdoors

Was this another PR year?

I knew I was close to my PR goal as I kept checking the time on the watch during the 5km descent on the slippery, gravelly fire trail. I felt the confidence in my time as I descended with a high center of gravity and high knees, watching carefully to avoid ruts in the trail and golf ball size chunks of loose rock. That fine line between running fast, and running gingerly over loose ground. A slip here wouldn’t be the end of my race, it would just slow my time. This is a race after all, a race against my own time, but a race none the less. Anything I can do to prevent losing time is a good thing to do.

I had taken care if that issue with those pesky lows on this course during my training runs.
Read all about that here in a previous post. 
The uphill section went well. I felt strong and quick. I slowed down to my recovery paces where I needed to, and turned on the jets on the flat parts to make up for lost time. The race felt just like a training day. Only, this time with a lot more people around.

Excitement at the finish

Runners crossing the finish line immediately grab their watch to stop the race time on the wrist. This is the first clue as to wether or not this will be a PR time or not. There’s also an official clock at the finish line during timed races, but this is known as “gun” time or race time. The timer that started when the gun went off at the start, not when the individual runner crossed the chip timer transponder. Those official results will be tabulated later as official times, but until those numbers come in, all I have is what I see on my wrist.

My Suunto watch recorded a time of 1:12:50 
Last year’s official time was 1:13:23
I knew this number going into today’s race, hence my excitement from the picture above.

But, alas, it was not.

The officail results came back with a time of 1:14:06
43 whole seconds over my PR time.
Bummer.

There’s now a new training goal for next year!

Here’s the Suunto movie recording the terrain map during the race:

Check out my 2019 Verdugo Mountains Training Blog here

FOOTNOTE:

Unfortunately, due to the heavy 2021 winter storms, the trail was washed out in many sections and this race has since been discontinued 🙁

Trek Waiver

This release basically acknowledges that you understand risks involved with the activity you are signing up for.

Understanding that any outdoor activity comes with inherent risks of injury and even death in the most extreme cases.

You are also agreeing not to do things that may jeopardize the safety of the guide or other participants.

You are agreeing that you will not adversely interfere with the natural environments we will be using (other than normal use of the trails, equipment and infrastructure) This includes wildlife, sensitive ecosystems, manmade structures, maintained trails, markers, safety devices, safety structures, and personnel.

Since you are signing up to join us on this activity, you are doing so at your own will and you understand all the risks involved. (if you don’t, please ask. If you still don’t, Please don’t sign) You’re also agreeing to let your leader know if you have any medical condition that needs to be disclosed before we set out, and you agree to prepare yourself adequately before the activity and be as self sufficient as possible as not to be an adverse burden upon the rest to the party or strangers.

You’re agreeing to indemnify, and to hold Type One Outdoors and its guides, drivers, agents, associates, employees, owners, volunteers, leaders, affiliates, helpers, and participants harmless and promise not to sue.

We take lots of photos on these treks, and participants usually wind up in the pictures shared on Type One Outdoors social media, and web pages in efforts of promoting future and past activities, trips and events. Please indicate below if it’s ok with you, or not, that we can use pictures that include you.

If you agree with the above statements,
please put in your name and email address below, prove you’re not a robot, then hit “Agree”