Gruesome Grizzly 8k- Jason Thomsen

I was pretty excited to race the Grizzly 8K this year. Up to this point in the year, I hadn't really raced all that much and I was starting to get a little antsy. The long stuff is fun and all, but every once in a while you just have to throw in a a short race as a confidence booster. I showed up to the race and started scoping out who was there. I saw Dave Taylor and and knew he would give me a run for my money and there was another college looking guy that looked pretty fast as well.

At the start, Dave took off blazing like he usually likes to do so I knew to let him go, especially because I knew what kind of climbing we were about to do in the next 2 miles. Once we got up to the first hill, I caught back up to Dave and he told me to just go by. I took the lead and led for the next little part of the climb. Unfortunately, I looked down and saw arrows and thought to turn left and keep climbing. Next thing I know, Amber is yelling to come back down because it was the wrong way.  During this brief little detour I slipped from 1st back down to 4th. Amber and I ran together the next little bit and I was able to get back into position behind Dave and the college kid, Flo. I knew Grizzly was coming and just stayed a comfortable distance behind them.

As soon as we hit Grizzly, it was like we all slammed on the brakes. Dave and Flo came back quicker than I had anticipated and I decided to make a move and just go by. All my passion and obsession with watching the Tour de France over the years played off because I knew all three of us were hurting. I knew if I could push while they were walking, I could open up the gap a little ways; and when I needed to take a quick break, I could let them come back and then attack again. (Studying exercise science also factored in because I knew if I could recover quick enough and attack when the others were in their red zone, then I could open it up more.) I knew Amber was also going to be coming up behind me too so I tried to time it where Amber could meet me just before the summit of the hill and pull me along over the top.

Amber and I then pushed on the flat part and opened up the lead even more. I dropped a 6:15  and was feeling good. Amber and I opened up about a 45-60 second lead over the next runners. Amber started to fade back a bit when I pushed the pace but I also knew this was basically her stomping ground and I was merely a guest. I quickly learned I am a terrible trail descender and Amber erased my 20 second lead pretty quickly. At that point, I just tried to hang with her and let her pull me along the rest of the way. An overall win would have been nice but I have no shame in coming in second behind a trail runner like her. The last mile or so I decided I wanted to just bring it in and make sure I got the male overall win so I could get the big rock and a pair of shoes.

All in all, it was a fun race. When I looked at my splits, I realized I was actually faster on the flat part than I was on the downhill. Go figure! It felt good to get the legs moving again and see some positive results.

2nd overall
1st male
Time: 37:00