Unlike the Exeter trail race, this was so much better. This race is the first one in a series of the Western New Hampshire Trail Series. If the rest of these races is anything like this one, I'm sold.
I originally decided to do the series because it gave me a chance to see parts of New Hampshire that I hadn't seen before. I have lived here for 5 years now (wow!), but I really haven't ventured out as much as I should have. This series gave me a great excuse.
With the series, you pay one price for all of the races and then you can go to as many as you want. There are a few that I won't be doing due to my schedule or because the races are too "technical" or I've done them before and hated them. At any rate, I'm doing five or so of the series and I'm really enjoying myself.
The All Out Trail Race was in Claremont, very close to the Vermont border. I had to navigate through some very small, but pretty, towns on the way there. It took me almost 90 minutes from my house, but I made it with plenty of time to spare.
I took my fuel belt, and I was really glad that I did because there was no water on the course. The race is billed as a 5-mile trail run. I met friends there who had done the previous race and they said that the course was nowhere as technical as Exeter. Thank goodness.
A crowd of 50-75 people gathered and there were brief race announcements, and then we were off. We circled the parking lot and then headed into the woods. This was a somewhat technical course, but no rocks and considerably fewer roots. It was also much better marked with arrows on the ground and a few feet up on trees. I was never concerned that I was going to get lost during the course.
I spent a lot of the time behind a few people and I tended to run when they ran and walk when they did. It helped me to make sure that I wasn't getting lost and it kept me on a decent pace. I knew again that I wasn't going to have the speed of a road race, but I was pretty happy with how it was going.
There were a couple serious hills and there was one long mile-length hill at the end of the course. It was a gradual hill, but still a gradual hill that's a mile long at the end is never all that gradual to me. I finished and was happy to have completed the race within an hour.
I finished the race with a dead sprint with one of the women I was running with. As we got to the last turn, I asked if she wanted to sprint in. She agreed and we took off. I'm happy to say that I won that little sprint, but I think it's a good indicator to me that I left something on the course. Oh well.
The awards ceremony and raffle was cool. They were giving away breakfast sausage and bacon as prizes, and the race director was a lot of fun and super laid back. It was great to see a good small town race. I'll definitely be back and am looking forward to the next race in the series, the Wild Cat Wander.
Totals:
Distance: 5.08 miles
Time: 1:01:06
Pace: 12:02/mile
Calories burned: 693
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