Mud, mud, glorious mud

So it’s taken a bit longer than I’d hoped but I have finally finished putting together short review with bonus video of the first of this years Xterra series at Riverhead with Team Icebug.

Last year the series was my first real foray into trail running other than around home in Eskdale bush. I went into the 2015 race somewhat unprepared both in gear and what Riverhead would hold. I finished the 7km bruised, tired and covered in mud; basically not a happy boy. This year I felt much better prepared, I had my Zeals (shoes I’d picked for just this race), everything was Fend‘ed I had a year of training under my belt and the knowledge that I’ve been able to run that distance a few times now.

Photos from the Total Sport team reccy 2 weeks out showed a nice dry trail, but with the 2 weeks following those pictures consisting of pretty much nothing but rain, there was no way that the dry would stay. One of the downsides of the Riverhead race is the large amount of running on the gravel fire roads; great for eating the kilometres and the road runners but sucky in aggressive shoes like the Zeals. However the trail sections sorted the boys from the men, and gave a rare chance to be the one overtaking for a change.

By some small miracles I managed to stay upright this year and miss the heavy rain by being in the bush while it came down. But with coach Chris also running the mid, (finishing 7th and an hour before me), he declared that I finished looking too fresh and might be coasting a bit. Which I guess is a fair call, I know what pace is easy for me to maintain and I walk a bit too soon and long on hills. So now 1km sprints have been added into the training plan, yay, and I’ll be dropping the pace zone on my watch for the next race.

Overall Riverhead delivered what was expected and kicked of the series with a down and dirty race.