TRAM ROAD RACE 2009

I made the drive to the desert late last night to my folks house. The plan was to run the Tram road race with my Momma and my cousin. It is a 6k or 3.7 mile uphill run that starts around 500' feet and climbs up to 2700' The grade is around 8 percent and then then pitches up to a whopping 16-18 percent grade in the last final pitch into the finish. Local Santa Barbara running champ Katie provided the good beta via text message:

"Hmmm...maybe do a good warm up on flat ground, u might want to go out kind of hard in the beginning of the race, since the grade picks up near the end, it might b harder to make up time on the steep part- make sure ur mom doesn't hurt her calf too"

Talking with Gary on on the ride home from work Friday he suggested that this might be a risky procedure and seemed counter intuitive as I might want to keep it steady and constant through out. He strongly advised me to reconsider and run it like I would race a Time Trial- nice and steady... Neither Gary nor I have ever really been able to do anything nice and steady so we had a good laugh.

I got to the line early a did a good little warm up with my mom and cousin and then took my place at the start line as an absolutely amazing sunrise was peaking over the mountains on the eastern side of the valley. I started about 3 rows back and had to really zig and zag to get some free road... By the time I was clear there was a small group of four runners ten yards up the road... one of those guys went backwards right around the 1 mile mark but I could not close the gap down to the remaining 3. My legs felt really good and my breathe sounded like it would during a reasonably hard hill climb on a bike. I might have had more in me, but not ever running at this level really or in these conditions it is really hard to know. One of the 3 shot a head but was caught by number 2 right around 2 miles... shortly there after I was passed by one runner... At this point I was about 15 yards behind position 4 and 3... there was a little down hill whoopty and as I came out of it the gap just about doubled...Then came the really steep part. I held the gap pretty steady- the guy who passed me went on to pass the other guy and just about caught the guy in 2nd... I gave it everything I had in the end to finish in 5th place over all and 1st in my age group with a time just over 35 minutes. If I had a watch I think I could have broken 35 minutes pretty easily.

My mom also won her age group and claimed one more victory. My cousin finished 3rd in his age group respectively just under 40 minutes and was very pleased with his time.

It was awesome to complete another running race with my Mom. I think my goal next year will be to try to run a 33 minute... which is very do able I think I could have pushed it a little faster in the first 2 miles and then I should have REALLY lengthened out my stride in the short flatter sections and the 2 little downhill whoopties. Those were the areas where I lost time to runners ahead of me.

As soon as I find a picture of my and my mom at the finish line I will be sure to post it up.

I call this Haiku 'Off Too Fast?"

Off with a big boom
where did all the people go
This can not be good(Me just before the finish line)