Hill Country Trivium
Since this pandemic started, I have been itching to do a live race, not virtual. Back in CA there are no live races. But now we have moved to TX, there are few opportunities to race live, but of course, still following safety protocols. I signed up for this local race in Marble Falls (45-minute drive from home). I finally found hills! It was the Hill Country Trivium, marathon distance. It advertised ~2200 feet of elevation gain over 26.2 miles. I finished 3rd female with a measly time of 5:20 or something like that. There were only 5 women in the marathon, I don’t think that counts for anything though, but it sounds good.
The adventure began on the drive to Marble Falls (~40 miles from home), along the 1431 (this windy highway with roads that are slanted in some of the ways, past the city/ suburbs). For my CA friends, the 1431 is like the road to Stinson Beach. It was dark. I had no gas and didn’t realize it till I was already on this 1431 highway. What I learned, gas stations and pumps here in TX are closed at 5:45 AM. I just prayed that I make it to my destination safely.
I got to the start safely; they had a rolling soft start, where runners can start any time between 7 AM and 8 AM. We had good weather, it was cloudy for most of the morning. It was humid as well, but I think I’m starting to get used to it. I did not train for this at all; I signed up a week before this marathon after someone from SRTT She Runs ATX posted it on Facebook. I was relying on my long runs and hills training from August, but that seem to be so long ago. The lack of training on distance and hills this past month took the best of me on the second half of this race. I did good in the first half, running all the hills at a slower pace, but still running. The second half, or maybe even after 15 miles, was a lot of walking. I think I’m losing my climbing legs. Strava summary tells me that I climbed a total of ~5,700 feet this October, which is ~7,400 feet less than September – and that month I wasn’t even doing too much runs because we were packing for our move.
The finish was anti-climactic. I entered the Marble Falls high school stadium, with nobody in the bleachers. I ran around the track, then into the finish shoot where one volunteer was standing, waiting for me to cross and to give me my finisher medal. I do want to thank all the volunteers and Tejas Trails for putting on this race, and the city of Marble Falls for allowing us to do a live race. While there was no finish line festivities like in a normal race, we had great pie at the finish line from the Blue Bonnet Café that has been in Marble Falls since 1928. It was good pie. I enjoyed this race.
