Inaugural Pi-Day River Rotation Trail Half Marathon:

Pi, Pie, and legs that Die.

Last Saturday I ran in a local trail race that will definitely be added to my annual race list. The Pi-Day River Rotation Trail half Marathon on the River Trails in Lawrence Kansas is a new race offered up by the Lawrence Trail Hawks. The inaugural running was a huge success from what I could tell. The brainchild of Trail Hawk president Laurie Euler, in honor of Pi-Day, this is a race you’ve got to run. Great course, terrific volunteers, a cool concept, and who doesn’t like shoveling down a piece of pie after a 13.5 mile run?  Hmmmm, I need to ask Laurie if she’s a descendant of Leonhard Euler, who popularized the use of the Greek letter for Pi in 1737....a strange coincidence??

Anyway, I didn’t really go into the race with any time goals or expectations since I’m in the midst of training for the Free State Ultra 100k next month. But, predictably, I got the competitive itch a couple miles in and ended up a little disappointed by what I thought should have been a stronger finish.

After a pre-race brief from the RD, I took off with a quickly moving group that included Trail Hawk, Gary Henry. Towards the end of our 1^st 5 mile loop he picked up the pace and forged ahead. I was still feeling pretty good at this point but didn’t want to push too hard so I didn’t try to keep up. One really cool thing about this race was the opportunity to be a spectator.  Doing a rotating loop course would have the front runners going out on their 2^nd loop coming straight back at us. A quick and silent count told me that I was in 18^th place…but wait, I wasn’t supposed to care about that today, right? Anyway, I was feeling good about my pace and place and decided to just keep the same speed the last 8.5 miles…at least that was the plan. It only worked for one more loop.

      3.5 miles to go: Usually when I bonk, it’s during an Ultra-run (mile 30 or 35 or something). For some reason unbeknownst I crashed and burned during my last loop. From mile 10 to 13.5, I fell from 18^th place to 31^st. A wave of fatigue hit me and I just couldn’t get my body to respond. If it had been an ultra, I could have re-fueled and I’m sure it would have passed but in a half marathon, there just isn’t any time to recover from a crash like that.  So needless to say, I was disappointed in my weak finish. In retrospect it wasn’t so bad, I’ve only ran two previous half-marathons so I still managed a PR for the distance by nearly 20 minutes. I guess I’ve come a long way as a runner over the last two years if I PR and am still ticked off. There was a time not so long ago when surviving and finishing were the only goals. Bonk aside, the race was a blast! Mostly, it was just really cool to be a part of the first running of what should become a popular trail race. I’ve already marked Pi-Day on my 2012 race calendar….and April 4^th, 2016 (Square Root day). I’m thinking maybe a duathalon; of course, square radishes aren’t as good as pie.   

       Huge thanks to the Lawrence Trail Hawks and congratulations to RD Laurie Euler for a stellar event. I would have never known that it was her first time as a Race Director if I hadn’t been told; every aspect of the day was right on! Huge thanks to all of the volunteers who made the event happen, the Trail Hawks are simply awesome! Huge thanks once again to Dick Ross of www.seekcrun.com for the awesome pictures you take and the cheer-leading that you do at these races!  

As always, love and thanks to Jessica, Alyena, and Ayden!