Cape Cod Trail Race

On Sunday April 6th Mrs and I participated in the inaugural running of the Cape Cod Trail Race held near our place at Frances A. Crane Wildlife Management Area.  We are here frequently with the dogs.  I figured it would be a great place to try a trail race.  They had four distances: 10k, 1/2 marathon, marathon and 50k.  Mrs and our neighbor signed up for the 10k and  I signed up for the half marathon.

The race director was really great about sending out e-mail updates and instructions that were accurate and very thorough.  Inaugural races can be a bit disorganized, but the director and his colleagues are very well versed in running these types of events.  It was very well done.

Since we live so close, we decided to go early to get our numbers.  We also received a water bottle and a great t-shirt.  We headed home again for about an hour to keep warm.  It was a nice day, but there was a biting breeze out of the west.  I wore shorts and a long sleeve shirt over a t-shirt.  I felt pretty good about the decision, but could definitely have used some light gloves.  My hands were numb before the start.

Chilled runners awaiting the start.

The whole things was limited to 250 participants which was probably a good thing give the narrow trails once in the woods.  There is no room at all to pass someone without having them step aside or running through the underbrush.  This definitely cost me time as I got hung up in a long line of 10k runners.

There was an attempt to put a gap between the 10k runners and the rest of us by sending the 1/2 marathoners on a 7/10 mile 'penalty loop' before heading out to the main loop on the course.  The marathoners and 50k runners did two of those penalty loops.  The main trail loop was about 6.2 miles, so the 10k runners did this once and were done, the 1/2 folks ran that twice, four times for the marathoners and six for the 50k people.  After the 10k runners finished the woods were pretty much wide open.  I was alone or with one or two others throughout most of my second loop.  I borrowed the map from the CCTR website.

I was a little surprised at the steepness of a couple of the hills in the woods in the west portion of the race.  this area is hugely popular with mountain bike enthusiasts.  I was pleased to find the trails in really good shape and very little erosion.

Swing at Mt Zig overlooking Buzzards Bay.

The highest point of the race route at the unofficially named Mount Zig at a whopping 200 feet above sea level.  It doesn't sound like much, but we're so close to sea level here that it is a significant enough elevation to provide great views of Buzzards Bay to the west on clear days.  I had not been up here in a long time, and I was pleased to see how lovely the view is.

I felt pretty good for most of the run, but really began to feel fatigued and cold about the last mile or so.  My legs were not cramping, but they just did not want to move as well as I would have liked.  I think the cold played into this problem a lot.  I was so stiff at the finish that I hobbled around a bit, we had some food and then headed home to warm up.  I took a long, hot shower and began to feel much better.  After having more to eat and feeling sufficiently better, I went back to the finish line to take pictures and chat with some acquaintances.

I am definitely interested in running this again and I hope they are able to continue with it in the future.

A very Cape Cod race medal.  These are bay scallop shells that would otherwise been tossed aside.  Mine is huge at about 5 or 6 inches across.  The ribbons were from unused ribbon from past races.  As races go, it was a fairly 'green' event with no water stations using plastic or paper cups.  We were instructed to bring our own.