Sep 18, 2016

Carmet Valley 15K



This is only the third year that Seasick Events has put on this Carmel Valley Trail race. You can participate in a 5K, 10K, or for the first time, the 15K. I believe they also had a kids 1 mile fun run, so this event has something for runners of all levels. Also the price is right for this race at only $50 to $60.

I love to run and/or hike trails, but I don't like going alone, so trail races give me the opportunity to be out there with a group. I never knew there was a trail behind Torrey Pines High School, so I really wanted to check it out.

Trail races are small events, because park permits usually only allow a certain number of people on the trails at a time.  So this event was small with only a little over 300 runners. I really enjoyed this race. It wasn't flat. (Rarely are trail races flat.)  The trail consisted of rolling hills with a BIG descent at the beginning to get you down into the valley where the trail was.  The trail was mostly single track rolling hills.  It was very peaceful out there and not very crowded, so you had a lot of quiet time and some alone time. Then, of course, to get out of the valley and back to the finish line you had a BIG climb at the end.

I had a pretty good race, better than my training has been going. Since I have lost most of my fitness, it has been a real struggle trying to get some of it back, and I run out of gas after about an hour. The big descent at the beginning and the single track trail actually worked to my advantage.  Instead of taking off too fast in the beginning of the race and then running out of gas, (usually how I operate) on this race, I had to walk down the big hill, and then I was stuck in a traffic jam of runners until it thinned out.  So I ended up building speed throughout the race, which is a good strategy to use.  At the end of the race, though, I was still exhausted, and walking up that big hill wasn't a lot of fun!

I ended up second in my age group, 50-59. (In trail races, the age groups go in 10 year increments.) There were only 6 women in my age group, and I was the oldest one!  I was actually the second oldest woman out there. There were only 66 runners who did the 15K, and I came in 36th overall.

Seasick events is a relatively new company. Their next race is at Lake Hodges in December.  They have a 10K and a Half Marathon. I'm planning on being out there for one of those!

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