Tartan Terrible 2012

Tartan Terrible is a fun little race that I run every year, sort of a steeplechase, with trails that include mowed grass, long grass, longer grass, sand, gravel, pavement, and even knee-high water.  Runners are well-advised to use old shoes.

This year we racers were also treated with rain, which started just when the race did, and ended when the race did.  Nobody seemed to mind - the evening was warm enough, and the rain actually helped us keep cool.  Besides, we ran through water anyway.

My race wasn’t great, although I did enjoy it a lot. Nephew Luke was there and ran it, doing rather well I think.  Nice to run a race with him again.  But my own time, 45:38 for about 4.3 miles, was about two and a half minutes slower than last year, and last year I had run 18 miles in the morning!  I had hoped to run as fast as last year, or faster.

Last year the sports hernia appeared right after this race.  That injury bothered for most of a year, so this year I was careful to walk up and down the steepest hills, to avoid that sort of abdominal stress.  Those hills are short, though, and I doubt they could account for most of the difference in time.  I’m just a bit slower, still working to recover from the hernia and its repair.  If the distance was 4.3 miles, the pace was 10:37.  It’ll have to do, and I had fun.

Whining:  The right knee with PFS grumbled a bit but didn’t cause any trouble.  The hernia repair was silent, and remains silent the day after the race.  Excellent news.

Memorial to an iron worker in a park in Anchorage, Alaska