Run Tampa

Running Long in Croom

Wow! What an amazing morning of trail running, laughing, talking and fun. A large group of us met at Croom in Withlacoochee State Forest for a long run this morning. Some people I had known for a while but most of the group was new to me. You can never have too many friends, especially running friends. They are just the best.

If you haven't been to Croom, it's a great place for a long, very vigorous trail run. I've been there many times, and every time it's well worth the trip. There are plenty of trails there; you could easily run 40 miles, but they won't be easy miles. It's kind of hilly, and the terrain varies a lot from soft sand to pine needles to leaves. There are rooty areas, but no more rooty than Flatwoods; there are more logs/trees to jump over, though. I think the shortest loop is about 5 miles; another is 8, and on up from there.  This is Beaver Gulch in the photo, the most unique area out there, I think. Looks more like a rainforest. This is not typical of the area, though. The area is an hour north of Tampa, so people don't usually go up there unless it's for a long run. And this area is closed some parts of the year due to hunting. This is not the place to run alone because it would be too easy to get lost. Make sure you go with someone who knows the trails, and take plenty of water because these are wilderness trails. No water stations.

The John Holmes 50k Trail Race and 16 mi. Fun Run will be held there on October 9th and on April 9, 2011 is the Croom 50 mi, 50k, 16 mi. Fools Run.

Most people leave from the Tucker Hill parking lot which is about a 15 minute drive from I-75. You'll find a bathroom and shower there, too.

Driving into the trail head, traffic was stopped while a group of about 30 wild turkeys crossed the road. Later we saw a deer and a snake. My friend, Linda, was recently surprised by a wild boar, resting, right in the middle of the path. Oh, and there are some pretty big spiders, too. If you're the first one on the path in the morning, you'll want to wave a stick ahead of you to knock them down rather than impale yourself.

It's quite a large chunk of wilderness just 60 minutes north of Tampa, an excellent location for lovers of trail running. Check it out here.

I'll Never Forget T2 at the Morton Plant Triathlon

The Morton Plant Triathlon was great fun. I say that now.
At 1:30 a.m. on race morning, however, when I STILL wasn't asleep, I was not in particularly good spirits. Next thing I knew, my alarm rang. It was 4:30. So, with a whopping three hours of sleep, I climbed out of bed and proceeded to convince myself that many, many people find it difficult, if not impossible, to sleep the night before a big race, whether it be a triathlon, marathon, or a first 5k. I told myself that the 1/3mi swim, 13mi bike, and 5k run would take a whole hour less than a half marathon. I hoped to finish in about 1 1/2 hrs. Then an hour later I could be back home and crawling into bed.
Besides the lack of sleep, everything went well Sunday morning until I entered the transition area after the bike segment for T2, but I'll get to that later.
First snafu, accident on the Causeway. I just followed the other cars up and over the island, an easier move for people with an SUV, but my TSX managed it okay.
I arrived at the race site at 5:50 to discover that parking at Sand Key Park, the race site, was already full, and I would have to park down the street. No problem. I had scouted out a backup parking spot the day before. The only hitch was getting all of that gear and my bike to transition. Mental note: purchase one of those big, nice, triathlon backpacks with the padded straps.
Five minutes later I was marked, no problem, but then there was a long, inefficient line to pick up chips. I had wondered the night before why I hadn't received a chip at check-in. Anyway, with everyone standing in line WITH their bikes, it was quite a knot at the chip table. That said, everyone was patient, and we did all get out chips in time.
With my bike racked and gear spread out, I carefully counted the racks in order to make it easy to locate my bike in T1 and return it in T2. Someone had even tied a balloon to the fence nearby, so I thought finding my stuff would be a cinch. HA!
Everything went pretty well until T2. I managed to get into kind of a bottleneck at the beginning of the swim, but then got into a reasonable rhythm. Coming out of the water, I dropped my goggles when I took off my cap, no big deal. T1 went well.
No problems on the bike, except my quads, once again seemed to take five miles to warmup.  My new bike was sweeeeeeet though. Got a Trek Equinox, 2006, on Craigslist for $750. I love it. Big improvement over borrowing my husband's 'too big' road bike like I did for the Madeira Beach Tri.
Anyway, the only major problem happened when I entered the transition area after the bike. I somehow got disoriented and thought I had entered the area from the same end through which I had left it. Yeah, ugh! I don't know how I did that. I counted my 7 rows, but the numbers were wrong on the racks. They weren't even close. I frantically ran in the other direction, but, although that should have been right, I was still confused and turned around again, and ran back to the wrong end again. Then, finally, I realized what I had done and located the right spot. The result was a five minute transition that would have been about two minutes. Rookie mistake. I won't do that again. From now on, my triathlon preparation will include a careful study of the entry and exit of transition for T1 and T2.
Somehow, miraculously, I still got third in my age group with a time of 1:31. So, I was happy, and I did have a nice nap.
Next up, the Top Gun Triathlon on August 1st, at Ft. Desoto Park. The last time I did a triathlon at Ft. Desoto was 23 years ago.