Charlie has been running consistently for the past four months, and trail running for about two. We first discovered Carkeek Park in August and fell in love with all the beautiful scenery and great trails for running. Charlie spontaneously saw the sign up for the first run in the Winter Trail Series at Carkeek while going on a jog there recently and decided to go for it! To prepare, he looked up the series history and practiced the route five times before the event.
The morning of the race we woke up super early to grab some bulletproof coffee and breakfast burritos from Whole Foods. Unfortunately, the burritos were burnt to poor quality, but without enough time left we had to head to the park with empty stomachs and blood boiling with caffeine. Our hands and feet became numb in the crisp 37-degree air as we arrived for sign-in and joked with the fellow racers. We were both pleasantly surprised with the genuine atmosphere that surrounded us and left our cheeks sore from smiles and laughter. As the remaining racers arrived, Charlie took off some layers, stretched with a warm-up and drank 1 serving of performance BCAA to get ready for the clock.
Charlie’s personal goal was to finish the 10k in under an hour and just about succeeded! His official time was 1 hr and 26 seconds placing 35th behind first place who was able to complete the route in a little over 40 minutes. Not bad for his FIRST race! Luckily they had pancakes ready for him at the finish line, but I was hangry by the time we got back to the car. We decided to celebrate his first race with my first visit to a Chick-fil-A… at least one of us earned it.
I am proud of his progress in such a short amount of time, he is definitely pumped and ready for the rest of the Winter Trail Series. We’ll see if I feel up for a challenge!
Rating:
Likeness – 4/5
Difficulty – 3/5
Charlie’s Stats (Garmin Vivoactive HR):
992 – Calories
816.9 – Elevation Gain
1:00:26 – Time
10:17 – Average Pace
7:40 – Best Pace
170 – Avg. Heart Rate
192 – Max. Heart Rate
52% – Zone 5 Heart Rate
151 – Avg. Cadence spm
176 – Max. Cadence spm
