Havin' a Crappie Weekend Outdoor Festival Fun

The short:

Running the 3-race Havin' a Crappie Weekend Challenge made no sense and complete sense at the same time. The Challenge consisted of 3 races that I don't typically run: a 1 mile, a 5k, and a trail race - but due to a series of events (see "The long" for details) I committed a few days before the race. My goal was to win each event and The Challenge with a moderate amount of effort, since these races were 6-7 days before my season goal race. Some might call this whole ordeal poor judgement, but I call it part of keeping running fun - and I had so much fun!

The Crappie Challenge:

• Crappie Day 1 mile in 5:43 for 1st OA
• Crappie Day 5k pacing Abby in 20:17 for 1st OA (tie!)
• Haulin' Bass 13.3k Trail in 1:08:49 for 1st OAF

Results are here.

5k finish

The long:

This all started when my friend Abby was considering running this 5k to try to break 20:00. I offered to pace her because I love helping friends like that (I paced her to her first sub-6:00 mile!) and it fit pretty closely with the run I had planned for that day. My schedule was 12 miles via 4 easy, 4 at 50k goal pace (6:45), 4 easy - it seemed reasonable enough to do 4.5 easy, 5k at 6:25, 4.5 easy instead. 

I then messaged my friend and Crappie Weekend race director Joy to ask a question about the race for Abby, and found out that there were nice opportunities for local prize money in it, increased by doing the 3-race challenge. I shared the race information with my running group and said that someone needed to take advantage of the prize money. Abby thought she only wanted to do the 5k, and Casey decided she would do a trail race on Sunday, but I couldn't talk anyone else into running it and then I couldn't leave it alone! Although I don't have much interest in all-out racing a 1 mile, a 5k, or a trail race, it seemed sensible enough to do them all in this situation.

Abby and I drove to Stockton Lake together on Saturday afternoon. The mile was at 3:00 p.m. and the 5k at 3:30 p.m. I was hoping I could win the mile with a 5:59, and then Abby and I planned to finish holding hands in the 5k after I paced her to a PR. Neither one of these thing quite happened, but the outcome was still a good one.

I got a little quick on the mile (something about a race!) and ran 5:43 for 1st overall. It felt so good that I started wishing I'd really raced it. I then paced Abby through two perfect 6:25 miles on the hilly 5k course. We'd run the course to warm up so we knew what we were in for, but hoped that she could still make it. She would have definitely broken 20 on a course without 220 ft of elevation gain (!!), but the last mile got her and she finished in 20:17, which is still her second fastest 5k ever! We'd planned ahead to finish holding hands, so I grabbed her hand and celebrated as we finished overall together. The timing company then came over and told us that Abby's bib registered 0.02 before mine, so she was the winner. I'm not counting this against my overall female streak though (undefeated in 2022), since I was pacing and really we tied. :-) She made me take the award under the circumstances (i.e., she left it in my car); originally I'd told her that I was going to kick ahead for the win in the last couple of minutes, but finishing together was much more fun! Our finishing video is here.

This was so fun!

Sunday morning, Casey, Abby, and I drove to Stockton Lake together. Casey had planned in advance to run the 7.7k trail race, and Abby had so much fun the previous day she decided to go back for the 13.3k trail race, which I was also running to complete the Challenge. I had no idea what to expect, I never run trails, I don't own trail shoes, and I was 6 days out from my 50k goal race, so the whole thing was a brilliant idea.

Fast friends

My goal was to win the trail race, which would also guarantee I'd win the 3 race challenge. I did, with one fall and two wrong turns in the process - each time I got back on the correct course pretty quickly though. Trail running is so different! I felt like I was looking down the whole race because footing was tricky with big rocks, tree roots, rock formation things, mud, etc. I had no sense of where I was due to all of the weaving and winding around, so it was weird. Further, I wasn't exactly sure how far the race was, so that was humorous! I did the math during the race and figured it was 8.x, and everyone said after that it was about 8.5. My main competition was Abby, but I came out with the OAF win, and therefore a win in the challenge. Casey won overall in the 7.7k!

Trail race awards

We stopped for brunch at a Mom and Pop restaurant post-race, and had more laughs than I can count. It was a great way to spend the weekend before my final taper! I used to race all-out super frequently, then I went through a phase where I only wanted fast times next to my name in race results so tried to only do "perfect" races, but now I'm in a place where I'm more than happy to run races as workouts - and it's a nice place to be.

bRUNch twins

Awards