The day that I posted my race report for the Conquer the Cove 25K, Andi asked me if I knew about the OH!lly 5K and if I’d be interested in running it with her.
I had read about the race, which is part of a new summer trail running series that the Charlottesville Area Trail Runners are doing, but I hadn’t planned to run it, primarily because it was happening at 7 pm on a Tuesday night. But when she asked, I couldn’t resist. I actually did want to run it.
We both arrived a little early on race day, paid our $5 registration free, and went for a short warm-up jog.
Just before 7:00, we lined up at the start. There were more than a hundred runners, which I thought was a pretty good turnout for a Tuesday evening trail race. We were given a very long description of the course. I was beginning to worry that the course was not marked very well and that we were expected to remember all of these instructions. I asked Andi if she was following it all and she just shook her head.
I hadn’t been able to find my knee brace and was a little bit nervous about running without it. My knee had been doing so well for so long though, that I told myself it would probably be fine. And for the first little bit, it was. Around mile one I felt a twinge, which made me slow down and be much more cautious on the downhills than I would have been otherwise. I felt a few more twinges throughout the race, mainly when I tried to pick up the pace.
Annoying knee issues aside though, I really enjoyed the race. There was a short section on the Rivanna Trail that I had run before, but other than that, it was all new trail to me, which was cool. There were plenty of steep and rocky hills.
Andi and I hung around for a while afterward. I drank about twenty glasses of water (it was so hot!) and ate a couple of orange slices and a banana while we waited for the awards ceremony.
It was a well-organized and fun race. I’m glad Andi made me do it and I would definitely run another CAT trail race in the future.
Nemophilist in Cville 