by Kevin Robinson – After all the work on the garage and having the energy sucked out of me by the sun on Saturday (  did you know shingles will just about melt if the sun is hot enough…and it was!) I was not sure how the Scuffle race would go.

I hit the sack feeling pretty spent Saturday night and just figured I would see how I felt in the morning. Sunday came and the lameness with it. I started by cleaning the pool and going for an easy relaxing swim. It is amazing how therapeutic water can be.

Though still pretty tired, I was refreshed and could not come up with a reason why not to get in a trail run……..so kev and I jumped in the jeep and headed to Bradbury. I suspected it would be a rather slow race for me and kev was feeling the same.

We decided to start in the back and just do an easy run …..or at least see how we felt after settling in. Kev could have easily run much faster but elected to keep me company and promised not to out kick me at the finish.

This would be the second time in two weeks that I started about dead last in a race, sure hope this was not becoming a new trend! My second worry was that all the deer flies who could not keep up with the fast runners would enjoy us slower ones a bit more than normal. As it turned out there were not too many.

The down hill start was perfect for me and I felt darn comfortable right off. Within a half mile, I was picking off  runners one by one but suddenly found a bit of a traffic jam at spots. The trail was just not wide enough to pass graciously so I waited until the snowmobile trail and first uphill to crank things up a bit and passed bunches at a time.

Mile two I was feeling good and actually got my first chuckle watching Four pass me and others by skipping the small wooden bridge and tromping almost knee deep through a small gathering of water. I was feeling fairly hot at the time and the splashing almost enticed me to join him.

Mile three brought a bit of reality and reminded my muscles just how tired I really was. The climb seemed endless but I kept reminding myself the reward was the water stop and plenty of cooling water. I decided to stop even though this was a short race. I drank a heed and dumped the water over my head……it felt great!

Mile four I was feeling strong and passed back the three people that went by me at the water stop. It felt so good to have the energy to catch back up and get by these runners, only to have them fly back by me at the next stop.

I normally wouldn’t have and didn’t need to stop at the 4.5 mile but we were told there was an injured runner about a half mile back and we wanted to notify Eric and crew that it looked as though she would not be able to walk out on her own. It actually felt good to speed up a bit and I took advantage of another dosing of water.

Now I was chasing the same three runners and felt adamant to recapture my spot in front of them. problem is we were in mile five and they all seemed to be enjoying the speed of the down hill. Last year I went crazy in mile five and pushed much too hard only to severely suffer at the hill in mile six.

I was much more conservative this year though I still had the pleasure of passing a few struggling runners, but not the three I was chasing. At the bottom of the hill I was barely catching the slowest of the three and had serious doubts with the mile six hill looming in front of me.

It suddenly dawned on me that I was racing after all and it felt great! Kev sensed my growing disappointment and pulled about four or five strides in front of me. He knew I would latch on and chase him, his intent was to suck me up to the runners in front and allow me the opportunity to use my kick at the end to try and pass them.

His timing was perfect and I powered up the hill catching and passing one of the runners. I caught and passed the second of the three about a hundred yards from the top. I could hear her legs speed up as I passed but by this time there was no catching me.

About a quarter mile from the finish I rounded the corner and the third runner was watching  me fly by. As promised, kev stayed in stride with me for my kick and we both finished strong. It was a great run that turned into a fun and exciting race. All and all, I passed about 40 runners and ended up only about a minute slower than last year.

A quick drink of water and we hi-tailed it home to finish the plywood and Tyvec on the garage…..finally, it can rain all it wants …..the garage is water tight now! Of course I enjoyed a much deserved cool down swim first.