Feb 8, 2014
ELKRIDGE, MD - And so, Gabriel returned to his original home trails in Maryland, those of Rockburn Park, to participate in the 2014 Mid-Maryland 50K Relay with newly minted trail runner, Christopher Beck.
The arrangement at hand was for Gabriel to take on the opening two loops (20km), then hand-off to the 50K training Beck for the final 30km. Leading up to race, the Mid-Atlantic had seasoned the worst winter on record, with an onslaught of snow and ice and sleet and rain and single-digit temperatures for week upon week. However, with the final winter storm moving past on Wednesday, the trails had Thursday and Friday to dry out for some decent trail running conditions.
Beck threw Gabriel a curveball on race morning... brimming with confidence, Beck wanted to run the entire 50K on a whim, feeling the course was not technical enough "to get dropped." Well, although not a sound plan, Gabriel went along for the ride, sticking to his plan of running 25K hard as his workout. What "hard" meant, he would soon find out, but they lined up, ready to roll.
And from the gun, Gabriel was alone, step by step. In control, with good form after a Manning-like reconstruction of his mechanics since August, Gabriel went to work. The course was pleasant. Windy, tricky, but with no major climbs or descents, just trail running. After a quick GU at the 10km loop in under 38-minutes, Gabriel set off for second, much tougher loop. His training had been sound, with some good speed and strength efforts, but he is still in a re-building phase. A rough patch emerged at about 12-15K, but soon after he was able to rally for the final 5+km home, running well and pondering Moab.
Team Under Armour would fail to finish on this day, but there were many lessons learned by the fearsome duo. One was a fitness check, the other was a gut-check of expectations. But it felt good to return to the familiar surroundings of the trails and fast running with no damage done, nailing a Bullseye.
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