August 2, 2014
YORK, PA - And so the On the Rocks Trail Run would serve two purposes for Gabriel: 1) it would teach him the "local" trails, as he would be moving to the outskirts of York within the month, and 2) it would serve as his last long run before the Pikes Peak Ascent.
The family headed out and soon enough they found their destination. This small, intimate race would be run on a typical Pennsylvania course of rocks, rocks, rocks. The start was hilarious, as within ten meters, they had to navigate a technical rocky descent, and Gabriel's shoes were not the smartest choice. However, he hammered, and then relaxed and then relaxed probably too much.
His nipples burned from a wear-test gone wrong, his feet ached from improper footwear, and his desire lacked as the course was too technical for what he wanted out of this training effort. He decided to shut it down and perhaps stop after one circuit of the two circuit, 30km race. As he approached his girls at the end of the first lap, Gabriel confided to his wife that he felt horrible, not motivated and not wanting to continue. As he re-laced his laces, and spent close to five minutes in aid, the second place runner passed him. Gabriel was amazed. He thought he had a much larger lead. Now, shirtless, he set off in pursuit and stalked this Krupicka-inspired runner with his soft, methodical footstrikes. He was obviously a seasoned technical trail runner.
And so, at the first opportunity, Gabriel sprinted past and up a pretty big climb and managed to run scared the rest of the way, hammering out a negative split on the second loop and crushing the CR by nine minutes, as well as defeated that runner by a solid fourteen minutes... in one 15km loop.
However, by the end, Gabriel's hip wanted to cramp and he had run much harder than he wanted to, almost to the point of depletion. Oh well, it was a great debut at Rocky Ridge, and a great 2h29' of hard running on very technical terrain... hopefully all he would need for Pike's Peak in two weeks time.
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