Emma's Revenge

Decided to run the XTERRA Austin Trail Run, also known as Emma's Revenge, an 18k along the trails of Lake Austin.  Schwag, beer and pizza were promised, though I admit, I didn't indulge as I just wanted to get home afterwards since getting lost along the way, my cell going out on me and my Garmin leading me to the wrong place gave me just enough time to check in all left a bad taste in my mouth.  Hats off to the early morning runners that I flagged down on the side of the road who gave me spot on directions, instead of hitting me with pepper spray.

The race started off at 0800, with the 18k runners starting AHEAD of the 5k sprinters, which was odd since the little speed demons caught up to us super quick.  Once we passed an initial straight, there was a bottleneck to get up a steep rock path.  Earlier, during the pre-race meeting, the directors had forewarned about the climb, the woman standing beside me looked over at me, her eyes huge, and asked "Do you think he's freakin serious?!"

On the climb, many of the 5k'ers quickly became uppity since they couldn't just zip by, once we were bounding up the ledges there was really no room to go around anyone so a great single-file trudge ensued.  There were still a few asshats who would try to push you faster into the person directly in front of you constantly repeating "On your left!" even though there was no room to budge.  Finally at the top, there was plenty of space along the trail to spread out, or in my case, find my pace and settle in for the haul as I watched the 5k'ers fight each other for position. 

The entire middle section was along the cliffs surrounding the lake, the glimpses I got of the view were beautiful, but since I'm not a huge fan of heights, I just concentrated on the trail and payed no mind to the drops that I was hugging.  Somewhere along the second lap, someone paid me an inspiring compliment.  "What ultras have you done?"  She seemed a little shocked when I told her I was actually in the middle of training for my first.

The tail end brought us to the descent back down to the starting area.  The down grade was just as steep as the climb, but by this point every one was spread out enough to not have to worry about falling into someone or being tripped up from behind.  From there it was just a straight shot (have I ever mentioned I'm growing to dislike straightaways) to the second lap/finishing area.

All in all the race was great.  There were some people who either don't get or just don't know trail etiquette, but they were too few and far in between to really leave a damper on anything.  After I got home, I had a few Ziegenbocks, some killer taco pizza and celebrated the day with my kiddo.