Hybrid road and trail 10 miler with mud

On Sunday, Nov 1, 2009, I participated in one of the craziest races that I’ve run. The Caffe Gelato “Waffle Cone” 10 Miler in Newark, DE was just down the road and the restaurant owner is a good runner.

Caffe Gelato in Newark, DE

New adventures. New challenges.
Challenging yourself or attempting something new usually pays off with lessons learned and greater enjoyment of your sport. This 10 mile race is a hybrid with equal parts road and trail. Unfortunately, the course was wet and muddy due to rain and the fallen fall leaves. But it was fun!

Since I needed a long run for my marathon training plan, I ran 5 miles before the race, so this took pressure off going all-out for an impressive time or placing in my age group.  The course starts near University of Delaware, just a couple blocks from the restaurant and the first 2 miles are paved (before the fun begins).  Without rain, it’s a gentle, non-technical trail.  But puddles, mud, and wet leaves covering rocks made it more challenging.

It was nice to see a turnout of 200 runners and we were warned at the start that “white shoes wouldn’t stay that way”. Some road runners were having their first experience on trails (and would not be disappointed), and some who prefer trails enjoyed a bit of pavement.  Pushing ourselves to try something new can be beneficial in many ways.  Here are some that I noted:

Muddy legs – this is the dirtiest I’d ever gotten in my 8 years of running.  Now I won’t fear getting wet or muddy as much in the future.

Shared experience – runners enjoy each others’ company, but the more challenging or dirty or silly the experience, the easier it is to laugh about it with each other once it’s over.

Post-race food – conquering difficult conditions make food and drink afterwards even more enjoyable.  We each got a big waffle cone full of delicious gelato and Ryan, the owner, made sure that everyone had the opportunity to grab bagels, scrambled eggs, bananas and even oatmeal cookies. 

Good age-group prizes – instead of generic race medals for winners, awards were a $50 gift certificate to the restaurant.  Nice (even though I didn’t get one)!

A nice thing about 10 mile races is that all of the participants are “real” runners.  This also meant that I knew alot more participants than the standard 5K which includes casual runners and walkers.  The sense of community can make a dreary morning seem much brighter.

Run safely and add you runner profile at the Running My Races directory!