Running 58:54 [2] 6.5 mi (9:04 / mi)
slept:6.0
On the way to the Alden Bulldog Stampede, I stopped at Darien Lakes State Park - parking in the Sumner Rd lot. I followed the Conservation Trail south thru the park and across Rt 20, until the 30 minute mark, which came just after I crossed the RR track, made a wrong turn and corrected.
The park had a bunch of signs that said "State Park - No Hunting No Trapping No Carrying Guns". A little over a mile into the run, I came upon a guy on his cell phone, with a shotgun over his shoulder and the barrel in my direction (he redirected it when he heard me). I did not know it was gun season already, and I also did not know that the signs were meaningless. After crossing Rt 20, I heard a shot to my northeast, and decided it might be prudent to return on the roads. I heard several more shots as I went north past the park, and saw a sign directing hunters to "register here" for permits - I guess to hunt in the park.
Running 1:15:00 [2] 8.75 mi (8:34 / mi)
Running around during the Bulldog Stampede Invitational in Alden, wearing the Garmin. It will be interesting to see whether this mix of quite a few miles, but with breaks to coach between races and cheer during races, but with some very fast running to get between certain points on the course will turn out to be useful as long runs for marathon training.
Our JV Boys were up first, and despite the top 3 going out much too fast, we were able to hang on for the victory. The guys who started out 4-5-6 did a great job of staying calm despite being trapped back too far, and moved up steadily for the win.
Only 2 JV girls.
The Varsity Boys were facing St. Joe's, who we beat at McQuaid, and 15 other teams from the Buffalo area. I was nervous early as our top 3 were back in 15th-20th, well behind a couple of St. Joe's kids and 4 kids from Lockport, but Lockport soon faded and our guys moved up thru the field and were in good position going into the woods. We ended up beating St. Joe's by 19, for the win! And this despite losing several points in the final straight in deference to our big meet on Tuesday.
Last up were the Varsity Girls. A big disappointment here, before the race, as we only managed to line up 3 girls. So, on the day, only 5 of our 21 girls were able to run. One girl has quit, one has sort of quit because the play is getting busier, the PSATs took three, leaving 11 girls that "chose" not to run. Several are in various states of "injury" (injuries seem to knock girls out of practice/races much easier than boys), some legitimate, some not. And a couple had to go on college visits, which I would normally accept as a valid excuse, but the "visit" was to Geneseo. I think another time could have been scheduled, or it could have been done on the way to or from Alden. In fact, this was the worst Saturday to go, since our former runner that is there, was off to Boston to compete in the Head of the Charles.
Well, now that I got that off my chest, the race itself went quite well. Val went thru the mile in under 6:10, in 10th place, fell back to about 15th with 1200m to go, then fought back and finished 9th. And our third girl (normally 10th or 11th) had a great PR, even beating her [3 mile] McQuaid time by 22 seconds (in a 5K).