2011 Big Woods Run - Race Report

Yesterday was race day at Fairbault, MN.  The event is the Big Woods Run 1/2 Marathon.  This is a trail race that starts on a road (about 1.5 miles), then moves to flat trails and around mile 4 or 5, starts a hilly terrain.  Not quite what I saw at the Afton Trail Run in 2011 (which that year because of the MN State shutdown had to be moved from a State Park to a ski park and had brutal hills), but certainly hilly.

The day was windy and cold at the start, but the sun was up and as soon as you got in the woods, the wind was barely noticeable and the temperature seem to raise a bit (probably the running).  The route is full of turns, and it is a beautiful trail, but my eyes were kept right on the ground.  More so after seeing two of the runners kiss the floor after tripping on a root.



I also enjoyed the fact that the first 1.5 miles (and thus the last) are on the road.  This allows you (if you have the energy at the end, and I did) to pick a few runners and pass them on the final stretch.  That forces me to pick it up and push through on the last mile.

This is a terrific run, fun, not too big (about 300 people) and well organized.  I do have, hover a major complaint.  While the race is a ChampionChip Timed, it appears they only use the chip for the crossing of the finish line and not the start.  As a result, if you are towards the back of the pack when you cross the start line, you get a few seconds added from the time the gun goes off (or a siren in this case), to the time you finally cross the start run and start running.  Since we were all the way in the back, for us it was about 50 to 55 seconds.

I confirmed this using both my GPS and Mike's watch.  His was 55 seconds off and mine was 50.  Here is a link to my results.  You may notice that the start and end do not coincide.  But that's because I could not get a satellite signal on time to get a position with the GPS.  That, however, doe snot affect the time, since it does not need a satellite to know the time.

So my official (incorrect) final time is 1:54:05, but my actual (correct) time as measured by my GPS is 1:53:16.  This small difference is important because my time last year was 1:53:33, so with my time this year was 17 seconds faster.

All and all it was a very nice race.  After the race we opted to stay for the soup, bread and cookies which warmed my belly and felt great.  I honestly only signed up this year because Mike suggested it.  And while the town where it is hold is a tad far (just over an hour south of the cities), I think it is worth the drive.  I would definitely do it again next year and perhaps try to shave another 17 seconds :-)