Forest Park Sprints

July 22, 2007

When Rob Wagnon told me that he was going to list the Forest Park Sprints on the North American Sprint Series, my first reaction was, "Sweet, that will be 60 much needed points for me." Well, one does well do be a little more humble regarding one's prospects, even if it is a local event.

Sprints are always dicey. To run them right, you've got to be right on the edge of your navigation. In a properly set course, the legs look easy, but when you are running as hard as you can, your oxygen-deprived brain can come to some pretty strange conclusions as to what's going on. Running a sprint right is extremely satisfying, but to do it, you have to risk running it terribly wrong.

The first sprint (click on map clip for full course) is pretty standard stuff. Lots of route choice, with the most technical legs coming right at the start. I overrun a trail junction on the way to #4, but don't lose much time. Other than that, it's a clean run and I get the win. Personally, it's a bit more significant because it's the 250th win of my career (spread over 27 years and six sports).

The second sprint (map) is also pretty typical. What's not typical is the fact that 30 seconds in I realize my legs are not going to deliver. I don't regard that as a big problem - a clean run should still produce a good result. I decide to take the right hand route to #4 and am dismayed to find that the field is chopped up by temporary fencing for a soccer camp. I get through it OK, but it's definitely slower than the route on the left side of the river.

I push the pace a bit to make up the time and run the next few legs well until #9, which turns out to be a disaster. I take the right hand route on the small trails rather than road to the left. This decision is driven more by a desire to avoid the heavy traffic generated by such a nice summer day than any belief that the trail is actually faster. In truth, the routes are probably pretty close, unless one misses the fact that the small trail crosses two bridges before hitting the control. I stop at the first and spend what seems to be an eternity looking around for the control before checking my map and realizing my mistake.

The mistake is probably less than 15 seconds and I put it out of mind and finish the course cleanly. I'm not at the finish for too long though until I'm hit with the news that I've lost the second race by 10 seconds. Well, that's sprinting. If you never make a fatal mistake, you aren't trying hard enough. And, a reality check isn't such a bad thing to keep my ego in check after the milestone win in the first sprint.