Brazen Bear Creek 2013 – Race Report

I ran my first trail race yesterday. It was awesome. HARD as hell, but awesome.

The Organization:

Before getting into the specifics about the race let me just take a moment to publish a PSA about Brazen Racing. It (they?) is (are?) fantastic. From registration (Active.com), to e-mails (I have e-mailed Sam at Brazen about half a dozen times about this and other races and he has been SUPER helpful), to venues, organization on race day (and maybe early packet pick-up which I did not use) and the most wonderful spread of post-race food imaginable, Brazen kicked some major a**!

Brazen offered 3 distances for the race – 5k, 10k and half marathon. Being a noob to trail races I did not want to press my luck and decided to stick with the 10k (little did I know that was nearly as bad as “pressing my luck,” but more on that later). Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30am, left the house around 7:00am and was at the venue (Briones Regional Park) in Contra Costa County. I actually got a little lost on the way there since the park is apparently located in Martinez, but a part of Martinez that I am totally unfamiliar with. When I finally got to the park I realized that if I had just followed the driving directions provided by Brazen it would have been impossible to get lost. Duh!

The half marathon started at 8:00am, 10k at 8:15am and 5k at 8:30am. Since I was there a tad early I had time to go get my bib, shirt and goody bag then drop them off at the car. Once bad thing I would say about the location is that there were definitely not enough port-a-potties for everyone. I had to wait in line for about 10-15 minutes. There were actually a few halfers who were waiting when they announced that the half would begin momentarily and they just said screw it and left the line. I wonder if they just “communed with nature” somewhere on the course!

Shortly before 8:15am all of us 10kers lined up under the Brazen arch at the starting area. The gun went off and so did we. There were 211 of us 10k runners. There was a nice mix of people running the course. I saw an 8 year old boy and his mom running hand-in-hand, an old Chinese couple and countless grandpa looking guys along with the usual 20-50 year old crowd. A lot of people were wearing shirts from previous Brazen races so it seems to me they probably have a pretty loyal fan base.

The Course:

For the most part the race was entirely on fire trails and was out in the open (i.e. no cover, no shade, nada). Parts of the course ran through cattle grazing pastures so there was the inevitable “cow pie” on the trail. Thankfully since they are so ginormous one could easily see them coming up and dodge them.

The first mile or so was a gradual uphill and I thought to myself “I can do this all day.” I was having no problems whatsoever – except for the damn sun that was starting to creep over the tree line. Gradually the nice little incline gave way to – I kid you not – 2 miles of continuous rolling hills with more of the hills being up than down. Somewhere around the end of the 3rd mile we were handsomely rewarded for our efforts with a view that would turn atheists into believers. 

The next 2 miles were more of the same, but the majority of the hills were down rather than up. There were several downhills that were mostly through very loose dirt that was fairly powdery and hard to run in. Thank goodness I was wearing trail running shoes (Brooks Cascadia) though the majority of other runners were wearing regular old road shoes. Go figure!

The final 1.3 miles (yes – the course was 6.3 miles) were basically single track under a canopy of trees – some oaks, but mostly bay trees. The smell under the trees was to die for. I love the smell of bay leaves! The single track was lined by a lot of poison oak and was the last 1.3 miles for all 3 race distances. So, unfortunately, I did lose time the last half mile or so as there were quite a few people walking the single track and it was not like they could just step off to the side into poison oak!

The last little push to the finish line – perhaps 1/10th of a mile) was up a STEEP hill (so steep that it was partially stairs). Whoever decided it would be a good idea to end the race with that hill must have been smoking some serious stuff from Harborside (don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about!). It was a killer and I have never been so exhausted at the end of a race (okay, so this was only my 4th, but it was still the hardest race I’ve ever run in).

I came across the finish line with a time of 1:10:33. I am actually shocked I finished in under 90 minutes because I seriously walked about 20-25% of the entire course. Actually the majority of people I was running near walked up the biggest of hills and some of the steep downhills too. I was relieved to not be the only one. Knowing that walking those monster hills was acceptable was probably just about the only thing that saved me from having a massive coronary around mile 2.

After the race was over I headed over to the food. Seriously, Good, Food. So much food. I had a chocolate It’s-It (have not had one of those in probably 10 years, but just as good as I remembered it!), carrot cake, red velvet cake (I love sweets!), bagels and cream cheese, oranges and coconut water. There was also PBJs, cookies, melons, other fruits, chicken, yogurts and more. And you could basically have as much as you wanted. This is HUGE to me because after you run your butt off you deserve to eat darnit! 

After I ate more than my fill of grub I headed home. I am still exhausted and my quads are pissed off for sure. I managed to eek out 10 miles this morning, but I am really looking forward to my rest day tomorrow!

Race Shirts/Bling/Goodies:

Brazen races are notoriously cheap. Seriously. I think my registration fee was like $40. The registration fee includes a cotton shirt, but you have the option of upgrading to tech fabric for like $5 more, and I did. I love the shirt!

Love this shirt!

We even got personalized bibs, which I did not know about until race morning. It was a nice surprise.

A nice surprise!

And the medal is HEAVY and awesome!

Finisher’s Medal

We also took home a goody bag full of samples. I was a happy girl.

Brazen also has volunteers take pictures of racers rather than having the expensive professional photogs out on the course. Unfortunately for me I did not see any pics of me on Brazen’s website, but no big deal. I look like crap when I run anyhow.

What did my 1:10:33 get me? I was 83/211 overall in the 10k and 8/23 for my division (F 30-34). For my first trail race I will take that and RUN!

The Final Verdict:

I will definitely do this race next year. I am looking forward to seeing if my time improves. I did not train hard enough for this race, but now that I know what the course is really like I won’t make that mistake again. As for Brazen – I have nothing but great things to say and I am looking forward to my next race with them on Thanksgiving morning.

Xoxo,

Mimi

p.s. If you’ve ever competed in a trail race I am sure you already know that the dirt will be everywhere. I mean everywhere including your mouth, hair, butt crack and in your shoes!

Be thankful you did not have to see a picture of my butt crack!