Running God’s Country

No, I’m not religious. In fact, running the trails might be my form of “church.” What my title is referring to is running a duathlon called God’s Country Fat Tire Festival with an old friend. My friend, Gerald, reached out to me when he saw I was training for my half marathon. He needed a partner to run, so that he could focus on just the biking portion. I happily agreed to it because it would be a new adventure!

For this duathlon, I would start off running four miles and tag Gerald, who would then bike 20 miles. The week before God’s Country, I started training for it. Luckily, the race was on home field advantage—the River Trail. I had missed the River Trail. It’s where I had completed my first half marathon. During the time I had been away, the trail had really greened up. It was so beautiful as I flew down the trail to prepare for the race. I wasn’t sure how serious Gerald was about this, so I didn’t want to disappoint.  I spent the week preparing by running the first loop of the trail as fast as I could.

Finally, it was race day. I made it out to the River Trail and found bikers everywhere. I made my way to the registration table where Gerald was working to help make sure participants received their packets. He gave me my shirt and my bib. Our team was called the Red Riders and so I found the only shirt I had that was red to wear, but I wasn’t happy about it. Thankfully, our race shirt was red, so I changed out shirts. It was made of cotton, which I would regret later, but I’ll get to that. Shortly after that I ran into two of my Trail Hawks, Mary Ann and Trudi. Both were doing both the running and biking portion. It was nice to see friends when I didn’t know anyone else besides Gerald.

Trudi, Mary Ann and I looking good before the race.

 

The clock finally reached 8 a.m., so we gathered at the finish line and then we were off. There were only six teams competing in the duathlon. I was determined to do my best for my partner. I told Gerald that it would probably take me 40 minutes to complete the four miles. I wasn’t sure who all was competing, but I knew one person that I was up against. She was blonde and I could see her ahead of me for the first mile and a half. I caught up to her as we got to the turnaround point and I passed her. Then I ran back to the finish. There weren’t a lot of people in front of me, because there were two different races going on at the same time and many chose to do the shorter distance. I took off and it began to get hot in my cotton shirt, but I kept pushing through.

Almost finish running God's Country.

 

I could see the end of the race coming up. I just had to make it a little further and slap Gerald’s hand. I came up the tiny hill and could see him there. I could tell I surprised him. I reached my hand out and he took off. My part was over. It was all up to him now. I waited for Mary Ann and Trudi to finishing the run and watched them get on their bikes and go. I hung out and watched as the other racers came in from the other race and then 40 minutes past and I could see Gerald Biking up the hill. He had completed half of the 20 miles and was going back out for another loop. I cheered him on and took some pictures.  Then I saw Mary Ann and Trudi come biking up the hill as they finished the first 10 miles. I’m glad I got to see them and cheer them on.

Gerald finishing the first 10 miles.

The clouds started to come out and it began to get cold since my body was no longer active. I decided to stick it out and wait for Gerald to finish before I could try and find some sort of a jacket. I didn’t have to wait too much longer before he came pulling into the finish line! I was very proud of my partner. Gerald was a long time biker, so this was very typical biking event for him, but I can’t remember the last time I rode a bike. However, I was ready to get on one after seeing all the racers that day. (My bike is currently being fixed as we speak.)

We got fourth out of the six teams, but that was okay. Gerald wanted to do it for fun and I’m happy we did. The biggest surprise was that I ran the four miles in 31 minutes according to Gerald. I’m not sure if I believe him, but that did explain why he was surprised to see me. Mary Ann got first in her age group and Trudi got second in her age group as well!

Way to go Trail Hawks!

The atmosphere was quite similar to running races. It was nice to witness the biking community and see a new perspective on a sport that I hardly knew anything about except that we shared the same trails. Needless to say, I’m ready for next year’s competition!

Team Red Riders