Balarat Trail Race - RACE REPORT

A beautiful day for a trail race, let's run 2. OK, technically that slogan refers to a doubleheader in baseball, but why can't it relate to other events and activities? This was, essentially, a perfect day for a May trail race. Driving up Left Hand Canyon leaving Boulder saw the sun and a warm morning turn to overcast and windy in the very short drive up to Jamestown, CO. The race was the Balarat Trail Run, a benefit for Denver Public Schools (DPS). DPS uses this facility for its outdoor education program. Hence, a worthy cause near and dear to my heart.



I've run this race each of the last 3 years now, and for a 10K-type length, it is far from your typical 10K. It loses and gains over 1,000' of altitude in its short span. The organizers have it right as they included both an uphill start and an uphill finish, using essentially the same location for the start and finish - very impressive course with spectacular views and gorgeous meadows.

The weather was a bit iffy - typical in May in the mountains. When the sun came out, short sleeves. When the sun was clouded over, long sleeves. When the sun was clouded over with wind, long sleeves - perhaps a jacket. When the sun was clouded over with wind, snow, and sleet...... anyway - you get the picture. We hit several different types of weather and as long as you stayed running, you were fine. Hence my decision to go with strictly long sleeves, no jacket or base layers. A little motivation to stay running is always welcome.


So, the last couple years, the distance I've run in this race has always been fewer than 6 miles due to one thing or another. I've never broken an hour on this course. So, I was hoping this would be the year. And that I would run the full distance.

The uphill start is a great warm-up. You're not going to fly out the gate unless you're a typical (not me) Colorado runner freak (like about half the field). As the road gave way to the first stretch of singletrack, several folks who started behind me buzzed past me, already huffing and puffing. I thought to myself: It's gonna be a LONG 5.5-6 miles for those folks...... I passed them easily on the first descent and made up 3 or 4 spots on some others. Never saw them again. As the trail dropped us onto the first road, the course flattened; I felt surprisingly strong. Cool, so I pushed up the first beautiful road climb and peaked out at the first view of the meadows and first couple stream crossings.

It was the kind of day and scene where if you could build a log cabin, you would. No matter the cost or the energy, it would be worthwhile to be able to watch the moon rise and the sun set with this kind of surrounding from here on out. Just gorgeous. Rarely do I not find the courses I run beautiful in some capacity. All the more reason to find new race places and return to the old faves.

So, you continue through the undulating terrain and then I heard it. They started the music early. And through the trees with the birdsong and the sky with the wind blowing, this delightful bit of finger-pickin' bluegrass and downhome fiddle-totin' humans. Very cool. Moments like that enable me to push a bit harder. And I realized how well I was running when I spotted a familiar shirt in front of me - Torin (one of my coaches) was within eyeshot. Interesting.....

I pushed and pushed and actually ran two of the uphill sections I had never run in previous years. Unfortunately for me, Torin is a monster downhiller and he quickly disappeared after that final descent. Then the inevitable uphill switchbacks proved to be a bit too much to catch my two targets in front of me and..... a sub-1:00 finish. My official finishing time: 60:01. You have GOT to be kidding me. One of the rare instances where a watch would have actually helped me come in at 59:59. Oh well, there's always next year. Hope you can all join me!!!