Thursday July 4 2013
Once upon a time, in another life, I ran a These Colors Don’t Run 5K ‘Color Run’, a Split Master Timing event at Fort Leonard Wood, a plush military camp near Dixon, Pulaski County, Missouri. Thursday July 4 2013. It was at the time, insignificant, but now forms an unlikely part of my collection of successfully raced US states. I was living in Clayton at the time, and may come back to MO in 2021 or even 2020. I have next to no record of the Ft LW event, didn’t take it particularly seriously, and have a great network of hockey friends in St Louis that require little excuse to spark me toward another visit to the Show Me state.
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Sunday November 15 2020
I had been thinking for a while that I should redo Missouri, and make sure I had a ‘proper’ race ticked off and completed. This weekend’s Skippo trail half marathon ended up being just that redo – it was like running in the Somme.
We flew into St Louis, leaving Charlotte around 1300. I almost had to leave much later, when upon arrival at the airport around 1210, the realisation hit me that I had left my wallet (and ID) back home, a journey that is normally 20, not 12 minutes away… One hair-raising return trip later, and I was throwing the truck key at the valet guy and sprinting toward gate A2. Amazingly, I made the flight, and we touched down in St Louis around 1400.
I have old hockey coaching friends in St Louis, so visiting them was another motivation behind this weekend away. Kate picked us up from the airport and we hung out at her and Billy’s house, looked round the Christmas store, then went for a late dinner with them and Joe Joe, eating at Olive & Oak.
Saturday, we went to look at the arch and its St Louis History museum, went for lunch at Peel Pizza in Clayton, then watched Billy’s a Union HS football team beat JBS on the big screen stream. We played some board games, visited Kelly & Joe, then headed out for a delicious dinner at Brick Tops.
Sunday morning was an early start, with Becca and I borrowing Joe Joe’s car to drive to the trail race, 45 mins away at Broemmelsiek Park in Defiance, MO. The GPS took us to the wrong spot, and parking was not near check in and the start line. So upon arrival, I had to grab my stuff, sprint up the hill to packet pick up, and get ready for the race within seconds – shoes, laces, bib, supports, headphones, playlist, gels, watch, headband etc etc. This meant I started last from wave one, with no one else in sight. There were no markers or marshals on the first corner, so I was lost immediately! I got on track, managed to get some space between me and the lady who was trying to follow me, and had to stop to rock a leak.
The Skippo is normally held at Castlewood State Park but with COVID restrictions, it had moved counties, to the aptly named town of Defiance. The new course consisted of three woodland loops, and was signed, but overall it was a pretty confusing experience, and extremely difficult, particularly after the mammoth storms in the area, that had even caused Saturday’s races to be cancelled due to lightning.
850’ of elevation, three lots of three separate river crossings – including one mid calf level after the rains – and a muddy terrain that wouldn’t have look out of place in 1918 Ypres – all combined to make this run, tough but memorable. I caught 11 half marathoners on my first loop (having started so far behind everyone), but as the other events (10k etc.) had also now started, from loop two onwards it was difficult to know who I was overtaking – but it was a lot of people.
I had one extremely muddy fall but I was fine, and although I never caught the lead pack, I ran pretty well and clocked a 1.40.32 (7.40 pace), which is great for such hard terrain. I could definitely have pushed harder last mile or so but with the regular wooded canopy limiting the accuracy of my Garmin, and the confusing course loops, I didn’t realise quite how close I was to the finish. I placed 7th overall out of 103 (3rd in my age group). I believe that I could probably have placed 3rd if I’d started on time and been able to pace off some of the faster guys.
Becca met me there and we headed back to Eureka. After a long shower, I was finally clean, and we headed over to Joe Joe’s house. He took us to Villa Duchesne to watch some of the Gateway intra club scrimmages, before dropping us at the airport for our flight back to Charlotte.
I am writing this on the plane, exhausted after a tough race and a weekend without much sleep. But at least the truck valet is waiting for us…
NOLA next week!
Racing Americana 