3/16/2019

Hartville Trail Runs St. Patrick’s Day 5K Trail Race

Quail Hollow Park Hartville, OH

Scott Orlando

Finish Time:  24:45

Overall Place:  19 / 207

Division Place 4/12

Race Recap By Scott Orlando

This was my third year in a row running the Hartville Trail Runs St. Patrick’s Day 5K Trail Race.  I think I have returned to this race because it is always well organized, the race swag is great, and it supports a good cause.   This year the race organizers listened to suggestions of past participants and adjusted the start of the course to remove the made dash to the trail head which bottle necked most of the field for the first mile.  The new start traveled up the road farther spreading out runners before turning onto the trail head.  A much needed improvement.  Once on the trail conditions went from bad to worse.  The ground quickly changed from soft to ankle deep mud in many sections.  The thick muddy sections made for extremely difficult running conditions.  Several competitors lost shoes stuck in the mud while others fell.  I personally stopped twice to check on other runners that had fallen.  No one was going to finish with a fast time under the tough conditions.  My mind set quickly went from running hard and fast to running safe and trying to avoid injury.  This is the only trail race I typically compete in each year so I have not yet invested in trail running shoes which gave a certain advantage to anyone wearing them.  Luckily I finished without incident and lived to run another day.  For the second year in a row I finished in 4th place in my age division.  I did manage to move up from 26th to 19th overall.