Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Olde Rope Mill Trail Race

Race number four on the Dirty Spokes Trail series was held at Olde Rope Mill park in Woodstock, Georgia. The course is a mix of nice flowing single track and relentless switchback climbs and descents. This has always been an interesting race for me. I've won it a couple of times and I've also finished off the podium here before. I've had a mix of good races and bad races. It's one of those courses that it just depends on the day. Sometimes you feel great but still don't run great and others you feel like crap but run well. It's really all about the final section of the course.

It's a little hard to see on the picture but the course is laid out on the the Avalanche trail south of the river. Typically the race follows a concrete path then joins with the trail on the blue section above. You run the blue then the red sections before finishing with the green loop. That's where all the switchbacks and punchy climbs are.

Due to some heavy rain the night before the race, Tim had to re-route the course to start on the green section then continue onto the blue then red, then back up the other side (red, blue, green). It resulted in a slight shortening of the course - dropping it from 6.5 miles to 6 miles, but it put us on the trail a little quicker. That also meant we had to run straight up a short steep hill to get on the trail, which had a lot of people freaked out, but it really wasn't that bad.

I got out well and had about a 10 or 15 meter lead when we hit the trail. My plan was to get things rolling on the blue section of the Avalanche trail and try to stay on it until I got to the switchbacks. That worked out pretty well for the most part. I felt good early on so I really tried to work the flats and downhills and then just get up the climbs. There really aren't many of note in the early going, so I felt like I had settled into a pretty good rhythm once I hit two miles.

Once I hit the back side of the red trail (explorer trail) I realized that I had to back off a little bit. There were a bunch of corners that were wet, no puddles, but definitely slick. I ran in Scott Trail Rockets, which were fine on most of the course, but I didn't trust them in those wet corners. I tested the footing a couple times, but whenever I tried to drive out of the corners I'd slip.

Slight slipping aside, I didn't really have too many issues in this race. I struggled a little bit once I got to the switchbacks, but I was able to build up a good size lead in the early going and ended up running most of the rest of the race fairly relaxed. As much as I wanted to go completely into cruise control in the last two miles, Tim has put in an age graded category into five of the seven races this year. That gave me a little shot in the arm late in the race.

The first age graded race was UNG, I finished second there. I'd like to get the overall win and the age graded win for the series, so that little extra bit of motivation was helpful in the last couple of miles. I ended up crossing the line in 37:32 to take the win, Jeremy Shirey finished second (39:40) and Wayne Goff (39:44) took third. I was a little surprised that I won by as much as I did. Jeremy has been coming on really strong lately, especially at UNG. He was pretty much right on my heels during that race, so whenever he shows up, I know I have to be on it.

I ended up finishing second in the age graded results again, but since you have to run all five of the races I still have the overall lead.

Here's what the race looked like on Strava:

I'll keep this one short and sweet, but a quick little post-race recap. Amanda and I hit the Woodstock outlets for a bit. I scored a nice pair of New Balance shorts for 20 bucks, which is nice since most shorts I come across are 50 bucks now. After that we walked around downtown Woodstock for bit then made our way to Reformation Brewery. I won a six pack of their Belgian white ale at the race, so we decided to check it out. It was a cool spot. They had a five or six different beers. We each tried a few different ones, I enjoyed the Belgian white and the Prickly Pear wheat ale.

The brewery does this awesome thing where if you purchase a tour and don't use all of your pours - which I almost never do because I'm usually driving - you can trade those pours in for different stuff. I traded the three pours I didn't use in for a 22 oz. bottle of Cadence, their Belgian ale. I figured since the Tour of Flanders was the following day it was fitting. It's a great steak and potatoes beer. Amanda used hers for a half growler of the Pickly Pear.

Recovery Beer of the Week: Reformation - Union

As the description says, it's a crisp, refreshing beer. It paired wonderfully with a pizza.

#Microadventure - Lula Lake Land Trust

I talked a little bit about this in my race recap from River Gorge, but here's the video I promised. I brought my Go Pro along for the trip to Chattanooga and used it to get some cool video of Amanda and I checking out the park.

*Shot with my Go Pro Hero 4 Silver & 3-way mount 
**Edited with Adobe Premiere

Road Tripping: Rock/Creek River Gorge Trail Race

The Rock/Creek River Gorge 10.2 miler was my first real goal race of 2016. It's a race that's become a bit of an itch for me since the course chewed me up and spit me out three years ago. The race takes place on the Mullins Cove Loop in Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area just outside Chattanooga, TN. It's a race that is much more technical then what I'm used to, which sets it a little bit outside of my comfort zone, but it's become a race and a weekend that I really enjoy.

Amanda and I made the drive up to Chattanooga from Atlanta early on Friday afternoon, which shockingly did not prevent us from sitting in traffic. We arrived in the Scenic City around five, allowing us to head over to Rock/Creek - think a local version of REI or EMS - so I could grab my number. Big kudos to the race director for setting up packet pickup the night before. That made the rest of the night and the next morning a lot more relaxing for me.

After checking in for the race we made our way to the hotel to check in there and then found a place to grab dinner. Chattanooga has some great local restaurants, so Amanda settled on Community Pie, a really cool Italian/pizza place that we've been wanting to try. I went with some chicken parm and fresh made spaghetti, which was excellent. After that we walked back to the hotel and I was out cold at about 9. Considering the fact that this was a goal race for me, I was pretty surprised how smoothly the night went.

 One of the things I really like about traveling to race is that I am much better about getting up and getting things going. When I race at home (I still struggle with calling Georgia home. To me home is always going to be Massachusetts) I get up and I dick around for a while then I usually find myself running out the door 10 minutes late. Not this trip. I got up and got things going right away. Getting my number the night before led to a very mellow arrival at the race venue. I milled around for a few minutes, ran into my cousin Greg who lives up that way, and then started prepping for my warm up.

I got a good two-mile warm up in on the gravel road near the start and went over the race plan in my head one final time. The last couple of years I've been the first one into the woods. Two years ago, I hammered for seven miles then blew up. Last year, I led for the two miles before briefly missing a turn and then got dropped pretty quickly. This year, my plan was to be in the lead group but not in the lead when we went into the woods and then ease my way into the race while focusing on really racing between miles 4-8 before things get crazy in the rock garden. After the rock garden, the plan was to hang on and throw whatever I had left out there.

After warming up I caught up with my cousin again and we talked a little bit about the course. I grabbed my water bottle, I went with a small 10 oz handheld as this was a no-cup race, then made my way to the start. They ended up delaying the start 10-15 minutes because there was apparently some confusion with the start time, despite the fact that we got two emails the day before that said 8 am EST. The EST is important because while Chattanooga is in the eastern time zone, the race course sits in central time. Total mind funk. After hearing that, I tried to stay loose and kept telling myself to be patient.

As I made my way to the start I ran into Nate Holland, who is one of the top trail runners in the Chattanooga area. I was a little surprised to see him toeing the line since he'd run the 68ish mile Georgia Death Race the week before. We chatted for a little bit. He's a good dude and I've talked to and we follow each other on Strava but it was cool to talk to get a chance to talk to him for a few minutes.

There were a lot of people on the starting line that I didn't recognize, but I knew that if I wanted to win I was going to have to be able to run with Nate and in all honesty, be in the lead or very close to it coming out of the rock garden. The race starts on a gravel road that climbs for 1/4 mile before turning onto a jeep road and descending down onto the Mullins Cove Loop singletrack. At the gun, which was just a guy saying "runners set...go!" I settled into the middle of the lead group. No one got out particularly fast with a 1/4 climb right off the bat. Totally fine with me.

As you can sort of see, I was tucked in among the leaders as we crested the opening hill. Hunter Orvis (#174) ended up taking the lead as we turned onto the jeep road, I moved in behind him with Lee Wilson (Guy with the bright green sleeves) next to me and Nate Holland (blue shorts) on his heels. As we made our way onto the singletrack, I settled into second with Lee behind me and Nate behind him. Our four-man group began to stretch things out from the rest of the race and it looked like the podium would come from that quartet.

So far so good, I thought. I was well positioned but staying relaxed as we clipped our way through the first two miles. The course is very tight and there isn't much room for passing, especially in the first three miles. Once you get onto the singletrack, it's pretty exactly that, but it runs along the side of a bluff, so it's rocks and trees to your right and a couple hundred foot drop to your left. Epic views when you aren't trying to race. Two miles in I had a little bit of an anxious moment. One of those points in the race were you think 'shit, I have a long way to go and I don't feel great' I lost a little ground to Hunter on a short uphill and started to worry about the three guys running with me.

Fortunately, I was able to calm down. 'Stay patient dude. Just survive the ups'. Any ground I was loosing on the ups I was able to quickly recover on the flats and downhills. We were approaching the first aid station at Snooper's Rock (3.2 miles) and I could feel the pace starting to lag a little bit and the group had tightened up quite a bit. When things opened up at Snooper's I decided to give it a little gas and see what happened. That was in line with my plan, so I pulled even with Hunter and felt him give a little bit so I took over the lead.

About to make the pass at Snooper's Rock

I didn't feel like I put in a big move but it felt the split was about to happen. Nate quickly moved to cover my acceleration and the two of us were clear of Hunter and Lee after that. This was the section of the race were I knew I had to be on it. There is a rugged climb at seven miles and the rock garden at eight, so I knew these middle miles would be crucial. I was still in the 'grind out the hills' mindset though and Nate took advantage of that as he moved to the front shortly after we started pulling away.

I was really hoping his legs were going to be toast after GDR, but I guess that one of the benefits of training for a race like that is that you build up a ton of strength. After the race he told me he was struggling to stay in contact on the downhills and flats but he felt good on the ups so he decided to go for it. I did my best to keep my 'stay patient' mantra going and just focus on getting through the technical stuff and the climbs and use my strengths where I could.

'Just keep him in sight!'

That worked for a while. His initial gap was manageable and I was starting to bring him back in a few spots, but he just got stronger as the race went on and he is so good on the technical stuff. While he was still within sight, I watch him smoothly cruise over the rocks and float by the creek crossings. He was like water taking the path of lease resistance. Meanwhile, I was coming in like Miley Cyrus on that wrecking ball. Just careening left and right, one bad step after another. Nate was like a deer zipping through the woods. I was like Bambi slipping on the ice.

Fortunately for me, I was fully prepared to be a comedy of errors on the rocky sections and I was able to mentally stay in the race. I've had moments in this race in the past were a bad step would end up costing me a lot worse than it should have simply because I couldn't let it go. This time, I mentally prepared myself to expect those things to happen and instead of focusing on the crappy line I just took or the bad step or how much it slowed me down, I focused on what was coming up ahead of me.

As the race worn on I lost sight of Nate. At that point I was holding out hope that he'd crack and tried to stay focused on racing. The last couple of races I've done I've been wasting too much energy worrying about what was going on behind me and I wasn't in the race. I did a much better job of staying in the race this time. Looking back the middle miles were pretty uneventful. They didn't feel that way during the race. I felt like I was actually running well, despite Nate being out of sight.

Things got a little more interesting going into the second aid station at Haley Road (hey it's my name that's fun!). After running nearly seven miles of single track  with sections of rocks and a dozen or so little creek crossings you pop out onto a Jeep road. You'd think that would be a great feeling and a place were you could open it up, but when I say Jeep road I mean a jacked up, redneck, 50 inch tire kind of Jeep. King of the Hammers kind of stuff. Not only was the road pretty well washed out but its the start of the toughest climb of race.

I was all over the place. I couldn't pick a good line and kept jumping from side to side. It's a good thing I went with the La Sportiva Mutants, otherwise I would have slipped and stumbled instead of just stumbling my way back to the trail. There's no two ways about it. This part sucks. That's it. That's all I got. It sucks and I hate it. It's probably safe to say I have some work to do if I want to run Loon.

I finally reached the top of this SOB and tried to work on recovering. I was seven miles in. Nate was no where in sight ahead of me, but I couldn't see Hunter or Lee behind me either. I knew I had about a mile to go before the rock garden, so I broke the race down into it's final three miles. Race to the rock garden, get through the rock garden, race to the finish. Simple.

Once again, this section seemed like it went pretty well. I was pushing where I could and I felt like I was racing, not just out there running. By the time I reached the rock garden I knew I was running for second. No way I was going to catch Nate unless he broke something. I took a quick glance at my watch and I realized that he was going to run really fast and I still had a shot at a PR on the course. Then the rock garden decided it was going to beat me to a pulp.

It was rough going. I'm already not a great technical runner, so when you add in tired legs it was a long, long mile of rock hopping. It's such a tough section. You have to pick your line then spot your landing for each step all while trying to keep an eye on the course markings. The trees are marked with blazes and the race crew hung pink tape on tree branches, so it's well marked but constantly being unsure of where to put your foot and trying to keep and eye on those markings is really difficult for me. I can't chew gum and ride a bus at the same time, so what do you expect?

Emerging from the rock garden a bruised and battered soul, I tried to ramp it back up for the final mile as PR was still in the realm of possibility. Unfortunately, my legs were tapped out. It felt like my muscles had changed to quick setting concrete in the rock garden. By the time I felt like I was able to get back into some kind of rhythm I could see the finish arches. It was a long final mile.

I crossed the line second in 1:15:07, which was faster than last year and is the second fastest time I've run at River Gorge. Nate Holland took the win in 1:10:09, which is smoking on that course. He ran the third fastest time in the history of the race and the fastest time since 2011. I've heard that the course is a little bit longer now, but I can't confirm that. The record listed on Ultra Signup is 1:08:32 and Nate is one of four people to run under 1:12. What I'm trying to say is that he killed it.

Hunter Orvis (Atlanta) finished third to round out the podium in 1:17:08 while Lee Wilson (Nashville) took fourth in 1:17:33. Overall, I was happy with the way the race went. I was a little disappointed that I didn't run a little bit faster but this is a tough race and, like I said before, it's a little outside of my comfort zone. I also feel like I made the move that broke the race open, so I take some pride in that. I need to work on my technical skills and I know that I was missing the long tempo/fartlek runs that you need to be strong over the distance. Major kudos to Nate for crushing the course, especially so soon after GDR. Also props to Hunter for taking it out and Lee for hanging tough. This race always draws a really good crowd and some really solid runners.

One goal race down. Next up I've got a couple of Dirty Spokes races then the Peach Jam Half Marathon and then Tuckfest. April's a busy month. I have to cram in as much running and fun as I can before the draft comes around.

After the race I hung out around the finish for a bit talking with Nate, Hunter, and Lee and a few of the Rock/Creek guys. Turns out Nate rolled his ankle pretty good. I wonder what he would have run without that? I ended up getting a sweet engraved Hydroflask water bottle and a really nice Salomon half zip at the awards. This race offers some seriously sweet prize gear. I stuck around for a bit after that to catch my cousin Greg's finish. He ran 2:20:03 and that's after running a trail marathon the weekend before and he's been pulling 16-18 hour shifts at his job for like two months. These Chattanooga guys are wild dude.

He's a good guy to know in the area. He must have introduced me to 10 different people before and after the race. After the race he hooked me up with the t-shirt and hat I'm wearing in the photo above. He started a company last year called Frontier Runner and he's got a couple of things in the works, including some pretty interesting prototypes for running packs. The shirt is killer. It's a technical shirt that's made in the USA by a company called Runyon Canyon. It's super comfortable and the logo is awesome. I ended up wearing it all day after the race and for my run the next morning.

Here's what the race looked like on Strava.
Speaking of after the race...I went back to the hotel to pick up Amanda and we grabbed breakfast at Mean Mug. I had a coffee and their breakfast biscuit - scrambled eggs and bacon on a biscuit - I could have eaten 15 of them. Their biscuits are amazing. We continued our adventure weekend by driving to Lula Lake Land Trust which was about a 20 minute drive from downtown. Lula Lake is a has a few miles of trails and two waterfalls. It's a place we've wanted to check out on previous trips, but it's only open on the first and last Saturday of each month.

Lula Lake was awesome. I've got a short video that'll post one I'm finished editing, but I'll throw a couple of pictures on here because it was really cool. We grabbed a map and started making out way out to the waterfall. The first thing we came across was a trail called the Jedi trail. Obviously we had to check it out.

From there we hiked up to the bluff where we were treated to amazing views of the surrounding area. We hung out there for a few minutes to rest from the hike up. After the race, warm up and cool down I had 14+ miles on my legs so I was a little toast. We kept hiking along bluff and came across the high adventure trail. The trail lived up to it's name, following the ledge before dropping down to the river below. There was even a spot where you had to repel down a steep section of rock with a guide rope.

I am a Jedi. Like my father before me.

I've got to work on my GoPro skills

Trying to be Bear

Meandering our way down from the bluff to the old rail road bed and then down to the river we passed a ton of people out enjoying the park on a gorgeous day. From the rail road bed we made our way down to the jewel of the park, Lula Falls. It was one of the best waterfalls we've been to. It was massive and you could walk right up to it.

One of my best Instagram photos

We hung out at the base of the falls for bit. I got some cool footage on my GoPro and I watched one guy slip and fall in the mud three, maybe four times. He was really, really determined to get closer to the falls. It did not go very well for him. From there we hiked back up to the rail road bed and then to the lake and upper falls. If you are ever in the Chattanooga area on a first of last Saturday, I highly recommend checking out Lula Lake Land Trust. It's actually just across the border in Georgia but it's well worth the short, fun drive over Lookout Mountain.

After our hike we hit Mojo Burrito in the St. Elmo neighborhood of Chattanooga for a burrito and a beer. I was pretty gassed after that so we grabbed a Red Bull before heading back to the hotel to shower and head out for the night. We settled on heading to the Flying Squirrel bar, a cool bar attached to the Crash Pad - an outdoor focused boutique hostel - which brings me to the recovery beer of the week.

Recovery Beer of the Week: Bells Oarsman Ale
A light, bright wheat ale with citrus flavors. It paired perfectly with the garlic fries we ordered. Normally, I'd pick something a little more local but we didn't get a chance to go to Chattanooga Brewing Company on this trip. Next time.

The next morning I got up and ran one of my favorite runs, the Big Daddy Loop on Lookout Mountain. It was awesome for about five of the 11 miles. Once I started the climb up to the bluff trail my legs were totally shot, but it was still worth it. I really enjoy that run, especially in the fall and early spring.

Here's how that one looked.
That was a long blog. Thanks for sticking it out.

Come At Me Bro

As you might imagine, there is quite a bit of testosterone flowing at my office. Because of that a number of athletic challenges have sprung up, encompassing players, coaches, and staff members. The talk about competition is not a joke. There are daily free throw competitions, ping-pong tournaments and my personal favorite, endurance challenges.

Last week I got challenged to run one lap around our facility as fast as possible. I was coming off of the fall and calf issues from the UNG race, but when you get called out by the head coach and general manager...sometimes you gotta race.

One lap around our facility, beginning and ending at the flagpole at the front door is a touch longer than 3/4 of a mile. It starts out flat around the main building then has a gradual downhill behind the indoor facility and around the retention pond. About half way through you hit the dorms - used for training camp - from there it's a grinder of an uphill before a steep downhill to flat in the final 200 meters.

Coach ran it in 9 minutes. I wasn't real worried about that. Our GM did it in 5:30 something on his longboard skateboard. Notice how they don't tell me the actual time? The hill is such a grinder I knew there was no way that he'd be able to beat me on his longboard. Even if he skated the flat and downhills and ran the uphill I still think I'd be able to run it faster.

Tuesday morning I got to work early and ran my five mile route through Flowery Branch to get loose. After that I went right to work with my hot lap around the facility. I took it out hahhd, hammering from the start until I got about 100-150 meters in before settling down and letting gravity do the work on the slight downhill.

I focused on my form and breathing around the pond, trying to keep it together knowing that the climb was going to be tough after getting out that fast. I was 1:55 at the cul-de-suc and decided to go for sub 4. When we talked about it on Monday I figured I'd be able to get under five minutes pretty easily, but since I wasn't sure of the real distance I didn't really know what I could do.

I got up the first part of the climb and then tried to change gears to get through the final 150 meters or so of climbing, knowing that the end is downhill to flat. I think the hill workouts have been working because I got through the climb relatively easy then just tried to bring it home with some "wheels" (31 year old wheels baby!).

I hit the watch at the flagpole, finishing the lap in 3:54.05. You know that's what I wrote on the white board where everyone is keeping track of their times. That point zero five is kind of a middle finger to certain people who don't respect the amount of work I put into my running. It's a fun middle finger. Like, I'm smiling and we're all friends but at the same time...come at me bro.

It's only a matter of time before I get challenged to something on the bike and get worked, so I have to own these while I can.


These endurance challenges started last summer. We have a trail in the back of our facility. It's a tight trail but good for running or mountain biking, but it's not very long. I figure it's a shade over a mile. We have a few coaches that are cyclists and a few that run for fitness. I got challenged to see how fast I could run the loop and whether I could run it faster than our GM (a former Cat 1 mountain biker) could ride it.

He kept chirping at me about it, but when this challenge came about we were in the middle of training camp, which is not the greatest time for my running. I still get my runs in but they are normally short and slow. Oh yeah, it's also elevendy billion degrees here. Anyway, one day I get told that I'm running it after lunch. I jogged a lap easy to get a feel for how it runs and where I could attack. I was not feeling like it was going to be a fast lap. It was hot and I'd been on my feet for pretty much the whole day.

Thomas rode his lap first. He came through in 9:01. Despite not feeling 100 percent into it, I felt like I had a chance to beat him since there are a lot of quick turns and punchy little ups. On the warm up lap I noticed a couple spots where I was able to close on him and a few spots where he was spinning his back wheel.

After he went, I launched into my lap. I hammered it as hard as I could and fortunately, I was still in pretty good form, I guess those track workouts paid off. I finishing my loop in 7:55. What Up. The trail is really tight in some spots and there aren't many areas where you can really power out and make up ground on the bike. On the other had, there are plenty of quick turns and short ups where I could just plant my foot, change direction and go. I think the tight turns also meant it was easier for me to get back on the gas coming out of them. It also helps that I've been racing on mountain bike trails in Georgia for five years now.



The next day I ran it the opposite direction in 8:07, giving me the record in both directions. Both records stand still stand today.

The other endurance challenge we currently have going is the fan bike. It's basically just how fast can you do a half mile on the fan bike. It's brutal. I did it once a couple weeks ago, but it all honesty I wasn't really into it so my time is 1:08 but I know I can go faster. I'm not big on staying late at work to get into the weight room now that it's light out until 7:30 p.m. though. I'll run or ride my bike outside thank you very much. One of the advantages the South has on New England is that spring is a real actual thing. It's 65 and sunny as I type this on a Sunday night at 7.

The fan bike is a torture device from the pit of despair. It's a bike, with a big ass fan for a front wheel and the handle bars pump like an elliptical. When I did it the first time I was putting out 800 watts for 40 seconds, I know that's not good for a cyclist but I was gassed. The current record is 49 seconds by Paul Worrilow, a professional, NFL linebacker who also happens to be the definition of a gym rat. For real. Last year the power went out and home boy was still in there cranking out cleans. The fan bike is one endurance challenge that I probably am not going to win but I actually feel pretty confident that my lap around the facility would stand even if players gave it a whirl.

I know you're wondering about the other challenges. I've actually held my own when I've been called to shoot free throws. I think I'm 3-3, but my ping pong skills have diminished severely. I'm 0-fer on the ping pong table.

I'm usually much more self deprecating, but I was kind of stoked about the lap around the facility so I thought I'd share. It was a nice little confidence booster after being a little down last weekend.

Race Recap: Dirty Spokes UNG Trail Race

Editor's note: It's been a busy last month of work. I traveled to Indy for a week, we had a few PR nightmares, and then free agency opened up so I've really been slacking on my blogging. I'm going to do a race recap of last week's race because that's freshest thing in my mind, but even now I'm a week behind that. 

Race Recap: Dirty Spokes University of North Georgia 5.3 Mile Trail Race
UNG has become one of two courses that I consider to be a home race for me. It's about 15 miles up the highway from my house and about five minutes from my office, so I've spent a good amount of time on the trails there. It is one of the faster trail races on my calendar due to its shorter distance - between 5.3 & 5.5 miles depending on where the start is - and the fact that the course has a solid two miles of flat and fast dirt/gravel road.

It's a very fast start with 1.5 miles on the wide hard-packed trail. After that things slow down when you hit the mountain bike trails. There isn't a lot of land at the school so they've really tried to get as much distance as possible by filling the trail with a ton of twists and turns. Around about 3.5 miles things open up a little more. The turns are more sweeping than slalom but it's still a mountain bike trail. Shortly after hitting the four-mile mark you see the only real elevation change on the course, a quick up-and-over before you drop back down onto the fast stuff again for the finishing stretch.

A good bit of this race is right in my wheel house, so I've been chasing a sub-30 minute run for about six years. Spoiler alert, I didn't get it this year. I think it's doable but the course has changed a little bit since I ran 30:18 a few years ago. I think Ferenc ran 30:15 a few years ago when he came down for it. The start used to be in an open field - cross country style - now it's straight onto the hard pack. While the new start is definitely quicker, I think it adds a little bit to the course. I'd have to check what Tim wheeled it at but I'd venture a guess that with the old start it was 5.3 and the new one is 5.5. It almost certain adds a little bit now that we don't cut across the field. That's kind of an excuse, but whatever. I'll be back next year chasing that sub-30 run again.

Okay, on to the race.

I woke up on Saturday morning feeling confident after getting back on track with another hill workout earlier in the week but by the time I got to the race I felt flat. I did a two mile warm up while searching for an open building/bathroom and told myself that it was just prerace angst that was making my legs feel heavy and sluggish. I switched my shoes and headed over to the starting line where I ran into Mitch Novy and a couple of the other usual suspects. Mitch told me he had to take some time off with tendinitis so he wasn't going to be taking the race out hard like he normally does. Instead he'd hang back and run with me until I broke off into the woods for the long course. I was totally fine with that since in the past we'd been able to run away from the chasers over the first 1.5 miles and that's set me up really nicely.

When the gun went off we both got out clean, which was a concern since there was a narrow bridge about 50 meters in that could have been troublesome if you didn't get a clean line. Once we got across the bridge I settled in an fell into a comfortable rhythm with Mitch running right on my shoulder. My plan was to stay smooth and relaxed through the mile then put in a surge until I went into the woods where I'd ease off a little and focus on getting through the tight sections and opening it up on the more runnable ones.

Things went according to plan for the first mile with Mitch and I controlling things out front. We clipped off the first mile in 5:40, which I felt was perfect, at that point I started to ramp it up a little bit and ended up falling into rhythm behind Tim on the four wheeler. That might have been a little bit of a mistake. I ended up really dropping the hammer and almost instantly opened up a substantial gap. I felt good rolling it out, but after glancing at my watch and seeing 5:05 pace I figured I might be in over my head. I eased off a little bit but I still wanted to do as much damage as I could before getting into the woods.


That worked. I had around 40 seconds to a minute lead by the time I went into the woods, but for all the damage I did to the field, I did plenty of damage to myself. As soon as you go into the woods you have a couple of tight turns in succession and I felt completely gassed. I told myself to breathe and take whatever time I needed to recover then use the parts of the course that I felt comfortable on to get back to racing. It took me a little while get back into the race but eventually I started to feel a little better. My third mile was a little bit soft and I let the second and third place runners bring back too much ground. Ultimately that probably helped me. It made me feel like I had to stay in the race and I couldn't just fall into cruise control.

With so many twists and turns there are a lot of places that you can see the runners ahead or behind you. That didn't do a whole lot for my whole 'don't worry about what other people are doing' thing, but like I said, it put plenty of fear motivation into me. By the time I reached the four-mile mark I felt like I was back in control. My legs still didn't feel like that had a ton of pop, but I knew exactly what I had left in terms of the course and I felt confident that I was going to get the win and turn in a solid time.

Inside the final mile and change I started to push things a little harder. I was driving out of the turns and was starting to pass some of the short course runners, using them to keep the focus on what lay ahead of me.

With about a half mile to go I was rolling down the final section of mountain bike trail before dropping back onto the gravel road for the push to the finish when I came up on a short course racer. I announced "coming up on your left" and he moved off the trail to let me buy. I got by him clean and the grimace on my face was turning into a smile. I started thinking about the hill workout I did on Wednesday. I set a new KOM on the Carriage Road climb at Little Mulberry. That climb sucks, but I grinded my way through a solid workout. I said to myself 'if you can do that this should be easy. It's dead flat!' Then boom. All of a sudden I was slidding into second base and I was out by a mile.

I clipped a root with my right foot. One of those ones that you catch with your toe when both feet are off the ground and went down hard. I nearly caught myself by I was going down so fast that I couldn't right the ship and ended up doing a head first slide. I was pissed. "Ahhh SHIT!" I grumbled as I scrambled to get back to my feet. I knew I'd opened up some distance but if I wallowed and took to long to get going again getting caught was a possibility.

The initial shot of adrenaline helped me get to my feet and try to get back into the race but after a minute or so I started to realize that I was dealing with more than just a raspberry on my right hip and bashed up hands. After the adrenaline wore off I noticed that accompanying each step was a sharp shot of pain in my left calf. Fortunately, I didn't have far to go at that point and I was able to hold on for the win. I felt like my mind and body were totally separate in the final 400 meters or so. My body was stuck grinding away as my mind was sprinting to the finish.

I limped across the line in 32:16, so not only was I disappointed in the time, but I was pissed at myself for hitting the deck. I've been pretty fortunate in that I haven't fallen in a race in a long time. There have been a few slip up and 'oh shit' moments but no full on crashes for a long time. I stuck around the finish to see the second and third place guys, who ran really strong. Both guys averaged right around six-minute pace, 6:02 and 6:03 I think. With a lot of these trails being mountain bike trails, averaging six-minute pace is good enough to win a lot of them. Major kudos to those two guys.

The look on my face sums up how I felt about the fall

I hobbled my way to the car to clean myself off and change shoes before heading out for a 2+ mile cool down with Mitch. I was hoping that if I kept moving my calf would loosen up. It loosened up a little bit on the jog but as soon as we finished I felt like I had a softball lodged in my calf. I hung around the awards ceremony for a while, trying to keep moving around to stay loose. It didn't work.

I had a short ride back home from the race venue, but when I tried to get up out of the car I doubled over and fell into Amanda's car in the garage. I hobbled into the house and went straight for an ice pack. It was a gorgeous day, so we had hoped to enjoy it outside but after struggling to maneuver from the car to the counter at Jimmy Johns I decided I needed to shut it down for the day. I spent the rest of Saturday on the couch, alternating between ice and a compression sleeve.

I was not happy on Saturday afternoon. I was really nervous about how long it would take for the pain and swelling to abate. Fortunately, when I woke up Sunday it felt better. I could still feel the tightness, but I was back to walking normal. The original plan was to get in a long run (14-15 miles) on Sunday but I figured it would be better to just take the day off from running. Amanda and I checked out Leita Thompson Park in Roswell, walking around two miles, but other than I it was a zero.

I think spending Saturday icing and taking Sunday off were smart decisions for the long run. It was certainly a bit of a set back, but if I can be back to running normal by the middle of the week then I should be okay going forward. I'm still chasing that sub 30 time at UNG but overall it was a decent race. I didn't feel great about it. I don't know if I just went to hard early on or if I was a little flat from trying to build up my mileage, but I just kind of felt meh about it. Sometimes that's just how these races go until my training starts to come around in the spring.

Here's what it looked like on Strava. Can you tell where I ate it?



Recovery Beer of the Week: Kennebunkport Blueberry Ale

This is something I've wanted to add to my race reports for a while. I've been doing it on my snapchat (mattmhaley) but I'm adding it to the blog. I'm not a big drinker, but I do enjoy a good beer. After the race and spending Saturday as a debbie downer we were able to do a little exploring on Sunday. On the way home we stopped at a Trader Joe's to check out their selection of beer/coffee and stumbled on Kennebunkport Brewing Company Blueberry Ale. Light and crisp, it was a perfect pairing with dinner on a nice spring-like Georgia night.

I'm pretty much willing to try and beer once, but I get pretty excited whenever I find New England beers down here in the South. We always keep something New England based in the fridge. It's usually Woodchuck, but you're bound to find Hahhpoon or Sam in our fridge at any given time.

Update: The good thing about taking so long to finish this is that I can update everyone with how the week went. I took things easy Monday and Tuesday to be safe, but I was pretty much back to normal by Tuesday morning. I got the long run I was looking for in on Saturday and would have hit 60 miles again had I not run out of time on Thursday morning. I lollygagged getting out the door and ran on some trails that are slow going. I got in five, but had to cut things short so I would be late for work. 

Race Recap: Heritage Park 7.5 Mile Trail Race

Heritage Park marks the second race of the Dirty Spokes Trail series and it's typically a bit of a ball buster for me. At, roughly, 7.5 miles it always seems like it's just outside of my comfort zone this time of year. Going into the race, I'd been logging good mileage in the mid-40s to 50s as part of my typical steady build up and I even threw in a hill workout to try and start working on some strength.

I felt like I ran pretty well at Mayhem on the Mountain, but I figured Heritage park would be a better litmus test for where my fitness is right now. The course is a little more rolling and doesn't have the same short steep climbs as the last race. Things start out on a gravel road that loops around the park's large open arena, through the parking lot then past the barn and onto the trails. The majority of the course is run on well worn mountain bike trails with a couple of sections using wider, double-track equestrian trails. Like I said before, it's a rolling course with a good mix of flat, up, down, and turns before hitting decent climb in the final 3/4 of a mile back up to the arena where the race finishes.

My plan was to stay relaxed early and work my way into it letting the short course (2.8 miles) guys go out and just run my own race. I didn't really have much in the way of expectations. This is a weird race where sometimes you'll get a UGA guy that comes down from Athens, hell one year a guy from Australia that was teaching up there showed up and destroyed. Of all the Dirty Spokes races this one is the one that has the highest wildcard factor in terms of competition.

For once I actually got out the door on time. I was in the car and moving at 6:30 to make the hour drive out to Watkinsville and made it out their with plenty of time to get situated. I checked in and grabbed my number then continued my tour of the bathrooms of the lower 48 states - that's what my mom and dad used to say whenever my brother or I would have to go to the bathroom when we were driving cross country as kids.

It was a cold morning with the temperature hovering in the mid 20s. That wouldn't be bad for early February under normal circumstances, but earlier in the week it was in the mid 50s and low 60s, so the 30 or 40 degree temperature swing made the cold a little more biting. With the cold and the long drive, I wanted to make sure I got nice and warmed up, so I headed out for a 15-20 minute warm up on the opening section of the course. As I was heading back to the car I ran into Mitch Novy as he was getting ready to head to the start. In true Keene State, ragamuffin fashion I was grabbing gloves, arm warmers, and my jersey all while tying my shoes with about 10 minutes to spare before the gun.

When we made it to the start we both exchanged pleasantries with the usual suspects. It's really cool to see how competitive the series is through all the age groups for men and women. There are some serious battles that really heat up as it goes along. I love talking with those guys before and after the races. There are some guys and gals that are killing it in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and I hope that I am still out there getting after it like they are.

I told Mitch that I wasn't planning on going out hard and I was focusing on just settling in and trying to ease into things. Since his race was 2.8 miles, he was prepped and ready to go out hard, XC spikes and all. And go out hard he did. At the guy, my man was gone. He instantly had a 10 meter lead, with a young kid - maybe 12 or 14 - trailing behind him. I was a little behind the young gun while everyone else settled in behind me. As we worked our way around arena on the gravel road, I gradually started pulling the two leaders back in. I was a little conflicted because I glanced down at my watch and we ran about a 75 second first quarter, which was much, much quicker than I wanted to go out. However, I was sitting in no mans land and I've always enjoyed running on gravel roads, especially, flat, fast gravel roads.

Roughly a half mile into the race I realized that Mitch had settled in and I decided to try and pull him in and run with him until the split. I pulled up along side of him and we ran side-by-side before dropping onto the singletrack. I pushed ahead to take a slight lead figuring I would be better off keeping the the pace higher and trying to separate myself from the pack early. I was little surprised that Mitch let me open up a little bit of a gap but he kept it pretty close for the first two miles. I think we both realized that we had a nice early cushion and settled in shortly after the mile mark. Just before 2.5 miles we had to cross a small creek (or crick as they say down here). There was a photographer there and after the race I was all jacked to see the picture because a bunch of people put theirs on facebook. Mine did not come out so hot. I felt like I looked so smooth going over it, but that was not the case.

Seriously, what is that? I look like I'm afraid of a spider or something. Embarrassing. Ferenc is going to be pissed that I'm making the jersey look bad, but stay tuned it gets better. Anyway, after the crick we went through the split where I raced deeper into the woods while Mitch made the turn to head back to the finish. From there on out I was pretty much on my own. It's always hard to tell how far up or down you are on some of these trails that double back on themselves, so each time I caught a glance of someone else I tried to put my nose to the grindstone and get rolling.

Once I made it through four miles, I had a pretty good feeling that I was well in control. I have been trying to take some of the things that Coach Quinn talks about to the team into my running, with the main theme being that 'it's about us'. It doesn't matter what the other team does or what anyone else does as long as we/I do what I'm supposed to do. My goal in that is to stop worrying about what's going on behind me and just focus on the road/trail ahead of me. It's probably not a coincidence that I run my best when I'm focused on what I need to do versus what the people behind me or in front of me are doing.

I tried to stay focused on racing, but I ended up just kind of settling in and going into cruise control for the second half of the race. I felt like I was doing a good job of pushing the pace on some of the flat sections, but I was feathering the brakes a little on the downhills. We've had a good amount of rain down here over the last month or so and a lot of the downhills were pretty washed out which had me a little worried about rolling an ankle.

Heritage Park has a ravine/gully type feature to it with creek, sorry crick running along the bottom. The course runs down to the crick in the first half of the race, crosses it, then works its way along side before crossing again and then climbing back out of the gully. By the time I reached the base of the climb back out I knew I had the win sown up. To try and get myself going again I wanted to finish under 50 minutes, which meant I needed to make the final climb and finishing stretch in under five minutes. This stretch is a little more than a half mile, so I felt like it was doable, but I ended up cresting the climb and coming out of the woods right around 50 minutes and finished the 7.5 mile race in 50:21.

That Untapped hat looks good on the top step

I was happy to get the win. I don't think I've ever won at Heritage Park before. Like I said, it's a tough race for me fitness-wise and a lot of times you get one or two guys that are just straight up faster than me. I thought I'd be able to run a little bit quicker, as I've run in  the 48s on this course before, but I'll chalk that up to trying to shake people and/or chase people down the last couple of years. I entered the race hoping it would give me a better idea of my fitness early in the year, but came out of it just as unsure as I was before. I feel like I'm set up better than I was last year though.

I spent a ton of time during December and January trying to get my hamstring right. It's still tight every now and again, but I'm in a better spot than I was at this time last year. I'm still working on it, but my mileage is much better this year. I'm probably not quite were I was going into 2013 but I feel like I'm closer to that than where I was last year, which is a good thing. My first goal race is still more than a month away, so for now I just need to stay course and keep working.

Overall Heritage Park was a success. It was a solid run at a good tempo and most importantly it was on singletrack. I need all the practice I can get on singletrack and technical trails going into River Gorge. Next up is the Thrill in the Hills half marathon on February 20th. I'm not viewing that as a race, more of a long workout. Obviously, I want to perform well, but I know I'm not quite ready to race that distance. That being said, it will be a really good tune up a month out from River Gorge.

Here's what the race looked like on Strava

After the race I drove over to Watkinsville proper and stopped at Jittery Joe's for a nice hot cup of coffee to refuel for the ride home. I went with their Tour de Force dahhk roast and dropped a spoonful of Untapped maple in it and munched on a maple waffle. Jittery Joe's is a really cool coffee shop based in Athens, in fact I think there is only one outside of Athens (I could be wrong). I started drinking coffee during training camp this past year and we have a few of their varieties at the office so I've really come to enjoy it (always with a shot of maple syrup of course). They have also been long time supporters of the cycling community, which I think is pretty cool.

After my post-race snack I headed back home and met up with Amanda for some lunch before we headed downtown to check out Ponce City Market and walk around on the Beltline. There were a ton of people out walking around, which I was little surprised by since it was cold for Georgians. After we we worked up an appetite walking around we headed to Mellow Mushroom for pizza and beer which was long, long overdue.

Sunday morning I decided to go for a recovery ride on my sweet new Cannondale CAAD10 instead of running. I rode nearly 40 miles due to a slight miscalculation of distance from home. It was a really fun ride, probably a little hillier and further than I should have gone, but I really enjoyed rolling along on my new ride. Apparently buying a bike the day after a "snow storm" is the way to go since I got a good deal on her.

My sweet new wheels!

I rode over to the Buford Dam, which is a really cool spot to ride. There's an awesome stretch of rode that goes over the top of the dam, overlooking Lake Lanier to one side and the Chattahoochee River on the other. The dam is one of those earthen Army Corps of Engineer dams like Otter Brook or Surry in New Hampshire, so I enjoy the few minutes of nostalgia.

Race Recap + Another Microadventure

Race Recap:
Dirty Spokes Mayhem on the Mountain 5 Mile Trail Race

My first race of 2016 was also the first race of the Dirty Spokes Series. Mayhem on the Mountain was a brand new race on brand new trails at Sawnee Mountain, and now the series will start and end there. I got out on the new trails a week before the race to pre-run the course and I was really glad that I did. It's a straight forward course that follows the ridgeline trail around the mountain. It doesn't have a ton of overall vertical but there is plenty of up and down. I'd say it's the toughest Dirty Spokes or XTERRA course that they have had so far. Everything is steep. There's nothing overly long, but all the climbs are steep and they come at you one after the other.

The course was laid out on the entirely new trail system that's just been finished at Sawnee Mountain. The mountain has two peaks and is bisected by Bettis Tribble Gap road. The old trails at Sawnee, where the final race of the Dirty Spokes series is held, feature a four mile loop that goes up to the summit and has a cool lookout called the 'Indian Seats' where you can see the North Georgia Mountains and surrounding towns.

The new trails are on the other side of Bettis Tribble Gap and run around the mountain, climbing up to near the summit on the backside. Laid out in a counter clockwise direction, the course saw the majority of the climbing spread out over the first three-ish miles. Normally, that would be a good thing, but since it was all short steep climbs and then short drops, it really beat you up by the time you got to the top. Still, that's better than grinding out a two mile climb and then dealing with the short steep up and downs. I guess that's the only way the course would have been harder. Remind me NOT to suggest that.

I fell back into my normal ritual pretty easily pre-race. Pasta party Friday night then, of course, we were late getting out the door on race day. I had every intention of getting to the park at 7:30 to give myself an hour before the race started, but we didn't get there until 7:45 which meant we had to park at the main lot and take a shuttle. I take full responsibility for being late and I'm super thankful that Forsyth county runs shuttle vans so we still made it there in time to get my number and do a short warm up.

When we arrived, I made my way to check-in where Linda from Dirty Spokes decided to ratchet up the pressure nice and early by giving me bib number 1.

I caught up with Mitch Novy, one of my running buddies down here. We both ran for Saucony Hurricanes for a little while before he left to join Reckless Running and now he's running for Honeyy Stinger, which is pretty sweet. I mean they are no Untapped Waffles but Stinger Waffles are pretty good. Mitch and I caught up for a bit and did a short warm up jog on the last bit of the course. Neither of us were big fans of that, since the final mile or so of the course was downhill, which meant we were warming up by running up hill...no fun.

They ended up separating the two races (long course - 5.1 miles & short 3.1) by about 10 minutes to allow for spacing going into the trails. This was a really good idea because the parking lot/driveway area is pretty limited, so there wasn't a lot of space to spread things out before getting into the woods. Fortunately the trail was pretty wide, three to five feet probably. That's wider than a lot of the mountain bike trails in the area. You probably couldn't run side by side he whole way but at least there was enough room to pass.

At the start I got out to the front pretty quickly then settled down to see if anyone was going to hammer early on. I was looking forward to running with Mitch, but since he was in the short race I was on my own. The other couple of guys settled in behind me and we went into the woods single file in a lead group of three with everyone else strung out behind us. I tried to stay relaxed early on, knowing what was in store for me later, and settled into a nice rhythm for the first mile or so. I gave it a little bit of gas at the top of the first couple of short climbs and ended up opening up a little bit of a gap. I kept telling myself to stay relaxed and just get through the climbs. I tried to keep a similar effort and tempo so that while the climbs would slow me down, they wouldn't throw me totally off rhythm.

Side note: For the life of me I cannot spell the word rhythm.

Just before we got to the 1.5 mile split where the 5k took a cut through trail we dropped onto a double track section that looked like an old jeep road. After about 200 yards on the jeep road we hit the first of a couple of nasty switchbacks that felt like they were nearly vertical. Once I crested that and came down the other side I had a gradual climb up to the split. At that point I glanced back to see where the other guys were, and to my surprise they were out of sight. That was a pretty good feeling, knowing that I still had to run the toughest part of the course. I took a deep breath/sigh of relief as I felt like as long as I stayed on two feet and made it too the top in first that no one would be able to stay with me on the descent.

The next mile and a half was a real grind. A lot of short steep climbs then short steep descents, which absolutely hammer your legs. There was one particularly nasty set of switchbacks that I forgot about, which took me a minute or two to recover from before I settled back in. When I reached the top, I felt like I was crawling but I knew once I got over it I'd be able to get rolling. I tried to recover a little bit after we crossed over the lookout tower road then really got on the gas once I started going down. I was hammering at this point. The fresh trail was pretty well cut so the footing was really good despite all the rain we've been having lately. I had a couple of moments where I did't fully trust putting all my weight into the corners, but my LaSportia Mutants were super stable and did a nice job of gripping but staying responsive and quick.

When I came up on the short course again I went to work on catching as many of the short course runners as I could before the finish. I ran into a little trouble on a short false flat where I was expecting things to stay gradually downhill. I was a little worried that I over cooked it but the trail dropped back down shortly after and I was able to let gravity do most of the work. With about 300 meters to go I set my mind on catching one last 3 miler but he must have heard my foot steps thundering down the mountain behind him because he took off. We were both all out sprinting down this rocking trail toward the finish. He held me off and I congratulated him on a great finish after I crossed the line.

I ended up running 35:11 for 5.1 so I was a shade under seven-minute pace. On that course, I will certainly take it. Since it was the first race on those trails and technically the first time they were open to the public that's the course record. Next year I'll have to shoot for sub 35. I was really happy to get the win and run pretty well on a tough course. I wasn't quite sure what to except with it being the first race of the year, but it was a good solid way to start the year off.

After the race Amanda and I continued our search for good donuts with a trip to Dutch Monkey Donuts. I went with the maple vanilla swirl and it was excellent. We decided to take a day trip up to Chattanooga since we were already out that direction. We really just walked around downtown and did a little window shopping then headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Patriots game and eat wings. Two nice back to back weekends to start the offseason.

mmmmmm...donuts

I'm not 100 percent sure what I've got next on the docket. I'll definitely be running all the Dirty Spokes and XTERRA races this year, so Heritage Park will probably be the next race. Right now my first big goal race will be River Gorge and then probably Peach Jam after that. I am also kicking around the idea of doing a 55 mile 'gravel grinder' on the bike in February. We shall see.

Almost forgot...here's what the race looked like on Strava (go easy on me New Englanders. I didn't decide it was a mountain!)