Race Recap: XTerra Georgia Thrill in the Hill Trail Half Marathon

This was my first ever half marathon and the first time I’ve run an Xterra race. Tim from Dirty Spokes puts on all the Xterra Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama races as well as the Dirty Spokes series and a bunch of other mountain bike and duathlons…as always it was a great event, the course was really well marked and laid out, he smartly has the race start on a short paved loop to thin out the crowd and the post-race atmosphere was great, whether you won or ran three hours. I am a huge fan of all the events he puts on and will definitely continue to run these races in the future. On to the race…

We started out on the road and ran close to a half mile on the road before we headed onto the trails. I wasn’t expecting that but it was good because where I was thinking we would head into the trails would have had us running a really tough first two miles of up and down. At the gun I got out good to make sure I was clear of any traffic and then settled in behind Matt Rivers and the eventual winner David Bell. Matt set the pace for the first quarter or so until we started climbing up the road to the trail entrance. My race plan was to stay upfront but stay conservative for the first couple miles because of all the up and down. I wanted to focus on running the flat and downhill sections, while I just tried to manage the climbs.

Heading into the woods David Bell took the lead with a strong surge, I didn’t respond because I was worried that I would throw my race off by letting him dictate my pace. I decided to hang back and run with Matt Rivers for a while and see if we could work together and catch up to the lead. That didn’t really happen as Matt hung back a little bit and eventually let me go, which turned into me just trying to survive and hang on at the end.

We hit the two-mile mark just before the mountain bike parking lot and knowing that I had a relatively flat and relatively straight mile ahead of me I put in my first surge. This is where I started to pull away from Matt and I ended up closing a good bit on David. We hit three miles and then started to climb up the three step hill, which is a three section, terraced hill that you wind up and down. It was a tough spot but we started catching marathoners (they started 30 minutes before us) so that helped me a little bit as I was able to use the lappers as targets to go catch.

After finishing the three step hill we passed through four miles and came up on the first water stop. The water stop was set up on the far side of the road at one of the only road crossings in the race. As I was turning to come out of the woods I saw a white hatchback car going 35 or 40 miles an hour (a.k.a. flying) down the road and about to blast through the crossing area. Mind you, the area where we crossed the road was marked with a crosswalk, six cones, oh and four people at a table with water coolers who were standing in the road. Apparently this guy missed all of those signs and decided to hammer through. I had to slow up to make sure I didn’t get hit by the car, and I ended up smashing the rear quarter panel to let him know that he almost hit me. I may have thrown a profanity or two his way, I can’t quite remember.

Before we headed home after the race I drove around the park to the spot where this happened to show Amanda. When we turned the corner onto the road there was a speed limit sign that said SPEED LIMIT 7 MPH…yeah seven miles an hour.

After my brush with death, I missed the water because everyone was so confused by what happened. I think everyone thought that I got hit. It actually fired me up and carried me through the next mile from four to five. From four to six miles was actually a lot faster and smoother than I thought it would be. I really felt like I was putting some distance on the guys behind me and running in a really good rhythm. I was also passing a bunch of marathoners at this point so that was a big help as well.

I knew that the second water stop was coming up at the 10k mark, so when I hit six miles I took out the strawberry-banana GU that I had in my back pocket and ate some. This was the first time I’ve taken fuel in a race and blech…that stuff is nasty but it went down pretty easy and after getting some water (I only nearly choked on the water the first time I tried to sip) I continued rolling through the winding section of trail.

Six and seven went by pretty quickly and rather uneventfully. We started to come down hill towards the backside of the dam, which was really, really windy. After heading back into the woods we climbed up to the first section of power line trail, where a completely miserable hill climb waited. The hill wasn’t overly steep but it was a long slog to the top. About three quarters of the way up I caught a glimpse of Bell taking the hard right onto the fire road that led back around the lake. I dug in and grinded my way to the top, knowing that the loop along the lake that was coming up was going to be my best chance to make up ground on him and put more distance on Rivers.

When I got to the top of the hill and made the hard turn on the fire road I took a few strides heading down the hill to try and regroup before I started to pick up the pace. Going into the race I knew this section would be key for me. It was 8 miles into the race and it was a flat, hard packed and straight section of trail. I really focused on working this mile of the race and it went pretty well. My legs were starting to get really beat up from all of the up and down but they responded to my desire to run faster.

After the lake loop, I started the climb back up towards the power lines, which started with a short steep hill that was right at the nine-mile mark. For some reason I thought that nine miles was only going to be the eight-mile mark, so when I saw nine miles on the sign I almost jumped out of my shoes. My excitement was quickly diminished though because after that I came out of the woods and had another long climb up the power lines. This one was brutal. I felt like all of the distance I’d put on the guys behind me was going to evaporate.

Somehow I managed to survive the climb and once back on the trail I tried to recover quickly. After another short climb I passed the 10 mile mark and started a downhill section ran from 10 almost all the way to 11. This was another one of the sections of race that I knew I needed to run well. I really tried to hammer this section to make up for how heinous the previous hill went.

My plan worked well until I got to the bottom of the downhill section right before the climb up deadwood hill. That’s when the wheels really started to come off. I managed the uphill alright but the switch backed downhill was another story. The 11-mile mark came and went and I tried to bear down and just focus on catching the marathon lappers than were in front of me. With about a mile and a half to go my hamstring and hip flexor really started to get tight. There were a couple of spots where I was reduced to hobbling. I put my head down and tried to keep moving my legs, figuring I’d get caught at any moment. At this point I was just hoping I’d put enough distance to hang onto one of the top three spots.

Once I got to 12 miles I took a couple glances back at a few of the corners and I couldn’t see anyone but lappers. I didn’t want to focus too much energy on worrying about what was behind me and see if I could get a solid final mile in and grab second place.

Once I got to the point where I had turned around for my warm up I knew I only had about three minutes or so before the finish and it was downhill, so I sucked it up and brought it home to cross the line in 1:23:45.

It was by no means, blazingly fast but I wanted to get under 1:25 and finish in the top three…mission accomplished. Overall it was a great experience. As my first attempt at a longer distance race (more than the typical 10k anyway) I thought I had a pretty sound plan going into the race and it ended up working out pretty well. I initially figured there would be more of a pack towards the front of the race, but it quickly thinned out and was basically a race for second after the third mile. I may have had a shot to catch up to the winner late in the race after a good 10^th mile but I just didn’t have the legs and I struggled over the last two miles. Regardless it was fun. I won some sweet Darn Tough Vermont socks (the second pair I’ve won…I love these socks) and a free pair of INOV8’s. Not a bad haul.

Tim records all of the races he puts on with a Go Pro camera mounted to either his quad or mountain bike. After the races he is kind enough to post them on youtube. The Thrill in the Hills video is embedded below. I’m in a three mile orange singlet with black shorts.

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Training February 20 – February 26

Monday, February 20: Sweet Gum Trail – 7 miles – Ran two clockwise loops, starting out on the homesite trail up to creekside and Cherokee to the GEHC and finishing with the sweet gum trail. This is the reverse direction of how I usually run this double loop but I need to mix it up every now and again. The only real difference is clockwise the run starts out with a longer, gradual uphill, while the counter clockwise run has two shorter steeper climbs spread out over the first 10 or so minutes. Felt alright. My legs are a little tired from the increase in mileage over the weekend.

Tuesday, February 21: Sweet Gum + Ivy Creek Greenway – 8 miles – Six sets of 30-60-90s…this was a pretty solid workout. I didn’t feel great on the first two sets but I got into a better rhythm on the last four and the last two 90s I ran were probably my two best intervals of the year. The rest on this workout was a lot better than on my last run too. Overall it was one of the better workouts that I’ve had in a while. It’s still going to be a bear to race 13 miles but at least I’m feeling better about where I’m at than I was a couple of weeks ago. 

Wednesday, February 22: Ivy Creek Greenway – 7 miles – Ran an easy seven, two loops of homesite, out and back on the greenway and up to the GEHC and back. Recovery day after Tuesday’s workout.

Thursday, February 23: Ivy Creek Greenway – 7 miles – Same run as yesterday, but this one was brutal. I felt absolutely awful for the first 20 or so minutes. I really

Friday, February 24: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – Just wanted to get a shakeout in before tomorrow’s race. I probably could have run a little longer but I figured that I’d need my legs to be as fresh as possible for the race, so I decided to run five just to get something in.

Saturday, February 25: Xterra Georgia Thrill in the Hills trail half marathon – 15 miles – The race was held at one of my favorite local trails – Ft. Yargo State Park. I ran 1:23:45 for second place. It was definitely a tough race, especially with the two really tough power line trail climbs right at 8 and 9 miles but I ran much smarter than I did in my last race so I was able to hang on for second. I will try and do a more complete write up of the race in the next couple of days. Right now I am trying to recover as my right hamstring and left foot are in rough shape.

Sunday, February 26: Sweet Gum Trail – 6 miles – Ran two loops of the Sweet Gum trail nice and easy today as a recovery run from yesterday’s race. My legs actually felt alright once I got going. My hamstring was a little tight but once I got a few minutes in it loosed up. My foot is still bothering me but I think it will be alright after a couple of easier days.

Weekly Totals: 55 miles on seven runs with one workout and one race – Another good week for me, third week in a row over 50 miles and a second place finish in my first ever half. I know 55 miles isn’t all that much volume but I’m well ahead of where I was at this point last year. Looking back, I ran 85 miles in February last year and this year I’m at 204, which is a mile less than I ran last year during March. Obviously, I know I need to continue to increase my mileage, but right now my plan is to stay between 50-60 MPW for the next two weeks then start to ratchet it up to 75-85 MPW in mid-March. Next week will be mostly spent recovering from the half and then I will get back to getting at least one workout in a week to prepare for my next scheduled race the Dirty Spokes Running the Rocks 10k.

Training February 13 – February 19

Monday, February 13: Ivy Creek Greenway – 7 miles – Hit the greenway for seven miles today. This has typically been a five mile run but since I want to up my mileage I wanted to kick the week off with seven. I added the stretch of the mill creek nature center to mix it up a little bit and I had to run the paved path up to the GEHC building at the end of the run instead of doing the homesite loop because it got dark.

Tuesday, February 14: Off – I had to take today off as I got out of work really late and didn’t have the time once I got home. I’m not really happy about having to take a zero but after six weeks without missing a day, one day off won’t kill me. It will probably throw my week off a little bit, but since I am planning to run the half course on Saturday I can probably make up the missed miles with a couple of extra miles later in the week.

Wednesday, February 15: Sweet Gum Trail – 7 miles – Ran two loops of the sweet gum & GEHC loop with an added loop of the homesite trail on each trip to get the extra mile. I felt really sluggish after not running yesterday.

Thursday, February 16: Ivy Creek Greenway – 8 miles – Ran the sweet gum trail up to and around the GEHC back down onto the greenway, out and back and added a loop on the homesite trail for eight miles. My legs still aren’t feeling great, but glad I got the extra mile in. I need to make up for taking Tuesday off if I want to stay up around 50-55 miles this week.

Friday, February 17: Gainesville State College – 11 miles – GSC was a staple run for me last year. With the amount of daylight we get in the later winter and spring I was able to hit two loops of this 5.5 mile trail nearly every day last year. Today was a little bit on the slower side of how I normally run this but it was still a solid run. It’s relatively flat but has a few sections with really tight turns. I was able to run it early, which was nice because in the afternoon it can get crowded with mountain bikers and other runners. It’s a good beginner mountain bike course, so I see a lot of beginning riders, but it’s also a pretty fast trail, so you have to be vigilant in some sections. I always cringe when I see people running there with headphones on…recipe for disaster if you ask me.

Saturday, February 18: Ft. Yargo State Park – 13.1 miles – Great run. With the Xterra Georgia trail half marathon coming up on the 25^th I wanted to get a loop on the course under my belt to get reacquainted with the trail. I’ve run the 12.5 mile mountain bike trail a bunch of times but the race course has one key change. No monster mile. Instead of that mile the course switches to the inner (hiking trail) loop and runs along the lake for probably about a mile before rejoining the mountain bike trail as you make the climb up to what is the seven mile marker (it won’t be the seven mile mark for the race but it’s the landmark). Trail map

Typically, when I do the 12.5 mile mountain bike trail I’m coming in between 1:45 and 1:55 depending on the weather or what I did the day before, after races and on really hot days it’s usually a little slower. Today’s run was really encouraging because I ran the 13.1 mile half marathon course in 1:36. I felt pretty good and rolled most of the run at a decent clip. This run has me really excited for next week. I’m not sure how fast I will be able to run but I’m looking forward to the race. It should be fun and I know there are a couple of spots where I can really get rolling.

One of the things that I am interested in seeing is how the first two or so miles shake out. Normally when I run at Yargo, I run from the main mountain bike trail head, but this race starts about two miles before that. With the race being run clockwise, those first two miles are pretty hilly and feature some tight turns. After that it opens up a bit, but it will be interesting to see what happens at the start.

UPDATE: Upon further review, I cut off two small sections of the course on this run. Not suprisingly they both came on the area where the race course is different from the moutain bike trail. The part I goofed on adds a little bit of uphill but also add a little more running on the flat/downhill fast powerline trail.

Sunday, February 19: Harbins Park – 10 miles – Ran two loops of the hiking trail at Harbins Park for 10 miles. It was pretty wet out and raining lightly but it was a good day to get out and get another hour-plus run in. Today was quite a bit slower than the last time I ran here but I think that was a result of running 13 at a decent clip yesterday. Including today I ran 34 miles in the last three days, which is close to what I was running for an entire week earlier this month.

Weekly Total: 56 miles on six runs – Got my second straight week over 50 miles in, so I am happy about that. I was a little bit discouraged after not getting a workout in and having to take Tuesday off, but Saturday’s run at Yargo made up for a lot that disappointment. I was really encouraged by that run going into next weekend’s half marathon. I’m still a little bit nervous about it, having never raced that far before and still being at a point where I am working back towards getting in race shape…but I am sure it will be fun regardless.

Next week, I’m looking to stay between 50 and 55 miles for the week. I don’t really see any need to back off since I’m still trying to build my mileage up and I haven’t done any training specific to a half marathon. I’m just going to go out and run it and see what happens. Ideally, I’d like to be able to average 6 minute pace, but I since it’s a trail race and sometimes that can throw pace out the window, I guess we’ll just see what happens.

Training February 6 – February 12

Monday, February 6: Ivy Creek Greenway – five miles – Nothing special about this run. Just got out the door for five…I need to start turning these five mile days into seven mile days to get my mileage up. This has pretty much been an identical Monday run for about three weeks now.

Tuesday, February 7: Ivy Creek Greenway – seven miles – Same as yesterday. Just hit the greenway trail for a nice and easy seven. Like I’ve said, its these runs were I’m going to be able to add some mileage, stretching them from five to seven will help and then, like I did last year, once the sun starts setting a little later I will be able to run over at Chicopee and Gainesville State to increase the daily run to 10-12 miles and really get cranking.

Wednesday, February 8: George Pierce Park – nine miles – Workout Wednesday…I hit the parks paved multi-purpose trail for six sets of 30-60-90s. It didn’t feel like it went as well as the workout last week, I could really feel the hills more this week. Since I felt like I was slacking on some of the pickups I added a sixth set. This is a good workout and it’s more than I was doing last year so it’s a step in the right direction. I think I might try to head to one of the tracks around here next week and do some 800s or mile repeats. With the half marathon coming up I could use some longer stuff.

Thursday, February 9: Ivy Creek Greenway – seven miles – I wanted to get up and get a short shake out in but that didn’t happen so I had to squeeze in seven before trivia. Nothing special…standard seven, two loops of homesite (1 mile total), out and back on the greenway and finished with two more loops of homesite.

Friday, February 10: Ivy Creek Greenway – seven miles – The weather has been really good, nice and mild. I explored the mill creek nature center trails, which are connected to the greenway for a few minutes. They were neat but not very long, maybe a half mile all total. I think I might duck onto these trails every now and again on my normal seven mile runs to mix it up a little bit.

Saturday, February 11: Harbins Park – 10 miles – It got cold, not quite New England cold, but after a 70 degree day last Sunday 25-30 feels pretty cold. I wanted to get a longer run in (at this point by longer I mean over an hour). I did two loops of the hiking trail to get in 10. I really like running in Harbins and I’m looking forward to running on the mountain bike trail, which is a completely separate seven miles of trail, later in the spring. This would be a great place to get 12+ in with the combo of biking and hiking trails. There is also a seven mile equestrian trail but I’m not a huge fan of running on horse trails unless I know they are free of horses. I used to run on them back in PA and even when you yield to the riders I find that people get pretty pissed about someone running on “their” trails.  

Sunday, February 12: Sweet Gum Trail – eight miles – The last two days have been the coldest of the year…mid-twenties to low thirties and even dipping into the teens with the win. Not really a whole lot of run, but at least I still have dry ground to run on. I was talking to Ferenc the other day and he was extremely jealous of the fact that I’m running two trail races in February.

Weekly Total: 52 miles on seven runs – Another solid week of training. I’m still well ahead of where I was at this point last year so I am pretty excited about that. I’m looking to stay between 50-60 miles per week for the next couple of weeks but I will probably start working in a longer run on the weekends 12-14 miles. This coming week I want to get another Wednesday workout in and then hit Ft. Yargo to run the half marathon course to get ready for the race on the 25^th. It’s pretty similar to the mountain bike trail with one major difference (mainly no monster mile), but I want to get a feel for it again.

Training January 30 – February 5

Monday, January 30: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – Nothing special about this run, just a typical afternoon five miler.

Tuesday, January 31: George Pierce Park – 8 miles – This workout started off a little rough due to the fact that I got out of work late and the Suwannee Greenway trail was under construction, but I was able to salvage it on the George Pierce park multi-use trails. I ran five sets of 30-60-90s with a 13 minute warm up and roughly the same cool down. I didn’t feel great but it was good to get my legs moving at a faster pace for a while. I think it was a good tune up for Saturday’s race and I’m looking forward to continuing to get more workouts like these in, in the future.

Wednesday, February 1: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – I took it nice and slow today. My calves were hurting from yesterday’s workout, which is probably a result of the combination of running hard and running the entire 8 miles on pavement. I probably should have got up this morning and done a three mile shakeout just to help out my legs but as long as they loosen up by Saturday I’ll be alright.

Thursday, February 2: Ivy Creek Greenway – 7 miles – Another easy day. I felt a little bit better as the run when on, but my calves are still a little tight, especially my left calf. I’m debating whether or not to wear calf sleeves on Saturday if they are still bothering me.

Friday, February 3: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – My calf loosed up a good bit today, which is really encouraging for tomorrow. I had originally planned to get up early to give myself a full 24 hours before the start of the race but I couldn’t get out of bed before the sun came up and waiting until after work to run. I ran the greenway trail out and back nice and easy. Now it’s off to Watkinsville, GA in the morning for the first trail race of the year.

Saturday, February 4: Dirty Spokes Heritage Park trail race – 10 miles (8 mile race) – The first race of the year and my first race since the series finale last summer. The weather was perfect, right around 50 degrees slightly overcast and dry much better than the 45 and rainy that was predicted. I’ll try and write up a full race recap in the next few days but this is the basic breakdown of the race. There were a couple of guys that showed up that I knew and had a feeling one of them would be the eventual winner as I planned on starting off relaxed because I didn’t think I had the training to try and run with the leaders. That went out the window early. At the horn I settled into third behind Ian McCann from Atlanta Track Club and Matt Rivers. About a quarter mile into the race I decided to press the pace a little bit and try to spread things out to give me a cushion over some of the other guys. I took the lead and led for about two miles. Around 2.5 I got passed but made a really strong move at 3 miles to put Matt and myself out in front by a good distance, unfortunately I wasn’t able to hang on much longer and fell off the pace from there. After bad fifth and sixth miles I found myself in third place and decided I needed to rally and hold onto third over the final two miles. I was able to do that with a strong seventh mile and a complete survival mode eighth mile. I crossed the finish line in 51:00, which was a little faster than I had anticipated going in, but it was clear that after a month of training and only one workout I didn’t have the legs to race the full 8 miles, however had I not gotten out fast I probably would have ended up getting fifth or sixth by just trying to hang out in the pack. Sometimes you just have to go for it and see what happens.

Sunday, February 5: Ft. Yargo State Park – 8 miles – Nice recovery run after yesterday’s race. My left hamstring was super sore from the hilly final two miles of the race but I actually covered the seven mile loop at a half way decent pace. I added on the brand new Turtle Creek loop for an additional mile before hitting up Barberitios for a burrito afterwards. I’m looking forward to doing some mileish repeats on the turtle creek loop because its tight single track and it would be a great simulation of a lot of the trail race courses. Overall, it was great to get back out to Ft. Yargo and run the inner loop for the first time. I love running there and I’ve got to get back out to get a loop of the ½ marathon course in pretty soon.

Weekly Total: 48 miles on seven runs (one workout) – This was an encouraging week. I got my miles up closer to 50, which is right about where I want to be at this point in my training, I got in a solid workout and then survived a tough race. Moving forward I need to continue to build my mileage and continue to get in at least one workout a week in. My goal is to start replacing the five mile days with seven/eight mile days and start getting in longer 10-12 mile runs on the weekends for a couple weeks. That should steadily increase my mileage and keep me ahead of where I was at this point last year.