Summer turns to Fall and Fall turns to Winter

Fall has always been and will always be my favorite of the seasons. Unfortunately for this blog, and sometimes my running and outdoor enjoyment, the Fall is always the busiest time of year for me. This year was no different, between work and moving into the new house things have been pretty crazy over the last couple of months since my last entry. I managed to meet some of my goals for the fall season, including racing cross country, cyclocross, and XTERRA, but the hopes of running the Thanksgiving half marathon went out the window.

I'll take you through some of the highlights.

I got absolutely worked in the cross country race I entered, which would have bothered me but then I remembered that I'm 31 and running a 4:55 opening mile is not a precursor for success anymore. I was near the front early on, but then I dropped like a rock for most of the rest of the race. Despite that, it was really fun to get out there and mix it up with a bunch of college kids. Amanda came and watched so my pride was hurt a little by not being upfront, but I was happy that I went out and gave it a shot. 

My two race cyclocross season actually went pretty well. I'm not a very good bike rider, but I had an absolute blast at these races. The first one was at the Lake Lanier Olympic venue, where they held the rowing events for the 1996 Olympics. It rained for roughly 20 straight days beforehand so the race was a complete mudfest. This actually played to the strengths of my mountain bike and made it an absolute blast. I passed a few guys about half way through the first lap but after that I was kind of in no mans land. Since I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing, I have no idea if I did well or not but it was fun as hell.

Like I said, I was covered in mud. I don't really have goals for these races, I just want to try and ride the best I can. I think that's what makes it so fun. There's no pressure or anything. I'm just out there having fun and acting like the 12-year-old that I am on the inside. I even took a doughnut hand up on one lap coming out of the beach sand pit, which got a big cheer.

My one issue with this race was the organization. It was the first one of the year and there were a lot of race day registrations, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt when it took more than an hour to get registered. Unfortunately, when they got behind schedule they decided to trim the Cat 5 race from 30 minutes to 20 minutes. I thought that was kind of crappy. I appreciate that it was a difficult situation, but I didn't like that our race had to suffer to keep all the other races on time. If there's anything I learned running events at the end of track meets, the start time usually isn't as advertised. All in all that was a small gripe and probably not worth the 200 words I just wrote about it.

My second CX race was the Georgia State Championship, which drew a much larger field. I finished a bit further back (12th or 15th I think) but ended up battling it out with a few of the women, which was kind of fun. It was the day after we moved into the new house so it was fun to be able to get out and push myself after all of that stress and anxiety.

The course was different from the Lake Lanier one, no mud, and it was a much longer loop. I struggled through some of the tighter sections, especially after I got buried in the back of the pack at the start. I've found that riding a mountain bike is good for some sections but on the faster hard packed or even grass sections it doesn't work so well. I also need to remember to use the lock-out on my front shock next time. I think that probably would help. I'm a noob sorry.

Overall, I liked the course, it had a little bit of everything, fast sections, off camber stuff, a decent climb, tight twists and turns, and a few rail road ties for good measure. The best part was Amanda and my mom tagged along. Amanda comes to a lot of my races, but since most of them are trail races she doesn't get to see much of the action. Same goes for my mom. She probably hasn't seen me race since I graduated college, so that was cool to have her out there cheering me on and trying to get me to pedal faster. She even tried to act as a first responder when one of the women went down on the railroad ties.

I definitely think I'm going to invest in a CX bike in the coming months. I'm in the market for a new road bike, I like the versatility that they provide with the ability to fit wider tires. I'm a little hesitant about the limited gear range that they feature, but it's not like I'm entering road races or time trials. Even if I did use one for a Tri it would probably be better than my current road setup. I am also intrigued by the idea of gravel and dirt road races and I've always wanted to commute more. I literally have that exact conversation in my head every time I look at bikes online or in shops.

XTERRA Georgia
Harbins Park
The Harbins Park 10k went pretty well. I got dropped after a couple miles by Matt Johnson who went on to win, but I hung on for second place. He's 25 so I took the 100 points for the age group win, which is the goal during all these fall races.

Ft. Yargo 8 Miler
Winner, winner chicken dinner. I took the overall Yargo on a sloppy muddy course. It was pretty satisfying to get the W since Yargo was the site of one of my worst races last year. I was feeling really good through about four miles before I started to fall apart. It was bizarre, but I think it had to do with the humidity. I talked to a few other people that had similar experiences with feeling dead in the middle of the race. I rounded a corner and had no juice. My legs felt heavy, I was burning up, and my stomach felt off. It was like I had the flu for four miles. Super weird. I ended up being fine afterward, but the second half of the race was an adventure.

Battle at Big Creek 10+ Miler
Big Creek is never going to be one of my favorite races. The trails are cool but it's hillier than it looks, the weather is always weird and 10 miles is usually too far for me to be racing the first week of November, but it's an XTERRA race so I do it every year. This year the weather actually turned out to be pretty nice and Mitch Novy showed up so it was easily my favorite edition. I hung back at the beginning of the race but eventually caught Mitch and the other guy up front around a mile in. I rolled with Mitch for almost the entire first lap, distancing the guy that was in third (he ended up running the short race, so I basically escorted Mitch to the five mile win). I pulled away from Mitch a little bit at the end of the first lap and then just went into cruise control. I had built up a nice cushion from running with Mitch so I was able to cruise through the second lap comfortably. I still tried to push the more runnable sections but overall I stayed pretty mellow on the second lap. I ended up winning it in 1:07:40, but I was stoked to see that Stefano Rieppi took second overall. He runs almost all of the Dirty Spokes and XTERRA races and he's been breaking into the top 3 lately, so I was psyched to see him grab his first second-place finish.

Little Mulberry 10k
One of the greatest things about running is randomly popping a great race. It always seems to happen when I'm not expecting much or not feeling great. Then, out of no where you roll. That was Little Mulberry. I'd been kind of winding down, running but not running that much, no workouts, just kind of going through the motions. I showed up thinking I'd be able to run okay, but secretly hoping I'd have another cruise control situation, even if it wasn't for the win. I just wasn't feeling it. Amanda and I were leaving for Chattanooga for the bye week right after, I just gotten back from California. It didn't seem like recipe for success going in. Then I rolled. The race started like most, a few high school kids got shot out of a cannon and I was 10-15 yards back. As we got onto the cross country course, I started to pull the lead group back and by the mile I was neck and neck with the leader.

I strung things out on the long paved downhill then hit the next XC section hard. I was feeling it. I pressed the XC section then coasted down the next long hill before PRing on the equestrian trail climb. I've run this roughly half mile climb a hundred times and I've run it in better shape but things were just clicking on this day for some reason. Once I crested the climb I probably could have let off the gas but I kept this old refrain from college in my head the whole time, "racers race" and that keep me pushing. It's funny how something like that from Pete or Josh or Mark will pop into my head and I'll just keep repeating it over and over to get me through a race. I finished in 37:04, just under six-minute pace. That was exciting to get under six-minute pace for a trail race in November. I've run faster there, on a slightly different course, but the fact that I was sub six minutes, won, and PR'd on the big climb may have made this race my best of the year.

Victoria Bryant 10k
Remember all that stuff I was saying about how I didn't expect much and wasn't feeling it at Little Mulberry...well that showed up big time at this one. Victoria Bryant was my last race of 2015 and it showed. I had no juice for this one. I made the hour drive, went through the motions (still taking second so I'm not complaining) and then made the hour drive back before hopping on a plane for work. This course is a killer. It's all up and down and everything is short and steep. The whole thing just saps your energy. It's a grind and I just wasn't into it. I let the eventual leader get away from me and just never had the urgency to go try and chase him down. It was a little bit of a bummer to end 2015 like that but at the same time, I think mentally I needed a break and that came through in the race.

Obviously it was a pretty successful fall results wise. I'm leading the points by a wide margin, taking the full age group points for each race, so I'm sitting pretty with three races to go to win another XTERRA Georgia title.

Wrapping it Up
After Victoria Bryant I took a few days off to give my body a chance to recuperate. I slept in a bunch and at food that I probably shouldn't have. I didn't take any time completely off. I limited my running for two weeks. Took two days off then ran then took two days off kind of stuff. I also took advantage of the nice weather an got out on my mountain bike a couple times. I'll have a 2015 wrap up post in the next few days but I'm ready to turn the page. Work has been draining lately and I'm looking forward to getting a few more hours to myself as well as getting back to the off-season adventures that Amanda and I enjoy. 

Next Up

With the arrival of training camp and the NFL season, my running is typically reduced from training to maintaining fitness. I have done a better job over the last couple of seasons of maintaining my fitness level to at least be able to race a few times between September and December. A lot of the races that I’ve have run have been a struggle, but I’ve at least lined up and been somewhat competitive, which is not something I could have said three years ago.

The last two years I’ve focused on running the XTERRA Georgia races in the fall. Those races have given me goals to shoot for, even if the goal has been to finish, and that’s helped me stay motivated to run five and/or six days a week. It’s funny looking back to when I first moved down to Georgia. That first fall, I probably ran two maybe three times a week and racing was the furthest thing from my mind. Now I’m writing a blog post about my race schedule for that same period. Live and learn I guess.

Goals are the key to getting me through this part of the calendar. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining because I know everyone deals with their own challenges when it comes to finding the time or motivation to train. Goals have been huge for me personally. It’s easy to chalk not training up to not having time, but I’ve found that if you set a goal and that goal is something that is important to you, then it’s easier to stay motivated. It’s not easy and there are still times that it’s a struggle, but at least the goal gives you a reason to push through that.

Okay, after that long winded intro here’s what I actually wanted to get into. What’s up next for me? Once again XTERRA is a goal of mine. I’ve won my age group for the last three years and that’s the goal for me again. The cool thing about the XTERRA series is that is stretches from September to August, so it’s a real test of being able to keep yourself in shape year long. Like I said above, I’m not always in race shape, see Ft. Yargo, Battle at Big Creek, or Thrill in the Hills last year, but it at least I kept myself in good enough shape to run.

XTERRA
The series starts in late September with the Harbins Park 10k and has one race per month (two in December before taking a break until February. This is a fun series, run on some of my favorite course in the area and it’s become something that I really look forward to. I’m hoping to be able to run a little bit faster this year, but I’ll get a little more into that in a bit.

Cross Country
I’ve been itching to run an XC race for the last couple of years. I really miss racing cross and I get super jealous whenever I see anything from the USATF New England XC series. Last year, my buddy Mitch Novy ran a race at a local college, so I looked into that, but none of the races matched up with home weekends for me. Fortunately, this season I’ve found one that doesn’t conflict with XTERRA or football at the University of North Georgia. It’s 20 minutes from my house so even though it’s a road weekend I can (hopefully) rip 8k and then make it down to the airport. The course is pretty familiar, utilizing some of the UNG Dirty Spokes course and I think it actually suits me pretty well so I am starting to get excited to go and rip it up with the college kids.

I’d love to run a few more XC meets, but the only one that would be realistic for me would potentially be the USATF Georgia championship race. Unfortunately, I haven’t been super impressed with them and in the past it’s been 1.5 hours away and only 5k while falling on the same weekend as a XTERRA race. If that trend continues, it probably won’t be worth it to go.

Georgia State Parks Trail Series
The Georgia State Parks series is put on by Dirty Spokes and two of the four races overlap with XTERRA races, so it’s a no brainer to do if I’m able to. I missed the first race due to training camp, but I should be able to make the rest of them, so I’m thinking ‘why not?’ Also, it’s sponsored by Barberitos and if free burritos are on the line then I’m in every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Georgia Cyclocross
I’ve really taken a liking to cyclocross over the last couple of years and I should be able to jump into a few races this fall on home weekends and the weekend after the Thursday Night game (mini bye!!!). My CX goals are really just to finish, not hurt myself, and not look like a total moron. That last one is going to be tricky. The one race I’ve done, I rocked it over the barriers and on the run up, but the whole riding the bike part needs some work. Secretly, I’m hoping to do well enough to justify buying a CX bike and trying a gravel race or two in the spring. We’ll see how that goes.

Atlanta Thanksgiving Half Marathon
It probably seems like I’ve buried the lead a little bit listing this last, but I’m still up in the air about this race. I said at the start of camp that I would see how the month of August went and then make decision about whether or not I’d run it. I feel like this is a race I could do well in. It’s a tougher course, but I’d like to at least test myself and see what I can do. Now that we’re nearly through August, I feel like my training has gone well. I’ve made it to all of the track workouts that we’ve had and they’ve been solid. I could use more long runs if I’m going to train to race a half, but I think that’s one of those things that falls under the whole ‘setting goals’ thing. If my goal is to race and do well, then hopefully I’ll make time.

Right now I’m still up in the air and I should probably just suck it up and register, but I want to give myself a little more time before I sink 100 bucks into it. Hell, I’m not even sure if I can get out of work in the morning to make it to the race. I would like to get a fall half in one way or another though. I’ve got a eye on a marathon in 2016, so I’d like to take real shot a half before I decide to take that leap.

Looking at that list, it sure seems like I have a lot of irons in the proverbial fire this fall. I don’t know what that means right now, but I do know that I am excited to see how it goes. Having all of these different dates circled on the calendar definitely makes it easier for me to get out of bed and get my runs in. It also gives me something to look forward to in my free time, and if you know me, you know I’m all about maximizing every minute of the free time that I have during the football season.

Video Race Recap: XTERRA Georgia Allatoona Creek 15k

This is how I look after running a 15k on 4 hours of sleep.

Catching Up

Time to catch up on the last few weeks of running and racing. If you actually read this regularly, then first of all thank you very much. You are awesome. Also you know that I was not too pumped about my performance at the Peachtree Road Race. In retrospect, I went out too fast and that's why things went "south". If I would have just run the splits that my workouts suggested, I probably would have been fine. Maybe I wouldn't have run as fast as I wanted to, but I would have easily finished inside the top 50, which was my goal at the beginning of the year. Instead of running smart, I decided to go for it and I paid dearly in miles 4 and 5, running nearly six-minute pace for the hilly section of the race. Oh well. It is what it is.

Fortunately, the weekend after the Peachtree debacle Amanda and I made our annual trip back home which meant that I got to spend a week road tripping around New England hitting up some of my favorite spots. We flew home on Saturday morning and Amanda jumped on the train to head down to Providence to spend some time with her dad and sister. I headed home and kicked off my vacation by jumping on my dad's bike for a 38 mile tour of the Tri-Town.

I rolled out on some Middleton back roads heading north into North Andover before hanging a right into Boxford. The virtually car-free roads were great and it was nice to be able to ride for miles without spending much time on main roads. Down in Georgia nearly every road is some kind of main thoroughfare unless you are really out in the country. I cut through Boxford and into Topsfield where I hit the rail trail. The rail trail made for some awesome riding, crushed gravel and dirt where super fun even on my dad's road bike. I let a pinch of air out of the tires and had a nice cushy ride. I followed the rail trail from downtown Topsfield to 97 in Wenham where I jumped back on the road and swung around into Danvers. I rode up to St. John's Prep where I got momentarily lost before getting back on track and heading back through Topsfield and into Middleton for the sprint finish behind Howe-Manning school.

This ride was a great way to kick of the vacation and really made we wish we had more non-paved greenway trail in Georgia. Don't get me wrong we have awesome greenways, but the dirt and gravel sections were a blast. After Saturday's ride, I ventured to York Beach with my parents for a family beach day. I ended up getting around eight miles in, running a loop from short sands beach up past the Nubble Light and along long sands then around and back to short sands. It was nice running along the water but warmed up quickly once I turned inland. I ended up cooling off in the water, which is a testament to how hot it was. The Atlantic in Maine is always frigid.

After knocking out Maine on my New England road trip, I headed up to the wilds of Vermont to meet up with  the 'last hero and only hope' Josh Ferenc. I got up to his version of the ATL (Athens Town Line) late Sunday night and we woke up early Sunday morning (thanks to his A-hole of a roster) to rendezvous with fellow Wild Endurance runner Greg Hammett and made our way to the White Mountains.

After driving to the bottom of Josh's driveway in his old Toyota Tercel, or whatever the hell it is, Greg and I both agreed it would be safer if we took my German engineered VW. Josh protested a little bit but I've hitchhiked twice in my life and both of those times I was with Josh. I don't view that as a coincidence. We drove up north towards St. Johnsbury then crossed over in to New Hampshire (state four if you are keeping track) and made our way to Franconia Notch near the base of Cannon Mountain.

I posted the video of our excursion, so I wont go to deep into it, but we started out at the Lafayette campground and run up the Falling Waters trail to where it meets with the Appalachian trail at the summit of Little Haystack. The way up was miserable. I was on the struggle bus early in the run since we went from the car to climbing nearly 3,000 feet in less than three miles. Despite my struggles on the ascent, I managed to claw my way up to the top using the cycling tactic of taking the lead when we stopped so I could drift back over time.

We took a short break at the top of Little Haystack, which was about an hour of running, all up hill I'll remind you, to refuel with some UnTapped and then continued on the AT along Franconia Ridge. We were treated to awesome views of the White Mountain National Forest and some really cool light clouds that rolled over the top of the ridge throughout the run. The views and terrain we awesome. Nothing but green mountains and rocky outcroppings as far as you could see.

We ran from Little Haystack up and over Mt. Lafayette (5,249 feet) and continued on along a spur trail before deciding to turn back and head down to the Green Leaf hut. We originally were hoping to continue on to Mount Garfield, but what appeared to be a short distance on the map, ended up being more like three miles, so we decided to make it a three hour run instead of a five hour one. After turning back we headed down to the AMC Green Leaf hut. For some reason the fact that these are called huts always made me thing they were small building that were kind of like a mountain side snack shack with a bunkhouse, but I was surprised at how big the hut was. It had a full kitchen and two bunkhouses with all kinds of cool stuff. I kind of wanted to just camp there for the rest of the day.

Free pancakes!

We stopped at the hut to refill our bottles for the final decent down the bridle path back to the car and I had to take advantage of the perfect mid run sack, free pancakes and UnTapped! After milling around for a bit and eating too many pancakes we got back on the trail to finish the run out. I was feeling pretty good when we stopped. My legs were obviously tired from the climbing, but I was running comfortably along the ridge and down to hut. That all changed after we started going again after our final stop. My quads were toast from descending and the last couple miles were a little rough. Fortunately, it wasn't long until we were off the mountain and I was able to keep it together until we got back to the car. After the run, we headed down to Lincoln to grab some pizza and swim in the Moosilauke Brook. The water was glorious and I could have hung out in the little spot we found all day, but after about an hour we decided to call it a day and head back to Vermont.

On the drive home I showed Josh how to view all the footage he got from the GoPro on my phone and he and Greg went through it all trying to figure out what was good and what was Josh's thumb covering the camera. When we got back to the house Josh broke out the vintage Cannondale that he had somehow picked up for 100 bucks. The thing is in great shape and probably actually worth 200-400 dollars. Since I was jealous I rode it every time that we hit out on the bikes for the rest of my stay.

The next couple days we got meh weather so that killed some of our plans to hit the local swimming holes, but we made up for it with a couple of really fun rides on some dirt roads around Vermont and a couple of nice and easy runs. We got to check out one of my favorite running spots in the area at Grafton Ponds, which is a biking, snowshoeing, and Nordic skiing spot in Grafton. I am planning on making a trip back up there in the winter and getting Amanda out on some of the snowshoe trails and hitting one of the local mountains for some downhill skiing as well. 

Last but not least, we made sure to stop by my absolute favorite VT spot to grab some ice cream. I went with maple walnut and maple cream because, Vermont. After three great days in the Green Mountain State, I made my way back home to Middleton to spend a little more time with my family before hitting the road again to spend a day on the beach in Narragansett, RI. After all of the driving around it was nice to park on the beach for a few hours. I ended up hitting five of the six New England state on the trip, all apologies to Connecticut, but I was happy with those five. It's kind of a weird way do a vacation when Amanda and I split up for most of the week, but we both had fun and got a chance to do some of the things we really like with some people that we rarely get to spend time with. 

Unfortunately, we had to cut our trip a little short again this year so I could make it back for a Dirty Spokes race, but as always it was great to be home. This trip always makes me miss New England big time. 

I almost forgot...here's what the Franconia Ridge run looked like.

Rad Run: Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains

As part of my annual trip back home to New England I spent three days up in Vermont with Josh Ferenc (Wild Neoteny), which included a trip over to the White Mountains in New Hampshire for a 2.5-3 hour run along a few trails in Franconia Notch. Josh, Greg Hammett and I ran up the Falling Waters trail to Little Haystack (4,760 ft.) and then along Franconia Ridge to Mount Lincoln (5,089 ft.) and Mount Lafayette (5,249 ft.) then down to the Greenleaf hut and eventually back to the parking lot below Cannon on the Old Bride Path.

The ascent was very challenging for me. It was really tough to go from the car straight up for the first hour. Once we hit the ridge things were a little easier, but I definitely gained some serious respect for running up there.

I gave Josh my GoPro to get some video of the adventure and while he was big on the selfie glamour shots he did get some pretty cool stuff. The summits were shrouded in clouds for much of the day but when it started to clear up there were some absolutely amazing views.

I'll post some pictures later, but for now I wanted to get the video up. We gained 4,072 feet for anyone wondering. The week before I ran 17 and gained a little over 2000 feet, so yeah that was a lot of vert for me.

Video Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Sawnee Mountain

I have a few write ups to finish but here's a quick video recap of my last race. I was a little flat, but I chalk that up to vacation legs and/or running with Josh and Greg in the White Mountains on Monday.

Video Race Recap: 2015 Peachtree Road Race

Things didn't go as planned but after looking at the overall results it was a slow day for pretty much everyone. I finished 61st, which was actually a little more frustrating at first because if I'd been able to find any kind of gas in the last mile I would have been able to meet my goal of top 50 despite having a crappy day. I'd be more mad if I felt like I just packed in it, but I battled, I just didn't have it yesterday. Full write up to follow.

Video Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Haw Creek 10k

Video recap of the Dirty Spokes Haw Creek 10k. I'll have a longer write up shortly, but I wanted to get something up after the race. As you can tell from the video, I got the win over Jesse Rappole, which was a nice confidence booster. I ran 35:15 on the trails, which is about 5:40 pace, so that was also exciting. I wanted to go out and push it in this race and try to get a gauge of where I am at right now. It was nice to be able to go for it and get the win. I was hanging on a little at the end, but it was nice to get into a rhythm and roll and feel somewhat comfortable running faster than I have been lately. I think the track workouts are paying off.

Rad Run: Big Daddy Loop on Lookout Mountain

Last weekend, Amanda and I took an impromptu trip up to Chattanooga, Tennessee. I got up early on Sunday morning and hit the trails on Lookout Mountain and brought my Go Pro along for the ride. I ran the Big Daddy Loop, which combines seven trails and travels from Tennessee, south into Georgia and then back north to Tennessee. The run follows lower trails before making the climb up to the bluff trail, which offers awesome views of the Tennessee River Valley.

I've attempted this run three times, finally doing it correctly on this third try. The first time I took a wrong turn and the second time I decided to stay on the lower trails a little longer because there was 4-6 inches of snow on the mountain and I was worried about the bluff trail being sketchy. This time I was a lot more confident in the route. The trail was a little over grown in some sections and there was poison oak everywhere, but once I got onto the bluff trail, I wasn't worried about it. The views were awesome and running along the edge of a cliff is a really cool experience.

Here's what it looked like on Strava (the time is off because I was messing around with the camera)

Rad Run: Sawnee Mountain

I ran up Sawnee Mountain on Saturday and decided to bring my GoPro. Sawnee is the highest mountain in metro Atlanta at just over 1,900 feet. It's higher than Stone Mountain (confederate mount Rushmore...seriously) and Kennesaw Mountain, but shorter than the mountains up in North Georgia. All in all it was a good run, I got some decent climbing in over 10 miles and got a chance to get a little more familiar with the course for the upcoming Dirty Spokes race.

Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Harbins Park Trail Half Marathon

Editor's note: This is another one that sad in my drafts folder for a few weeks before I finished it. This race was on May 9, a week before the 3 hour mountain bike race.

I've been MIA from blog the last couple of weeks due to work and not racing, but truthfully I haven't really done much lately that's been blog worthy. My workouts have been going pretty well, but other than that my runs have been pretty normal. With that said, I'm getting back on the horse after getting back into the swing of things with the Dirty Spokes Harbins Park Trail Half Marathon on Saturday, May 9.

This is the first real warm weather race down here and with it being a half marathon, Dirty Spokes smartly starts it a 7:30, unfortunately for me it came after the Draft and right in the middle of rookie minicamp. That meant the week leading up to race day was filled with poor nutrition, so-so hydration, and a lack of good sleep. Needless to say, I was a little worried about where I was at going into the race, but I'm chasing another series title so bailing was not an option.

Harbins is an underrated park in my opinion. It's got a 5 mile hiking trail that hosts an XTERRA race in the fall as well as around four miles of paved paths and three different mountain bike trail systems. The mountain bike trails are fairly new and two of the three systems are wide cut, which makes it a great spot for trail running. The park has a tricky amount of elevation change to it, nothing crazy but enough to do some damage at the end of a race if you aren't paying attention.

The half marathon course starts with a brief loop on the pavement before hitting the trails. The course follows the MB1 & MB2 trails (it's a great park but could use a little creativity on the trail names) for nearly five miles before connecting to the hiking trail for the next five miles, at that point you run along the equestrian trail (yeah they have that too, sorry totally forgot about that trail) before connecting to the MB3 trail and then eventually finishing with a grueling quarter mile on the paved path.

Harbins Park trail map - hard to decipher but this gives an idea of what the course was like 

I ran into Mitch, who was running the short course, when I got to the race and he asked if I was planing to go out with him. Since the short course was 3.5 miles, no chance. I said my plan was to hang back and try to conserve some energy for the last few miles, when it was going to start getting hot and when the rolling hills would start to take their toll. I didn't see any of the guys that I consider rivals but there were plenty of usual suspects. That last sentence kind of makes me sound like a dick, but none of the guys I've lost to in the last few months were around so I thought if I ran smart I should be able to get the win. Yeah that didn't really sound any better. I wanted to win the race, but wasn't sure what kind of legs I would have. That's a little less douchey right?

I didn't get much of a warm up in, so I was heavily committed to staying conservative early on. I kept thinking about the TuckFest half where we had a group for four pretty close together despite the fact that Ryan Woods would go on to win by a good margin and I would end up out in front of the rest of the field in second. I was trying to calm my mind and tell myself that it would okay to not be alone off the front right away.

When the gun went off, Mitch took off. He ended up so far out in front it was almost comical. It kind of worked out like a bike race where he went off the front while the rest of the field stayed behind me, which gave Mitch an instant 25-30 yard lead. He was first into the woods by a long way and I followed in second with a 10 yard gap on the guys behind me. Mitch was out of sight after about a mile and I was firmly settled into no man's land, which was fine by me.

I was feeling pretty good early on and just tried to stay calm and resist the urge to push the pace over the mostly downhill early miles. I was maintaining a decent lead over the two guys behind me but they looked like they were working pretty well together, so when we hit the hiking trail I decided to put in a surge until I reached the base of the first climb around the seven mile mark. I got into a good rhythm and was rolling pretty well on the hiking trail so that gave me a little boost going into the climb. I actually got to the first water station before they were ready for me but luckily they had water laid out in cups on the ground. I grabbed one a sipped trying to remember to stay calm with the climb looming ahead.

I worked my way up the switchbacks and when I crested the hill I tried to take a few deep breaths and recover before putting in another surge on the long downhill that followed. At this point the guys behind me were out of sight, so I tried to focus on settling into a good rhythm with the next three miles being really runnable. Things were going really smoothly until just after nine miles when I hit the equestrian trail. Everything just hit me all at once, heat, hydration, my hamstring tightened up, it was a murphy's law situation. The equestrian trail should have been another strong section for me, but instead I went into the final 5k of mountain bike trails reeling.

The last three miles aren't technical, but they are tight and twisting and tough to establish a rhythm on. I was pretty sure that I had built up a decent lead, but the way I ran the 10th mile had me starting to look over my shoulder expecting to see someone at any moment. I made one more push on a double track section of the trail that cut between two sections of singletrack, trying to kick start things with a surge. It worked for a few minutes but shortly after coming back onto the single track I started to fade again.  

Still struggling, I slogged my way to the final mile and then switched into survival mode. I knew I wasn't far from the finish and I kept telling myself  'just get to the pavement'. Once I did I was able to open up my stride a little bit and cruise into the finish for the win.

Officially, I finished in 1:26:55, ahead of the second place finisher, Kenyrik Alexis, who crossed in 1:30:47. I don't think I could have felt better for the first 7 or 8 miles and I don't think I could have felt worse for the last 3 or 4 miles. It was a tale of two races for me, but coming off of a busy stretch at work I just wanted to get the win.

Here's what the race looked like on Strava.

Video Race Recap: XTERRA Georgia Deep South 15k

Another awesome preroll shot of me. This time it looks like I am about to sneeze out my central nervous system.

Video Race Recap: Dirty Spokes 3 Hour Mountain Bike Race

Write up to follow. Shout out to YouTube for making me look like Jabba the Hut in the preroll screen.

Tuck Fest 1/2 Marathon - La Sportiva Mountain Cup

A few weeks ago I was checking out the La Sportiva Mountain Cup schedule to see if they had any races that I'd be able to go to. They are holding one in Georgia, and I stumbled upon one at something called Tuck Fest in Charlotte, NC. I did a little more digging and decided to make a weekend trip out of trying to nab a few points in that series. Tuck Fest, as it turns out, is a pretty rad festival held every year at the US National Whitewater Center featuring three days of outdoor events including trail running, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, kayaking, SUP, dog jumping, live music, and beer.

Tuck Fest has a cool model where you sign up (35 bucks) and you can compete in as many events as you want. You can also buy a sport pass from the USNWC to try the whitewater stuff, ropes courses, and zip lines. On top of that, admission to the festival was free. Despite the fact that this race came at the end of what would be five straight weeks of racing, I found a couple cheap hotels near by so Amanda and I decided to make the trip.

We hit the road around 4 on Friday afternoon and made pretty good time getting up to Charlotte, it's about a three hour drive from where we live north of Atlanta. We debating heading over to the USNWC for a few of the Friday festivities, but we had both had a long week and needed some rest so we grabbed dinner and headed straight to the hotel. Hotels are the big difference between when I handle the logistics of a trip and when Amanda handles them. Granted we were trying to do this on the cheap, but I booked a cheap hotel by the airport where she would have found something nicer. Not to be disparaging towards the particular hotel we picked, but I'm pretty sure it's been the setting for an episode of Criminal Minds or CSI or something.

Surprisingly we both got a pretty good nights sleep and headed over to the race about an hour before the start. I grabbed my number and wristband and got in a quick 1.5-2 mile warm up on the last section of the course. I didn't really know what to expect of this course or who would show up. I figured there'd be a few guys there since it was a Mountain Cup race. The series has been won by guys like Rob Krar and Jordan McDougal in the past. I also struggled to find much more than a basic map for what the course would be like. Those factors combined with a hectic week had me feeling rather apprehensive about how the day would go.

Here. We. Go.

As I made my pre-race prep I spotted Ryan Woods from La Sportiva. He won the series last year and finished second to Rob Krar a few years ago, he's pretty good. I figured he'd be there but I didn't recognize anyone else. I told myself not to worry about it and just run my race. Maybe I could pop a good one since I wasn't expecting much. I saw one dude that was decked out head to toe in Newton gear, but other than that things looked pretty standard on the starting line. Now about the course.

Tuck Fest 1/2 Marathon - 2 Loops

We started at the Adventure Pavilion with a parade lap around a small loop in the parking lot. After that the course dipped into the woods and onto the rolling single track. It snaked through the woods along side the man made whitewater river before looping around to run along the Catawa River. After about three miles of twisting trails things opened up a little bit with more double track, and some powerline trail before hitting more single track and then spilling out into the parking lot for the final few hundred meters. That's the quick and dirty run down of the course. It doesn't sound too bad on the surface. It didn't have a lot of climbing and it opened up in the second half, switching from tight, twisting trails to runnable double track. Pretty sweet right?

Oh wait, I forgot to mention that it rained every single day for the week leading up to the race. That made the course a little wet. And by wet, I mean sloppy and that's before everyone ran a lap on it. 

The start

I didn't get a great jump off the line. The ready, set, go start caught me a little off guard. As you can see from the photo above, Ryan Woods got out to the front right away while I was a few yards back in the middle of the scrum. I knew that he was the man to beat, so on the sharp down hill that followed the start I moved to the outside and fell into stride behind him. A couple other guys settled in behind me and we had a four man lead group featuring Woods, myself, a guy with headphones, and Johnny Newton. I swear I could write a dissertation on running a trail race in headphones but we'll get to why that's a bad idea later. On the starting line the Newton guy sounded like he was just out for a run. He had he Go Pro on and was talking about treating it as a long run. At first I thought, okay maybe I don't need to worry, but I got my doors blown off by a guy pushing a double stroller once (true story from when I lived in Philly. The dude was pretty legit though he ran like 16:30).

This is what a poor start looks like

As I was saying, our four man lead group materialized pretty early and that's how we entered the trails. Once we hit the single track my decision was easy. Hang on to Ryan Woods for as long as I could without going into the red. I figured that would at least get me clear of the guys behind me. I stayed 3-5 yards back of Ryan keeping my eyes glued to the trail in front of me and looking to see whether I should follow his lines or pick my own based on how much he was slipping and sliding.

Misty morning photo by Amanda Hein

Things weren't too bad early on. The trails were muddy and slick, but since we were the first ones to hit them we were able to find decent purchase. I stuck with Ryan for the first couple of miles but when we hit a section of trail that featured some climbing he started to open up a little bit of a gap. I took a few chances on the ensuing down hills and was able to mitigate the damage, but I decided that I should follow a similar plan to the way I ran River Gorge. Things are starting to round into shape for me, but I'm still not quite there, so I knew that I didn't want to use up too much in the early going and blow up later on. I backed off a little and made the decision to really work the flat sections and just try to say on my feet on the ups and downs. 

Headphones was hanging pretty tough for the first couple of miles but when we started to hit the ups he fell back and by four miles I was running in no mans land. The course spilled out onto powerlines a couple times and I could still see Ryan, so I tried to give it a little gas on a couple of the points, which kept me racing. That turned out to be important. Early on I didn't realize that it was a two loop race. That's my own fault for not paying close attention at the pre-race meeting. Once I heard follow the yellow signs, I was like 'I got this'. I realized it had to be two loops around five miles. I new I was getting close to the finish and when we crossed the top of a hill on the powerlines I knew we only had a mile+ to go because that's were I did my warmup.

Initially, that was a great realization. Coming into the race, I was worried about not knowing the course and now I got a good clean look at it on the first lap and could plan out exactly where I wanted to attack the course and were I could recover. If you've ever run on powerline trail you know they have a lot of up and down. It seems like you are always climbing or descending. This course featured a really tough powerline climb up to the parking lot about a half mile before the split/finish and it was super muddy. However, when I crested it I could see Ryan ahead of me and after a check of the watch, I figured he had about 45 seconds on me. That gave me a nice boost of confidence going into the second lap. I doubted that I'd be able to catch him unless he had a major issue in the second half but I felt good about where I was. I downed some Untapped before hitting the woods for the second loop and tried to go to work again.

As soon as I hit the single track the second time around I knew it was going to be a long lap. The trail was absolutely destroyed. It was a battle just to stay on the trail in some spots and finding solid ground was not happening. Early in the second lap I started passing people from the morning's other race, the quarter marathon, aka one loop of the course. This is where I started to have a few issues with the race organizers. They started the half marathon at 8 and the quarter at 8:30, I came through the start of the second lap around 45-50 minutes, which means the quarter marathoners where only on the course for 20 minutes before I started my second lap, so I started to catch them after about a mile. 

The course was a muddy disaster and there really was no way around that. Everyone had to deal with it and I made my peace with that fact on Friday afternoon. I wore my La Sportiva Mutants and even then I still struggled in sections after they became caked in mud. I was stomping my feet on the rock steps and wood bridges that were scattered through the woods. It was probably the muddiest, sloppiest races I've ever run, but that wasn't my issue. My issue was that I was hitting pockets of 10-15 people at a time on the muddy single track, which made it impossible to race. It turned into me trying to get by one group as quickly as I could so that I could recover enough to alert the next group that I was coming.

At one point, I started to get a side stitch from yelling "runner back" and "on your left". After a while it devolved into grunting sounds. This got really frustrating really fast. We've all run races where we have had to deal with lapped runners or something like a short course vs. long course situation, but I'd never seen anything like this. If this is what my guy Zak Noles was talking about dealing with out in California I don't know that'd ever run a race. It was brutal. I'm not trying to sound like a douche, I get that it might come off that way. I have respect for everyone that got out there and ran that course and I really hope everyone had fun and worked hard. I tried to cheer on people that I could, but it was incredibly frustrating to be trying to race and dealing with the mass of people in front of me. The trail would have been tough enough after it had been trampled, but deal with a slippy* (as they say in the UK) trail and trying to dodge, dip, dive, duck, and dodge people the whole way was miz. 

The race organizers should have run both races starting at 8. The quarter marathoners could have run one lap, finishing up the final hill while the marathoners ran two, turing left into the trails before the final hill. That would have spread everyone out, especially on the back end, and it would have been less confusing at the finish because you would have had a greater number of quarter marathoners finishing before the bulk of the half marathoners came through. The idea behind Tuck Fest is for everyone to come out and have fun and try some different stuff and that's awesome, heck most of the events were untimed. I'm not trying to poo-poo the event, I actually really liked it, but if you are going to host a competitive event like a Mountain Cup race you have to keep that in mind. 

Fortunately, I was running in no man's land so it didn't really matter in the end, but there would have been no real way to make any kind of headway on the second lap. I guess that also worked in my favor since the guys behind me were dealing with it too. It is what it is, as they say. Now normally, this is also were I'd make my case against headphones in a trail race but that kind of goes without saying. There were a few people that could still hear me and a couple of people that I basically ran into because they were oblivious. That's spilt milk at this point, but don't you worry, my anti-headphone plea is still coming.

Sorry, I got a little off track there. Mercifully I made it out of the tight single track and onto the second half of the loop. That first three miles probably took me 25 minutes and I was completely covered in mud and totally shot from clawing past people, but I tried to keep focusing on catching and passing the next person ahead of me. I told myself that if the guys behind me didn't struggle as much as I did with the crowds (not really possible) that I could be in real trouble. 

I tried to battle the best I could, but I remember looking down at my watch with around two miles to go and being at 1:17 or something like that and thinking 'holy shit!' When I crossed the final powerline section for the final time, I was toast. I passed a few people on the way down and the climb back up was hilarious. People where slipping and sliding all of the place. One guy looked like he was on skis going backwards it was so slippery. I hopped into the knee high grass on the side of the trail just to try and find any kind of solidish ground.

When I crested the hill it felt like my shoes were full of cement and the ground was so muddy it actually looked and felt like I was running in peanut butter. I took a few deep breaths and literally kept plodding to the finish. When I finally hit the finishing stretch which was a short steep climb up a gravel road I opened it up a little bit to catch one more guy before the finish and crossed the line completely gassed. 

I was covered in mud all the way up both legs and my shoes were caked, but I finished second and that was pretty sweet. Except when the guy at the finish said "nice work man, you're third." I responded, "Uh...what...no...not possible". I looked up and the headphones guy was standing there. I was so confused. I said "but I never got passed". I was a little worried that in the scrum of people I took a wrong turn somewhere and ran extra, but at the same time I was pretty certain that I followed the course correctly. I was also only about 1:45 or 2 minutes behind Ryan Woods who was the winner, so me taking a wrong turn didn't really make sense unless he did too. Luckily he came over and vouched for me saying that I should have been second and that he had actually passed the other guy later in the race.

Once I heard that I knew that the other guy must have cut the course. There's no way that he could have gotten in front of both of us without cutting off good chuck of the course. I was able to work it out with the guy and we swapped the second and third awards. The first guy from the race seemed to think that was all that was needed as he said "We don't record the times, so as long as you guys are cool that's cool. I love runners."

Normally that would have been fine. I knew the time and I knew that my time was right, so I didn't really care, but I had to circle back with another guy at the finish to make sure we sorted the finish order out. I felt a little silly and didn't like complaining about the finish but since it was a Mountain Cup race an there were points on the line, I wanted to make sure that things got straightened out. I guess I won't really know until La Sportiva posts the points but hopefully it will all workout.

Wild Endurance powered by Untapped

I talked to Ryan Woods a little bit after the race about how insanely muddy the course was and how the finish worked out. Amanda and I walked around a little bit after trying to get a lay of the land for the rest of the day and to see if they had showers. She was glad the race was over as the way the finish was set up was giving her an anxiety attack, especially when she saw the headphones guy finish second. She said "Not to be a jerk or sound mean or anything, but I knew there was no way that someone wearing headphones would finish that high." Barring another double stroller guy situation I agreed.

Normally, I'm not anti-headphones, I just think you need to be responsible if you are going to wear them. I feel like I have some run in with somebody that can't hear whats going on around them in at least half of the races I run. If wearing them gets you out the door then, go for it, but trail racing is different than road racing. Sometimes you can zone out but there are usually a few instances were you can take a wrong turn if you aren't paying attention. I think that's what happened to the guy that ended up finishing third. It's likely that he would have still finished third, but I have no doubt that he  got caught up in his music and took a wrong turn, cutting off a least a mile of the course and probably more.

Tuck Fest also hosted a couple 5ks, a kids 2k race and a family adventure race, so there were three or four different color arrows. There was one spot in particular that had yellow (the half & quarter) going straight while blue and red arrows turned left. If I had to wager I'd say that's where he went rogue. As I type this I realize it's not really that big of a deal as long as things got sorted in the end, but I felt a little bad for the guy. I think he initially thought we were saying he took a shortcut on purpose and I don't think that's the case. I think it was an honest mistake, but I also think it could have been avoided. I blame the headphones!

Here's what the race looked like on Strava:


After all the craziness got sorted out I ran a a short cool down, about a mile and made my way to the showers. It took a good 10 minutes to scrub all of the mud off of my legs and I was wearing calf sleeves so from my ankles to the back of my knees were actually pretty clean. The rest of me though, was covered in mud.

They should have changed the name to Muck Fest

Normally, I pride myself on having an efficient stride. I remember States my junior year of high school at Franklin Park was a mud fest and I had the cleanest uniform of anyone on my team. All of that went out the window at Tuck Fest. Everyone was completely covered and you could tell that a lot of people went down. There were also plenty of people that didn't prepare for how muddy they were going to get because I saw a bunch of people caked in mud and wearing the race day shirt because it was the only clean thing they had.

I showered and changed and then Amanda and I spent the rest of the day taking in the festival. The USNWC campus is awesome and the festival was great. We did a loop after the race and saw people kayaking and SUPing on the man made whitewater rivers, we saw some jumping dogs, zip liners and checked out the ropes courses as well as the rock climbing and bouldering walls. It was kind of like a mini mountain games. I was fading fast an hour or so after the race so we grabbed some food and a beer and listened to a couple of the bands which was really cool.

We spent most of the day walking around to the different events and sampling some of the different beers that were sponsoring the festival. We watched a ton of the dog jumping and even saw the number 1 ranked dog in the country. It jumped 28 feet! We also caught a mountain bike trails show which was pretty cool and spent some time just hanging out watching people on the whitewater. We made the decision to make this a two day trip next year and try out the ropes courses and whitewater rafting.

 We decided to hit the road around five with since we were looking at a three hour drive home. We ended up stopping in Greenville, SC where we just missed the finish of the USA Cycling Crit national championships. Greenville is about half way between where we live and Charlotte so we stopped at Mellow Mushroom for pizza. It's a pretty cool little city and we are going to have to check it out further another time. We walked around a little before grabbing dinner and saw a bunch of the pro cycling team cars, no Phil Gaimon sightings, but maybe next week at Athens Twilight.

Overall it was a solid race and a great weekend trip. It really felt like we got a full weekend of stuff in on Saturday but we still had Sunday to relax a little and take care of some stuff around the house. I read an article on Outside.com about MicroAdventures (there's a book by the same name that I need to get) and while it's something we've been doing, little weekend or day trips, but the article really hit home and I want to make sure we keep doing them. I guess that's the 7R gene in me #wildendurance.

The race was solid. I accomplished what I went there for, to grab some mountain cup points and to finish on the podium. I've now got podium finishes in three states this year. I'll have to try and make it to SC and Alabama at some point and see if I can keep that tally growing. I'm throwing the time out the window because of the mud, but it was a good day of work. It also felt good to finish up a block of five straight weeks of racing. My legs are definitely feeling that stretch of racing, but I think it helped get me into better shape as I was also able to string together four straight weeks of 50+ miles.

My goals for the next couple of weeks are to keep steadily increasing my mileage but also to keep things relaxed for a few days and recover a little bit. I will probably try to work in a day off as well. The next race on my calendar is the Dirty Spokes Harbins Park trail half marathon, which will be my third half marathon of the year. I'm not expecting much with the Draft and rookie mini camp coming up at work, but it will be good to see where I'm at in a couple weeks.

Quote of The Day

I will skimming through NFL writer Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback article on the MMQB.com this morning and came across this cool note, or nugget as he would say. He ran a trail race in San Francisco and had a few nice things to say about the sport.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week

On Saturday morning north of San Francisco, I ran a 10K trail run, the Wild Boar 10K on Mount Tamalpais, in 75 minutes and 1 second. At one point maybe four miles into the run, a little wisp of girl, maybe 10 years old, passed me on a narrow trail on the edge of a steep hill.

Not my finest competitive sporting moment.

But it was my finest day ever running out in the world.

Imagine starting a run on a road in a lovely state park 40 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge, cresting .85 miles into it with a clear view of the Pacific Ocean on a pristine morning, gawking at the Pacific for seven or eight minutes while the undulating pavement takes you up and down, then veering off to the left on a thin ribbon of a rocky trail on the side of Mount Tamalpais, at times so steep with such a sheer drop that you say to yourself, DO NOT LOOK DOWN! WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT LOOK DOWN! And after you do that, up and down and never flat, for 15 minutes, you duck into a forest so dusky that it feels like 9 p.m. and not 9 a.m., and the temperature drops 15 degrees in a minute, and you’re not running on a rocky path anymore. Now it’s on pine needles and cones on a path underneath and through 300-year-old trees, such a soft trail that it feels like you’re running on a padded tartan track. Then, for the last mile, the grade is so steep that you have to walk most of it (my daughter Laura, a San Franciscan, didn’t; she’s incredibly fit and used to running on trails) and even thinking of making any good time seems just preposterous.

Yes. I think I’d like to do it again. Soon.

I know that King is a bit of a runner. He may have run Boston in the past, but I couldn't confirm that in the three minutes I looked on Google. Regardless, I thought it was cool to see a small note about trail running in this major NFL column. It's not often that the two worlds collide, so that was cool to see. I'm glad he enjoyed his first foray into trail running. Do you think he's on Strava?

Race Recap: Rock/Creek River Gorge

Rock/Creek River Gorge, my first goal race of the year. This was supposed to be my first big race of the year where I dropped a fast time on a tough course and came home with a win, but with my hamstring struggles of late I went into it hoping to salvage something rather than punish. Regardless of my training, I'd been waiting for this weekend since I crossed the finish line in last year's edition.

Setting the Stage
In 2014, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and step up to the challenge of racing against some of the guys in Tennessee. Chattanooga is an outdoor destination city and with 50 trail heads within 30 minutes of downtown, the place has some has some really good runners. When I looked at the race and saw the course record was 1:08 for 10.2 miles I thought I was going to have a chance to set a course record and win. I did not have enough respect for the course. At all. It's a really tough 10 miles, very different from what I've grown accustomed to racing on in Georgia. It's rolling, but has a lot of very technical terrain and some really punishing short steep climbs.

The last time out, I blasted from the get go and struggled with some of the terrain, then I completely blew up in the final three miles, which included major struggles in the rock garden. I ended up finishing third losing out to a college runner and a one of the top local runners. My time was solid, given the course, I finished in 1:13:49...the 10th fastest time ever run on that course.

When setting my goals for 2015, I kept coming back to this race. I was arrogant going in and I got what I deserved for that, but I still felt like I could have run better if I had run smarter. Flash forward to this weekend. I keep harping on my training, but the fact is it's not where it needs to be. Armed with better knowledge and more importantly, more respect for this course, I still felt like I had a shot at redemption. I figured I wouldn't be able to run as fast, but I still felt like I could be in the mix for the win or at least a podium spot.

The Course
The race takes place on the Mullens Cove loop trail in the Prentice Cooper State Forest/WMA about 15/20 minutes from downtown Chattanooga. It starts out on a dirt access road at the trail head and climbs up a short hill. From there you make a left onto an ATV/Jeep road and descend until you hit the single track about 400 meters later. After dipping into the single track you continue to descend, hitting the first big feature of the course very early, a giant boulder split in half with a set of wooden stairs wedged in between.

After that the course rolls along the cliff's edge until Snooper's Rock around 5k. At that point the course turns left deeper into the forest, but continues to present challenges with rolling hills and technical sections of rocky outcroppings. Just before seven miles the trail spills out onto Haley Road, another Jeep road, and throws it's toughest climb at you.

Haley Road is a grinding climb that brings you to the second aid station, after that you head back into the woods for a steep section of switchbacks that really hammers the legs. Once you reach the top things level out a bit before descending into the rock garden. A about a mile long, the rock garden is basically a boulder field along side a small creek. It's very technical and very slow going. Once you make your way through it though you have a gradual climb on nice smooth single track to the finish.

It's a challenging course but it can really tempt you with sections that are not just runnable, but fast. You have to stay focused though because those sections can quickly give way to quick creek crossings, rocky terrain, and sharp turns right along the edges of cliffs. It really is a great course, constantly taunting you and asking 'how long can you red line it before something on the course pushes you over the limit?'

Rock/Creek River Gorge 10.2 Mile Trail Race - Prentice Cooper WMA - Chattanooga, TN

The map above was provided by Rock/Creek a couple days before the race. It may not look like much but I promise you I studied the distances between each landmark/aid station and the contour lines very closely before the race to make sure I was as prepared as possible.

The Race

Amanda and I drove up to Chattanooga on Friday night. We each got out of work a shade early so we were able to hit the road around five. To avoid sitting in traffic and turning a 2.5 hour drive into a 3.5 hour drive we took the back roads. This route added some mileage and time but we were in Tennessee around 7:45 despite making a quick stop at Target about half way for some snacks and water. We grabbed dinner and then settled into our hotel room for the night.

I woke up at 6:30 and knocked out the news clips for work (the least favorite part of my job) and had a cliff bar while Amanda got ready to go. It was unexpectedly cold when we woke up. When I say unexpectedly, I mean that it had been 70 all week and it was 28 when I woke up. I know that's not really all that cold, but the 40 degree temperature swing is no fun. Fortunately, I had checked the forecast the before leaving and packed a hat, gloves, arm warmers, and extra layers for before and after. 

We left the hotel around 7:15 and made the short drive in about 30 minutes and got to the trail head about 45 minutes before the start. I grabbed my number from the registration tent and did a short warmup, probably about a mile and a half total. I would have liked to have done more but I got talking with my cousin Greg and one of my adversaries from last year, Nate Holland (who was out with an ankle injury he picked up in the 68 mile Georgia Death Race). The warm up worked well enough though as I was warm and my hamstring was feeling nice and loose. I was little worried about the long drive, but it ended up feeling about 80-90 percent for most of the day.

The race starts on the gravel access road before hitting the trails. photo courtesy of True Speed Photo

With the race starting with a short climb on the dirt road, I grabbed a spot on the front row but settled in behind the four or five guys that surged to the front at the gun. When we reached the top of the climb and made the left hand turn onto the Jeep road, I moved my way to the front, but there were about six of us running all the way across the road from one side of the other. As soon as I hit the Jeep road, I gave it a little gas and then let gravity do the bulk of the work pulling me along as I glided down the washed out road. Zak Noles (Athens, Ga) was quick to cover my move and settled in along side me. This was essentially the same strategy I used last year, but the difference was that this year I was just looking to get out of the traffic. I figured if someone was going to pass me early that was fine, but I wasn't getting bogged down on the single track. 

rolling on the jeep road before hitting the single track. Photo courtesy of Rock/Creek Race Team's instagram

Zak and I actually talked a little bit early on and we agreed it would be best to put a little distance on the group at large to avoid any entanglements. We were rolling pretty good on the descent, but I could tell that we were both trying to stay controlled. We hit the single track and I took a the lead. I was a little reluctant, but I was nervous about the split rock. I wanted to get through that in front and if he wanted to take over after that, no problem. The trail drops pretty sharply and is littered with roots early on. After about 20 yards of picking my way through the roots I heard Zak say "good, you're a trail runner. Nothing worse than getting stuck behind a roadie on this stuff." That made me smile. I liked this guy. All I could think of was the time I nearly ran off the trail running with Ferenc and Greg Hammett and Greg made a joke about not being good on the technical stuff. He was 100 percent right, but when Zak said that, in my head I was thinking 'how do you like them apples Greg?' 

side note: I'm still not very good on the technical stuff

We continued to run together for the first three miles or so and for most of that time we were running at a conversational pace. That was a little weird for a race, but since my plan was to run smarter and a little more reserved early on, I figured that if I was talking I was doing that, so what the hell. I also think we were both testing each other a little bit to see if the other guy was for real. 

I was thinking 'shit, this guy is chatting it up about races in California with handicapped starts like the Dipsea, this is going to take a turn at some point.' Little did I know, he when he said 'good, you're a trail runner' what he meant was 'Shit, this guy is a trail runner and I've got to worry about him.'

Shortly before we hit the Snooper's Rock aid station, I missed a turn. Totally my fault, it was marked well we just came in a little too hot and I blew right past it. I tried to signal to Zak that we needed to back track a couple steps and turn but my sudden stop caught him of guard. We avoided disaster as he wrapped his arms around me to prevent us from going off the cliff to our left. 

"My bad. We were supposed to go up to the right there. I came in a little too hot."

"No worries. It's trail running. I hope you don't mind the hug. I know we are still early on in our relationship for that."

We both had a good laugh at that as we scrambled up the rocky outcropping and back onto the single track after my misstep. As we climbed, I noticed the two guys behind us had closed things down and both Zak and I seemed to feel a sense of urgency. He moved to the front and hit the gas as soon as he got back on level ground and I did the same doing my best to keep pace. We quickly opened up a gap on the two runners behind us, but after that injection of pace it became clear that Zak had better climbing legs than I did. He opened up a gap and while I could bring it back a little on some of the downhills I decided that it was better run my race than go into oxygen debt trying to close the gap. With the third and fourth place runner still close behind, the last thing I wanted to do was blow up in the last three miles from hammering myself early on.

Wild Endurance p/b La Sportiva

From talking to him after the race, I think Zak had a similar plan to mine last year, which was hammer wherever the trail would allow it. He opened up a decent size gap early but I was able to keep it around 20-30 seconds for most of the race. I told myself not to worry about what was going on ahead of me or behind me. I knew going in that I needed to run smart and run my race no matter what. That was my best chance at getting on the podium. Oddly enough, being in no man's land was probably the best thing for me. 

Once we got through the Snooper's Rock aid station, I focused on running a good tempo and using course. I opened my stride and let it fly on the downhills, pushed whenever things flattened out, and just tried to survive the climbs by maintaining the same effort level. It was slow going on the ups, but I felt like I was making up for it on the flatter sections and the downhills. I also tried to focus on my feet in the technical sections. Trying to be quick over the rocks and avoid selling out for one normal stride only to end up going down or blowing out my ankle.

Snooper's Rock

Things worked out pretty well for me in the middle section. I was mitigating the damage that Zak was doing up front and opening up a good size gap on the guys behind me and the miles seemed to be rolling by pretty quickly. The one negative about this race is that there are no mile markers. Fortunately, my GPS was pretty close this time around and I knew that I was in for 1:15 or possibly longer, so I was able to budget my energy a lot more efficiently. I also carried water, as this is a cup less race. It was kind of a pain to carry water for a 10 miler, but I felt like taking a quick sip from my hand held bottle helped calm me down in a few of my crisis of confidence moments after climbs or technical sections. 

Somewhere between 40 and 45 minutes into the race I tore into an Untapped Maple packet for an energy boost. I cannot recommend this stuff enough. It's the perfect endurance fuel and I found out after the race that a bunch of people had issues with their GU's and shot blocks due to the cold weather. Not my pure, 100%, Vermont maple syrup. Liquid gold. 

I got a nice little moral boost from the Untapped packet and was rolling well when I came out of the woods and onto Haley road near the second aid station. You'd think that I'd be stoked running on a road with my name, that I would want to make it "my road" by running awesome on it. You would be right, unfortunately, my legs weren't really feeling that and things came to a grinding halt as I slowly clawed my way up to the aid station. Haley road was steeper than I remembered and after you dip back into the woods you face the toughest climb on the course. The climb really isn't that long, maybe 400 meters, but it's steep and switchbacks its way back up to the gorge's ridge line. I caught a quick glimpse Zak up ahead as I slugged my way through the climb and the aid station volunteers told me he had less than 45 seconds on me.

On the one hand I was excited because I was still in striking distance and with the rock garden looming I was still in the race, but on the other the fact that I was struggling on the climb made me feel like I was letting the race slip away. I told myself not to panic and just get up and over the damn thing. I had a brief mound conference with myself at the top of the climb and tried to refocus as this was where my race plan needed to kick into gear. Last year, the top of this climb was where things fell apart. It's where I lost the eventual winner and where I started to give back ground guys behind me. This year was going to be different. I settled myself down and focused on running as fast as I could on the mile down to the rock garden.

I was really trying to force the issue on the flats, but I had a brief moment of concern when I went a few minutes without seeing any course markings. I was having flashbacks of earlier in the race when I blew through a turn. I quickly made the decision that it didn't matter. If I went off course, my goals were going to be out the window, so I shouldn't bother wasting any energy worrying about it. There was a little bit of comfort in the white blazes on the trees, since most of the course is on the white blazed Cumberland Trail, but going off course was still in the back of my mind until I saw a yellow piece of ribbon clipped to a branch just ahead of me. A wave of relief rushed over me and I stepped on the gas again. 

Now I felt like I was really bombing down the trail. Knowing that the rock garden was going to be slow going but I felt like I had budgeted my energy well and would have a shot at catching Zak in the final mile. The trail begins to drop sharply as you get close to the rock garden and the forest changes from hardwoods to lush evergreens and hemlocks. As I descended rapidly my eyes started to water from the cold air and bright sunlight showing through the trees. I picked my way over the rocks on the technical switch backs that serve as the entrance to the rock garden and it instantly reminded me of another Ferenc run.

Last summer, Josh, Greg and I "ran" up and down Ascutney on a hiking trail that was remarkably similar to this one. Each step was a gamble with your life and limbs. I'd made it through unscathed and fairly quickly, hung a right at the bottom (big thanks to the volunteer pointing us in the right direction) and made my way into the rock garden. I've probably made this thing out to be worse than it really is, but it's the signature feature of this race. It's essentially my version of the fire swamp from Princess Bride. Instead of lightning Sand, Fire Bursts, and R.O.U.S. it has rocks, rocks, and more rocks.

The Rock Garden

Once I got into the rock garden I focused on quick feet, trying to keep moving forward without stumbling. The most difficult thing about navigating this section of the course is figuring out what line to take. I feel like you could run the rock garden 100 times and take 100 different lines. It would be slow going if you were hiking, never mind trying to run fast through it. You have to keep one eye on the the rocks and one eye on the blazes, otherwise you start drifting and zig zagging which wastes a tremendous amount of time and energy. Last year, I was all over the place, panicking and clumsily fumbling my way through. This year, I was much more confident and I was able stay calm. I still don't think I ran it terribly fast, but I definitely felt like I was moving better than the last time.

More rock garden

I tried to focus on quick feet and short, quick strides, picking my way over the rocks and trying to drive my arms to keep a good tempo. At this point, I sort of forgot about who was ahead or behind me and just kept working on getting through it. I really wish I would have been able to spend a little time on this course before the race to get a better feel for how long the rock garden is, but I actually felt like I got through it relatively quickly. After you get past the rocks, you are treated to a steep climb back up and out of the small ravine.

Once you pull yourself out of the ravine, you cross over another jeep road then begin the gradual climb to the finish. The race closes with about a mile of well groomed single track with a slight uphill grade. Despite the fact that you're 10 miles into the race, hitting that single track might as well be dead flat pavement. I crossed over the road and immediately went to work trying to grind my way to the finish. After the excitement of getting through the rock garden wore off the fatigue hit me like a ton bricks. I think if I had been able to see Zak ahead of me on the trail I might have been able to summon a little more but I ended up running out of gas about a half mile from the finish.

Rock "steps" in the rock garden

At that point, it became clear that I had second sewn up, but I wasn't going to be able to catch Zak so I just cruised into the finish. I crossed the line in 1:15:09 (7:22 pace), which was right about where I figured I would finish. I ended up losing a little more time to Zak over the last couple of miles as he took the win in 1:13:48, which was one second faster than what I ran last year for third. Obviously, I would have liked to have win, but all things considered I was pretty happy with my finish. This was a big goal race for me and I was a little disappointed that my trailing wasn't up to par in the weeks leading up to it. For me to come away with a result despite those struggles was pretty exciting.

After the race I cooled down with Zak, John Wiygul (3rd, 1:18:02), and John's wife Molly (2nd female finisher (1:31:13). While cooling down I found out the Zak was from Athens and often trains at Ft. Yargo State Park, so we exchanged numbers to hopefully get together for some runs in the future. After that I went back to the finish to root for my cousin, who finished in 2:16:31.

Exiting the rock garden about to cross the jeep road

I ended up winning a pretty cool Hyrdo Flask water bottle and a backpack, both of which have the River Gorge RG logo on them. After the race Amanda and I headed back to Chattanooga to grab brunch at our favorite coffee shop, Mean Mug. They have amazing biscuits. I've lived in Georgia for almost five years now and while I don't really care for country music or NASCAR there are two southern things that I do enjoy...sweet tea and biscuits. We spent the rest of the day walking around Chattanooga, which I think was good for my hamstring since it felt pretty good the next day. Amanda was totes jelly of my hydro flask so we had to pick one up for her at Rock/Creek then we met up with Greg for dinner.

L-R: John Wiygul, Zak Noles, Me

Overall I was really pleased with the race. It wasn't as fast as I wanted at the beginning of the year, but being able to stay relaxed and run my race and still get a good result made up for the uneasiness I was feeling going into this one. The one bummer about the way things shook out was that Zak bumped me out of the all-time top 10 on the course by one second. This race is going to be fast next year. Next up for me, a couple of Dirty Spokes races and then possibly the Tuck Fest 1/2 Marathon in NC (part of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup).

Here's a look at the final results (top 10 overall):

Place	Name	Gun Time	Pace
1	Zakary Noles	1:13:48	07:14/M
2	Matt Haley	1:15:09	07:22/M
3	John Wiygul	1:18:02	07:39/M
4	Fynn Glover	1:18:59	07:45/M
5	Cullom Boyd	1:21:05	07:57/M
6	Neal Hanley	1:22:15	08:04/M
7	Mitchell Kohlmann	1:23:20	08:10/M
8	Baker McCool	1:25:11	08:21/M
9	Nathan Helton	1:25:24	08:22/M
10	Sam Linhoss	1:27:39	08:36/M

Shout out to Fynn Glover, one of the founders of RootsRated.com finishing fourth.

Here's what the race looked like on Strava: