Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Univ. of North Georgia 5.5 Mile Trail Race

Editor's note: This is a little overdue, but necessary.

Winner, winner

I got my first win for Wild Endurance at the Dirty Spokes University of North Georgia 5.5 mile trail race on March 14 in Gainesville, Georgia. It's always nice to get a win but it was especially nice nabbing the top step on the podium for WE and to do it on what has become my de facto home course down here in Georgia. I've won this race the last four years with Josh Ferenc taking the win in 2011 back when he was all Unicorned (BAA) out. This year's race wasn't a particularly fast version due to muddy conditions and my so-so fitness, but hey, a win is a win.

The Gainesville UNG campus is only 18 or so miles from my apartment, which might sound far but everything is so spread out down here that's actually super close. It's also 17.5 highway miles, so that helps. I got to the campus around 7:30 with about an hour to kill before the start of the race. Because it was so wet, Tim Schroer moved registration and the finish into the parking garage, so I was able to stay relatively dry before the gun. He also moved the start from the big lower field to the road next to the field, which was great for me. Those big open field cross country starts have never been my strong suit.

After jogging around for a bit and trying to find a bathroom (no campus buildings were open...portos...woof) I found Mitch Novy doing the same and trying to stay loose in the rain. We chatted a little bit about our race plan and stretched out while we waited for everyone to make their way to the start. Mitch is contesting all of the short courses in the series, so for him this was a 2.5 mile race. His plan was to run together until we hit the split just after the mile then try to finish off anyone that stayed with him in the final long flat before the finish. Having someone to run with for a mile or so sounded good to me, so we made our way to the start to get things fired up.

The new start presented a small challenge, a narrow concrete bridge about 20 yards from the starting line, it was a little unfortunate for some of the people further back, but there was really no way to avoid it. Even if they pushed the start back, it would have been a downhill sprint and that would have been mass chaos. Mitch was a little nervous about the bridge, but I assured him that we'd be fine. I've run enough of these races and so have most of the rest of the field that everyone has a pretty good gauge on the early pace, with the exception of the occasional froggish high schooler.

At the gun, Mitch took off like Chip in that Chappelle skit. I was a few yards behind and the aforementioned froggish youngster when by me like I was standing still and instantly opened a small gap on Mitch. I my head, I said 'I'm either going to catch him before the mile or he's going to run away from everyone, so don't panic...but I kind of hope he's running the short race'.

I quickly settled into a good rhythm and started eating into their advantage on the flat double track that traces the outline of the campus along a set of rail road tracks. The double track makes a left past the track and less than a half mile into race you pass a set of tennis courts then a makeshift outdoor amphitheater. I caught Mitch at the tennis courts and the young buck shortly after the amphitheater. Despite a couple of slips on a few of the off camber turns, I pulled into the lead as we made the turn to head back towards the start where we would dip into the woods.

Mitch came around me to keep the pace high in a effort to distance the kid behind us. We rolled stride for stride through the mile and all the way to the split. I don't get to run with people and a lot of these races are single track so that was pretty cool, to be side by side rolling. I felt like I was back in college hammering back from a workout at Keene High. Mitch went on to win the short race by a solid margin over 17-year old Alex Peacock (the young kid behind us).

I broke left over a small bridge and into the woods. I was cautious over the wooden planks and in and out of the corners due to the mud but it became clear fairly early that I was out to a good lead. Once you get into the woods on the UNG course there are a lot of tight turns. It's pretty flat but the twists and turns make keeping up a rhythm difficult. I focused on trying to open up my stride were I could and trying to be quick through the tight sections. This added up to a lot of speeding up and slowing down but it worked out pretty well, since by the time I came through three miles there was no one in sight behind me.

It's always difficult to keep pushing the pace when you are in no man's land. It's a little easier when you are out front because there's always that voice in the back of your head that's worried about getting caught, so I tried to tap into that and keep pushing. I was moving well on the long down hill that takes you from the back section of trails back to double track access trail and figured that I'd start to catch the back end of the 2.5 milers before finishing the climb back up to the mountain bike parking lot. I grinded my way up the hill then started working on the few people I could see up ahead of me.

Once I was back down on the double track about a half mile from the finish I tried to open it up again. To my delight, my hamstring actually felt okay and wasn't too tight, that would change at the finish. I knew I had the win sewed up, but I still tried to catch all of the 2.5 milers ahead of me. The change in finish location left us with a nasty little paved up hill back to the parking garage, which was a little tougher than I thought it would be, so making the right hand turn into the parking garage was a relief. I strided it out and crossed the line in 34:23. That time is a little slow, but given the change in course and sloppy, muddy conditions it was right about where I thought I'd be.

After a lot of travel the week before, I was happy that my hamstring felt okay during the race. It still tightened up afterwards, but I think I am getting to the point where I can start upping my mileage as along as I stick to my work in the weight room. Right now, that's my big struggle is my lack of mileage. It's difficult for me to race well on low mileage. If I'm doing good workouts, I can run alright in the 50s, but right lately I've been in the 30s, so I need to work on that.

After the race I caught up with Mitch for a two mile cool down. We finished up and made our way to the awards where I took home a specially made Dirty Spokes Merlot from Chateau Elan winery. I'm not a big wine guy (or a wine guy at all really) but I thought that was one of the cooler prizes I've ever gotten at a race. I also got a coupon for a free VO2 Max test which I'm interested in checking out. I will keep you posted if and when I make it to the lab for that.

Mitch and I hit the trails for another three miles, which gave me 10 for the day. All in all it was a good day and a good start to the spring for me. I'm a little behind where I wanted to be, but if I can keep my hamstring in check I still think I can run well later in the spring and summer.

As always, here's what it looked like on Strava:

Rad Run: Are You Afraid of the Dahhk

I feel like this is the most appropriate way to start off this blog. I don't know the origin of the image, but I had seen it somewhere before and it was the first thing I thought of when I sat down to start writing about my night time mountain adventure with Josh Ferenc. If that doesn't set the scene for you...try this one on for size.

That's the text I got from Josh on Sunday morning as Amanda and I made our way up to Vermont from my parents house in Massachusetts. As it says, Josh proposed a night run up Magic Mountain on Sunday night. Sometimes I regret going along with his suggestions, but I thought it sounded fun, so I agreed. After spending the day hanging out then consuming a higher than recommended amount of chicken wings Josh picked me up from the Grafton Inn  at 9 p.m. where Amanda and I were staying and we made our way to Timber Ridge, a defunct ski mountain in Windham, VT.

I know this was set out to be a night run, but it was wicked dahhk dude. Josh promised an "almost full moon", but on the drive it looked more like some sort of eclipse. We parked the truck at the base of Timber Ridge and each polished off the remainder of our Red Bulls. Despite not being able to see the moon, the stars were incredible. That has always been one of my favorite parts of the New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine experience, the stars are awesome. We don't get that in Georgia. There's a cul-de-sac every 20 feed and Atlanta has got some serious lightblubs. You get the star-filled sky a little bit in the North Georgia mountains but it doesn't compare to rural New England.

We fired up our headlamps and made our way from the parking lot up to the base of the mountain on a well packed snowmobile trail. While Timber Ridge doesn't operate as a ski mountain any more it is open to snowmobiling thanks to the Vermont Association of Snowmobile Trails (VAST). We followed the VAST trail, which from what I could tell (because it was dark) used to be a groomer that wrapped around the edge of the mountain. A green circle, with a couple of steep sections, that was probably more fun to ski down or snowmobile up than it was to run.

We slogged our way up the VAST trail but after a couple of minutes I was able to settle into a climbing gear and just grind my way up the slope trailing slightly behind Josh and way off the back of Ellie and Lena, who were setting a blistering pace. The snow was actually pretty good. It was softened a little bit by a warmer day but considering we were running on top of a couple of feet, we only dealt with minimal slipping. One of the great things about this being a night run was I couldn't tell how steep the trail was in front of me. I could only see what the headlamp was lighting up and it was all snow so it just looked like a white wall.

Here's an old image of when Magic Mtn owned Timber Ridge. Our route up is in red and the way down in black 

After 20-25 minutes of climbing things started to level out a little and we came to a snow bank on top of Timber Ridge. We followed a small break in the bank made by a snowmobile and things leveled off nicely. Following a few minutes of gliding we reached the summit of Magic Mountain. We pretty much ran right up to the chair lift before I realized we'd reached the top. It was a cool feeling to be at the top of the lift at night like that. They don't have night skiing, so we were the only people on the mountain and it was a combination of eerie quiet and peaceful serenity. With the stars and a slight wind, it felt like we were miles away from another human being. Then a guy came flying up lift trail on a snowmobile and ruined it.

We studied the trail map for a minute and even Josh, who is normally pretty relaxed when it comes the possibility of getting lost suggested that we should stick close to the lift. I agreed. It was really dark and while our headlamps light up the path in front of us, it would have been really easy to miss a trail sign and end up biting off more than we wanted to chew. We ended up doing a couple of short laps under the lift. It was awesome watching the girls bomb down the trail. Lena legitimately might have been going 40 mph down the trail.

It's tough to see but we ran down White Out and up Upper Magic Carpet

I don't know if it was that I was running with Josh, the cold night air, or the Red Bull but I felt like I could have run that loop 10 times. It was awesome! While we were doing our summit loops, the moon finally started to show itself through the trees. As promised it was epic. Nearly full and with a slight pink tint it lit up the trail on our way back. I wish I could have take better pictures, but even with my GoPro set to night mode it was too dark. I've got a couple of video clips that I might try to salvage some highlights from but I haven't had a chance to check them out yet.

After enjoying the sights for another minute or two at the top of Magic Mountain we made our way back down the connecting trail to Timber Ridge. We decided to head up to the summit of Timber Ridge before heading back to the car, which was a short climb from where the VAST trail connected with Magic. We shut our headlamps off for a few minutes and let the moon light the trail as we climbed up the gradual incline along a ridge line that led to what I thought was the decommissioned lift house at the top of Timber Ridge.

As it turns out...(according to NewEnglandSkiHistory.com) It was a cabin built on the footing of the former double chair that was featured in a 2014 episode of National Geographic's Building Wild. Yup, I found the episode. I haven't watched it yet but I'm looking forward to it. From the preview it looks like it give a good view of some of the steep terrain that we were dealing with. Also Josh needs to befriend these people immediately if not sooner.

Here's the link to the video. I couldn't get it to embed.
Top of the World

From their we bombed down the well traveled snowmobile tracks that led down Timber Ridge's main trail to the base lodge, which has been converted into a cabin lodge for the people that own the mountain. We finished our run on a small section of road before dropping back down into the snowmobile parking lot. Unfortunately, as soon as the car was in sight my heart sank.

"Did you really leave the dome light on?"

"Oh shit."

I left the dome light on in Josh's truck and was 1000 percent sure it wasn't going to start. It wouldn't be the first time we've been stranded without transportation, but at 10:30 on a Sunday night in the middle of nowhere it's not exactly an adventure that I wanted to go on. Thankfully, the 1992 Forerunner proved to be the modern marvel that it is and she started right up. The girls jumped in and were passed out before we pulled out of the lot. Josh dropped me back at the Grafton Inn where I slept like a rock after the Red Bull wore off.

The next morning Amanda and I were treated to an awesome country breakfast complete with pure VT maple syrup from right down the street...highlight of the trip. We hung around the next day and drove to a couple of covered bridges and checked out Rudyard Kipling's house (did you know he was a 4:30 miler? At least that's what Cassidy said) to do a few New England things before heading home.

It was great to get to spend a few days up in Vermont with Josh. It's like hitting the reset button on my soul when I go up there. I can't wait to get back up in the summer. I know New England has been pounded with snow this year, but some times I really miss it.

Here's what the looked like on Strava:

Lookout Mountain Trail Run

As promised, here's my second attempt at a GoPro running video.

A Weekend in Chattanooga

Chattanooga, Tennessee has quickly become a favorite weekend getaway destination for Amanda and I over the last couple of years. It's close enough that it doesn't take us all day to get there, but far enough away that it feel like a getaway. It's a small city with a great vibe and an outdoor-centric mindset. I guess that's what happens when you have 50 trail heads within 30 miles of downtown, access to couple of mountain ranges and the Tennessee river flows through downtown.

We stumbled upon Chattanooga a few years ago when I saw that Outside named it one of the "Best towns ever". When I realized how close it was, I knew we had to check it out. We've been a handful of times, four or five maybe, and we enjoy it so much that anytime I run a race on the northwest side of Atlanta a day trip to Chattanooga is usually on the list of possible things to do with the rest of our day.

This particular weekend trip was a result of both Amanda and I just needing to get away from everything for a few days. We needed a little re-boot, so we packed everything up on Friday and made our way up to Tennessee that night. Our base of operations for this winter weekend getaway was the Chattanoogan hotel, it's a really nice spot and we've moved up in the world from staying at the holiday in. The Chattanoogan is a little more expensive that somewhere that we would typically stay, but we had stayed there for one night during the fall and decided that it was our favorite hotel. This turned out to be a great call, because we got a chance to explore the city's southside, which we'd previously neglected.

This is a running blog, so I'll get to the point, Chattanooga is an amazing trail running destination. I haven't been to Boulder or Bend, but I still believe that the Scenic City is a must see for any trail runner. From Stringers Ridge (a personal favorite) just two miles from downtown, to Lookout Mountain towering 2,389 feet above the city, it features a ton of great places to get out an log some awesome miles. Chattanooga hosts the Salomon/Rock Creek trail series with everything from 10k trail runs to a three day stage race and the newly minted Thunder Rock 100. The trails range from rolling double track to steep mountain ascents, and technically challenging rock and root gardens. The place really has something for everyone.

Despite taking a few days off last week, I wasn't going to miss a chance to get out on some of the local trails while we were in town, so I planned a long run on Lookout Mountain on Saturday and a shorter downtown tour for Sunday. My plan on Saturday was to get up and head to Craven house about half way up the mountain to run the Big Daddy Loop, a trail run that combines seven trails, including the bluff trail that is cut into the side of the mountain high up with amazing views of the Tennessee River Gorge.

I slept in a little bit on Saturday morning and then knocked out the news clips for work (I have to do these everyday and they are the bane of my existence). This process took a little bit longer than I would have liked and I started stressing out about getting a late start, but I had to remind myself I was supposed to be on a weekend getaway vacation and slow my roll. This is something that I've talked to Josh Ferenc about at length and I'm sure we aren't the only ones who do it. Because work and life can be so stressful whenever we have a weekend or a few days off, I feel like I have to cram as many fun things as humanly possible into that free time, otherwise I am wasting it. Then I end up stressing out about not taking advantage of every second that I can.

It's sad, but it reminds of this quote from the Scientology episode of South Park

"It's Saturday! we have to have as much fun as possible."

That's exactly how I feel on the weekends or really whenever I'm not at work. I took a deep breath and decided to venture out to one of the many local coffee houses to grab some breakfast. I scoured Roots Rated (the best website/app for things to do outside and places to eat after) and Amanda and I settled on Mean Mug Coffee, a relatively new spot just a couple blocks away from our hotel in the southside neighborhood. It was a nice morning so we decided to walk over, which was cool because we got to take in some new sights. When we walked in the Mean Mug, I knew that we'd hit the jackpot for Amanda. She's a sucker for a good cup of coffee and this place was awesome. It had a really cool vibe, just coffee house enough without being all douchey and pretentious.

They had really cool decor, wood everywhere, vintage bikes above the door, and a chalk board menu with all of their drinks. Amanda got a mocha and some steel cut oats and I had a bacon and egg biscuit and a green tea. I'm not a big coffee guy, but it was nice to order something not coffee and not get stared at like I had 16 heads. More importantly, the biscuit was freaking amazing. The best biscuit I've ever had and I live in the south now so I eat biscuits. We relaxed at Mean Mug for a bit then walked back to the hotel. On the way back we saw a bunch of people in town for a comic convention. It was pretty funny. We saw like 14 Indiana Jones.

Once we got back to the hotel I jumped in the rad wagon and drove up to Craven House to start my run. There was a "ton" of snow on the mountain, ton being southern for 4-6 inches, but there was a decent path that had been tramped down by hikers and other runners, so I set out to get 10-12 miles in. Originally my plan was to run the Big Daddy loop, but based on the snow I was a little concerned with what kind of shape the bluff trail would be in. It's cut into the side of the mountain and in some places it can be a little sketchy when it's 100 percent dry. I decided to run an alternate version of the run that only had about 2 miles on the bluff trail instead of 4 or 5.

The run starts out descending from Craven House on the rifle pits trail down to the upper truck trail. After leveling out on upper truck, I dropped down a little further on the lower gum springs trail to the skyuka trail. This is a nice long winding trail that rolls it's way through the forest along the side of the mountain. This was probably the most fun part of the run. Since I'm not in great shape, I just let the trail dictate my pace as gravity pulled me down the descents and I grinded my way up the rolling hills. The other thing that makes this part of the run cool is that you cross into Georgia about half way to the spring. When I reached skyuka springs I stopped and tore into an Untapped maple packet. I needed the energy boost because the John Smartt trail is a lung and leg buster. It switchbacks it's way back up to the upper truck trail over a mile and on a true Big Daddy loop it climbs another mile up to the bluff trail. When I got to the next trail intersection, I noticed a distinctive lack of footprints continuing up John Smartt and decided to play it smart and take upper truck. At this point, I also started making my way back to Tennessee.

Upper truck was really nice after the tough climb. It's a double track trail, a lot like a jeep road or old rail road bed, with a couple of rollers. I saw a few people out on the trail hiking, so that made me feel like I made the right call. After a few miles on upper truck I reached the split for upper gum springs. This bad boy is another leg and lung buster and it was especially tough in the snow. I did a lot of slipping and sliding and after more than an hour I was definitely feeling a lack of fitness. When I finally reached the top where gum springs meets the bluff trail I was treated to some awesome views of the Tennessee river valley.

The bluff trail was in a little better shape than I thought it would be, with a six inch trench trail that had been tramped down. There were still some harrowing sections as the trail flirts with the edges of cliffs for pretty much it's entire length. I'm still trying to get the hang of the GoPro, so I didn't get many great shots, but I did put together a video that I'll post below.

The bluff trail is what really makes this run worth it. Even if you feel like you are taking your life in your hands at times, the views are awesome and it's a big rush to be picking your way along the side of a cliff. By the time I got back to my car I was pretty gassed. The run clocked in around two hours which was probably a little excessive, but I was stoked that my hamstring felt good and I had an absolute blast.

After finishing the run, I headed back to the hotel and grabbed Amanda. We hit the Terminal brewhouse for a burger and a beer then went back up to Lookout mountain for a short hike. We wanted to checkout sunset rock but by the time we made it up there we weren't sure we'd have time so we went about a mile and half then turned back for the car. We went to Rock/Creek to check out all the sweet outdoor gear, but didn't leave with anything.

After our trip to Rock/Creek we headed back to the hotel then walked downtown for dinner. More beer was in order at World of Beer which had a live band and some good food. We hung out for a bit then made our way back to the hotel to call it a night.

Day 2:
Sunday kicked off with a short run downtown, across the Walnut Street Bridge and into the park below then I headed back to the hotel. I would have liked to have gone up to stringers ridge, but I didn't want to push my hamstring too far so I kept things nice and short. Nothing local is open on Sunday, so we hit Panera for breakfast then walked around downtown for a bit. We decided to check out the aquarium and that turned out to be a great idea. We wanted to see the Otters and last time they were napping, not this time. They were out running around, climbing and swimming. It was really cool and that was worth the price of admission.

We walked over the Walnut Street bridge (seriously one of my favorite things in the world) to Whole Foods to grab some lunch then walked back downtown to the car. It was starting to rain, so we called it a day and made the 2 hour drive back to Atlanta, ending our weekend with a pizza and some cookies from Whole Foods.

That was a great mental health weekend. It was awesome to relax, get outside, and just clear my mind for a bit. I needed that after having a stressful few months at work and being frustrated with my running. Now I'm looking forward to our trip back to New England even more.