It took me a while to get my first real blog-worthy race of 2017. This year has been a little bit of a whirlwind. The Super Bowl run at work [insert 28-3 joke] meant that the season stretched and extra two months and while I am certainly not complaining about that, it did mean it took me a little longer to get both my offseason and running legs back under me.
The other reason this year got off to a hectic start is a little heavier. My mom passed away in March after a long but courageous battle with cancer. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer four years ago and fought through some incredible challenges. The last time we talked, she told me her goal was to make it to Tuck Fest weekend so she could hear all about it from my brother and I. Prior to that conversation and in one of her signature surprise moves, my mom entered me into the Tuck Fest half marathon, bought three All-Sport passes for the USNWC, and booked hotel rooms and a flight for my brother, so we could all spend the weekend in Charlotte and enjoy the festival.
It was a little bit of a tough weekend for me because of all of this, but at the same time, I went into it knowing that she'd want me to enjoy every single second. That was my refrain for the weekend since I was coming into a very tough race underprepared. I'd run a few solid shorter Dirty Spokes races in the weeks leading up to Tuck Fest, which helped me mentally bounce back from a rough go at River Gorge, but as we made the drive to Charlotte from Atlanta I couldn't help but wonder why I felt it was necessary to run the half marathon. Maybe next year I'll opt for the shorter seven-mile race.
With the race on a Saturday morning, Amanda and I drove up to the Charlotte area on Friday night and met my younger brother Dann at our hotel. We grabbed dinner, burrito bowls at Qdoba - which I was little worried about at first but it was pretty plain so my stomach actually handled it fairly well. After eating we called it an early night and I started digging through all the stuff I brought to get my race gear ready.
Tangent alert! - I spent a lot of time during the winter and spring trying to figure out what trail shoes to go with this year. I ran Thrill in the Hills (half marathon) and River Gorge (10.2 miles) in a year-old pair of Montrails that left me with some wicked blisters on my left foot so I knew I needed a change up before Tuck Fest.
After weeks of research and hemming and hawing, I settled on giving the Hoka One One Speed Instinct a shot. They were my first pair of Hokas, but with a little lower stack height than some of their other offerings, I thought they'd be good for some of the longer trail runs/races on my calendar. While they tend to run a little hot, I'm a fan of this shoe. It's cushioned but still responsive and it has held up fairly well in the couple races I've put it through. It's not the most nimble shoe and I don't know that I'd wear it in a shorter race but it was a solid choice for this race.
Okay, where was I?
Following a restful night of sleep at the Hampton Inn, we packed up the car and headed over to the USNWC for the race and then a full day of outdoor activities, beer, and music. The start of the day and the race were fairly uneventful. I saw a few familiar faces on the starting line but outside of La Sportiva's Jason Bryant, I didn't really know what to expect from the field. My race plan going in was not to lead until we made our way through the first section of mountain bike trails. I have a good general knowledge of the course but all you really need to know is that it's long. Two laps are easily 14 and probably a little longer than that, but whatever the case, I knew going in it would be 50+ minutes per lap on a good day. I also know this course beats you up with a bunch of small steep climbs. No one single climb is too difficult but combined they make that second lap brutal.
Things looked like they were going to plan early as two guys jumped to the front at the gun. I've learned not to judge people by what they are wearing but one of these guys was wearing under armor boxer briefs. Not tights or compression shorts or something like that, actual boxer briefs like you'd wear as underwear on any normal day. Now, he was ripped, so I'll give him that but it was a little much. The other good looked comfortable running at the front so I settled in behind him and figured I'd hang there until either I fell off the pace or he slowed down. Either way, I'd stay relaxed for as long as possible. Or so I thought.
As soon as we came up on the entrance to the trails he swung way wide and I had to take the lead. That ended up being for the best as I just settled into my rhythm and started to string things out a little bit at a time. The first lap was pretty smooth. It's quiet on the trails and still fairly cool when you are running along the river. I made it about halfway through the first lap before I really felt like I was in a race. As I've said in previous blogs about this race, the quarter marathon (one lap) race goes off 30 minutes after the half, which means people everywhere on the second lap. I tried to use the first lap as a refresher of the course so I'd know what to expect for the second without having to think about it while dodging the other people.
Things went about as expected on the first lap. I rolled through the start/finish at 50:16 - turns out I was nearly three minutes up on Jason Bryant (52:58) - and tried to refocus for the 50+ minutes I had left in the race. One of the smarter things I did for this race was that I rationed my nutrition throughout. I only brought one Untapped packed but I took a little bit at a time every 15 or so minutes after the first 35 minutes. I'd always in the past just shot the whole thing at some point in the race between 30 and 45 minutes depending on the length. I don't know if it actually helped, but mentally it was good to know I had that little bit of a boost still sitting in my pocket.
The second lap unfolded as predicted. All the little up and downs and the building heat really started to wear on me about an hour and 15 minutes into the race. I was able to stay in control for the most part with one exception. As is customary with this race, someone went the wrong way. The past two years it was the same guy, cutting a big chunk off the second loop (12 minutes last year) and claiming he came in before me. This year, somehow the guy from the beginning of the race ended up out in front of me on the trails around nine miles into the race. I was so confused and so was he. I don't think he ran through the start finish. I think he missed a turn and ended up on the maze-like trails somehow. Anyway, that little bit of panic gave me a little bit of a shot of adrenaline and carried me through the next couple of miles before fatigue really started to set in.
Fortunately, I've hopped on the struggle bus in more or less the same stop the last two years, so I knew I just had to grind through a few more miles before I'd be done. I crossed the line in 1:43:21 to take the win ahead of Jason Bryant (1:50:31). My second lap was substantially slower than the first 53:04 but all that really mattered to me was that I got the win.
Here's what it looked like on Strava - yes my watch said 13.9, so there is no way this race is a half marathon. It's somewhere between 14 and 15. One lapper for me next time.
I didn't really care about the time or that fact that I ran slower than last year. I knew my mom wouldn't have cared about that. She would have been happy that I won, but she would have been happy that I gave it a go no matter how it went. The only real negative from the race was that I couldn't give her a call at the end of the day and let her know how it went.
After the race was done I met up with Amanda and Danny and tried to cool myself down. I made the mistake of sitting down, which meant everything locked up as soon as I stood back up. I ended up winning a $50 La Sportiva gift card to Outfitters, the gear shop at the USNWC which I used on a running shirt. It was cool that they had prizes this year but I would have been happy with a beer like last year too.
After the awards, we made our way over to the main section of the park to do some whitewater rafting. We had a great time, even though I was cramping up every time I shifted my weight to try and keep from falling out of the boat. Fortunately, we only had five in our boat so I could stretch my legs out when we were paddling easy, but yeah whitewater rafting like and hour after a trail half marathon...or 15-mile race...whatever.
We decided to take it easier for a bit after that and got some food and beers while we listened to the first band of the day. I felt a little bad that I had to bow out of the ropes courses and ziplining but I was legitimately wrecked. We walked around for a bit and saw some of the different vendors and did a Bell's beer scavenger hunt then we made a good call and went down to the Catawba River to check out their flatwater offerings. We got a couple kayaks and ended up paddling around and swimming for a while, which was I needed. Something nice and relaxing. Although in our two-person kayak I did most of the work while Amanda soaked up the sun.
We hung out for most of the night watching people brave the full force rapids. They have five turbines that create the rapids but normally only run four, so when they kick up the fifth it gets pretty gnarly. We stayed for the beginning of the last band of the night but then made our way back to the hotel to zonk out for the night. I didn't know any of the bands from Saturday, but the Revivalists played Friday night and Nathaniel Ratliff and the Nightsweats played Sunday (might have gotten rained out though).
We went back over in the morning but some nasty thunderstorms rolled in and put a bit of a damper on the festivities on Sunday. We grabbed coffee and walked around a little but ended up bailing to go get lunch at a cool resturant that had bowling and games before dropping Danny off at the airport.
We did find this cool iPad photo booth they had set up and got the above picture taken. As you can see this was when I had my sweet beard. To be completely honest, it looks way more legit in the picture than I remember it being. I might have to bring it back for the summer.
Tuck Fest was really fun this year if a little bittersweet. I was really glad to get to spend the weekend with my brother. I know my mom would have been really happy with how much fun we had. Tuck Fest is already on the 2018 calendar. Maybe next year I can talk my brother into the deep water solo climbing contest or some bouldering. Shoot, maybe we'll get up there earlier on Friday and do the obstacle race.
I've got what I hope are a few blog worthy things planned over the next few weeks, so hopefully I'll get this thing going again.
With the race on a Saturday morning, Amanda and I drove up to the Charlotte area on Friday night and met my younger brother Dann at our hotel. We grabbed dinner, burrito bowls at Qdoba - which I was little worried about at first but it was pretty plain so my stomach actually handled it fairly well. After eating we called it an early night and I started digging through all the stuff I brought to get my race gear ready.
Tangent alert! - I spent a lot of time during the winter and spring trying to figure out what trail shoes to go with this year. I ran Thrill in the Hills (half marathon) and River Gorge (10.2 miles) in a year-old pair of Montrails that left me with some wicked blisters on my left foot so I knew I needed a change up before Tuck Fest.
After weeks of research and hemming and hawing, I settled on giving the Hoka One One Speed Instinct a shot. They were my first pair of Hokas, but with a little lower stack height than some of their other offerings, I thought they'd be good for some of the longer trail runs/races on my calendar. While they tend to run a little hot, I'm a fan of this shoe. It's cushioned but still responsive and it has held up fairly well in the couple races I've put it through. It's not the most nimble shoe and I don't know that I'd wear it in a shorter race but it was a solid choice for this race.
Okay, where was I?
Following a restful night of sleep at the Hampton Inn, we packed up the car and headed over to the USNWC for the race and then a full day of outdoor activities, beer, and music. The start of the day and the race were fairly uneventful. I saw a few familiar faces on the starting line but outside of La Sportiva's Jason Bryant, I didn't really know what to expect from the field. My race plan going in was not to lead until we made our way through the first section of mountain bike trails. I have a good general knowledge of the course but all you really need to know is that it's long. Two laps are easily 14 and probably a little longer than that, but whatever the case, I knew going in it would be 50+ minutes per lap on a good day. I also know this course beats you up with a bunch of small steep climbs. No one single climb is too difficult but combined they make that second lap brutal.
Things looked like they were going to plan early as two guys jumped to the front at the gun. I've learned not to judge people by what they are wearing but one of these guys was wearing under armor boxer briefs. Not tights or compression shorts or something like that, actual boxer briefs like you'd wear as underwear on any normal day. Now, he was ripped, so I'll give him that but it was a little much. The other good looked comfortable running at the front so I settled in behind him and figured I'd hang there until either I fell off the pace or he slowed down. Either way, I'd stay relaxed for as long as possible. Or so I thought.
As soon as we came up on the entrance to the trails he swung way wide and I had to take the lead. That ended up being for the best as I just settled into my rhythm and started to string things out a little bit at a time. The first lap was pretty smooth. It's quiet on the trails and still fairly cool when you are running along the river. I made it about halfway through the first lap before I really felt like I was in a race. As I've said in previous blogs about this race, the quarter marathon (one lap) race goes off 30 minutes after the half, which means people everywhere on the second lap. I tried to use the first lap as a refresher of the course so I'd know what to expect for the second without having to think about it while dodging the other people.
Things went about as expected on the first lap. I rolled through the start/finish at 50:16 - turns out I was nearly three minutes up on Jason Bryant (52:58) - and tried to refocus for the 50+ minutes I had left in the race. One of the smarter things I did for this race was that I rationed my nutrition throughout. I only brought one Untapped packed but I took a little bit at a time every 15 or so minutes after the first 35 minutes. I'd always in the past just shot the whole thing at some point in the race between 30 and 45 minutes depending on the length. I don't know if it actually helped, but mentally it was good to know I had that little bit of a boost still sitting in my pocket.
The second lap unfolded as predicted. All the little up and downs and the building heat really started to wear on me about an hour and 15 minutes into the race. I was able to stay in control for the most part with one exception. As is customary with this race, someone went the wrong way. The past two years it was the same guy, cutting a big chunk off the second loop (12 minutes last year) and claiming he came in before me. This year, somehow the guy from the beginning of the race ended up out in front of me on the trails around nine miles into the race. I was so confused and so was he. I don't think he ran through the start finish. I think he missed a turn and ended up on the maze-like trails somehow. Anyway, that little bit of panic gave me a little bit of a shot of adrenaline and carried me through the next couple of miles before fatigue really started to set in.
Fortunately, I've hopped on the struggle bus in more or less the same stop the last two years, so I knew I just had to grind through a few more miles before I'd be done. I crossed the line in 1:43:21 to take the win ahead of Jason Bryant (1:50:31). My second lap was substantially slower than the first 53:04 but all that really mattered to me was that I got the win.
Here's what it looked like on Strava - yes my watch said 13.9, so there is no way this race is a half marathon. It's somewhere between 14 and 15. One lapper for me next time.
I didn't really care about the time or that fact that I ran slower than last year. I knew my mom wouldn't have cared about that. She would have been happy that I won, but she would have been happy that I gave it a go no matter how it went. The only real negative from the race was that I couldn't give her a call at the end of the day and let her know how it went.
After the race was done I met up with Amanda and Danny and tried to cool myself down. I made the mistake of sitting down, which meant everything locked up as soon as I stood back up. I ended up winning a $50 La Sportiva gift card to Outfitters, the gear shop at the USNWC which I used on a running shirt. It was cool that they had prizes this year but I would have been happy with a beer like last year too.
After the awards, we made our way over to the main section of the park to do some whitewater rafting. We had a great time, even though I was cramping up every time I shifted my weight to try and keep from falling out of the boat. Fortunately, we only had five in our boat so I could stretch my legs out when we were paddling easy, but yeah whitewater rafting like and hour after a trail half marathon...or 15-mile race...whatever.
We decided to take it easier for a bit after that and got some food and beers while we listened to the first band of the day. I felt a little bad that I had to bow out of the ropes courses and ziplining but I was legitimately wrecked. We walked around for a bit and saw some of the different vendors and did a Bell's beer scavenger hunt then we made a good call and went down to the Catawba River to check out their flatwater offerings. We got a couple kayaks and ended up paddling around and swimming for a while, which was I needed. Something nice and relaxing. Although in our two-person kayak I did most of the work while Amanda soaked up the sun.
We hung out for most of the night watching people brave the full force rapids. They have five turbines that create the rapids but normally only run four, so when they kick up the fifth it gets pretty gnarly. We stayed for the beginning of the last band of the night but then made our way back to the hotel to zonk out for the night. I didn't know any of the bands from Saturday, but the Revivalists played Friday night and Nathaniel Ratliff and the Nightsweats played Sunday (might have gotten rained out though).
We went back over in the morning but some nasty thunderstorms rolled in and put a bit of a damper on the festivities on Sunday. We grabbed coffee and walked around a little but ended up bailing to go get lunch at a cool resturant that had bowling and games before dropping Danny off at the airport.
We did find this cool iPad photo booth they had set up and got the above picture taken. As you can see this was when I had my sweet beard. To be completely honest, it looks way more legit in the picture than I remember it being. I might have to bring it back for the summer.
Tuck Fest was really fun this year if a little bittersweet. I was really glad to get to spend the weekend with my brother. I know my mom would have been really happy with how much fun we had. Tuck Fest is already on the 2018 calendar. Maybe next year I can talk my brother into the deep water solo climbing contest or some bouldering. Shoot, maybe we'll get up there earlier on Friday and do the obstacle race.
I've got what I hope are a few blog worthy things planned over the next few weeks, so hopefully I'll get this thing going again.
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