Vlog #1 // Ragnar Trail Atlanta

I'm working on a full blog but I brought my iPhone and GoPro to Ragnar, so I figured I'd take a crack at a vlog. Here goes nothing...

Catching Up - Part I - Tuckfest 2016

The last two months have been pretty hectic between work and wedding planning thus...here we are again. Another long stretch with no blogs. Sad face. I actually have three or four different blogs that I've started but haven't been able to finish but I'm forcing myself to sit down and catch up on what's been going on. Mainly a bunch of races with a couple of adventures thrown in for good measure.

Three days of outdoor sports, music, and beer in North Carolina. Sign me up. Tuckfest weekend has marked on my calendar after stumbling on this gem of a festival last year. It kicks off Friday with a couple of bands and a few low key events like a family adventure race, kids races, a twilight 5k and some stand up paddle boarding before really getting under way on Saturday with trail races, mountain bike races, whitewater kayaking, flatwater kayaking, climbing, bouldering, bands, beers and probably a few other things that I missed.

All of the events take place at the US National Whitewater Center just outside of Charlotte. Amanda and I made the three hour trek from Atlanta to Charlotte on Friday night, skipping the festivities that night in order to try and get some sleep before the race. In the morning we made the short drive over to USNWC where I grabbed my number and wristband and started my prep. Tuck Fest is a really cool event in that once you pay the registration, you are free to enter as many events as you want. Obviously, there are a few events that require proof of skills - whitewater kayaking, top rope climbing, things like that.

Going into the race, I spent some time going over the course but it was pretty much that same as last year with a small exception at the start. On my warm up, I worked my way around that area and found out that the race opened with 400-600 meters on a dirt road before dipping into the woods. Good for me, since it would give me a chance to see how people were going to go out. I didn't really know what to expect from the field. Last year this was a La Sportiva Mountain Cup race so that brought out a heavy hitter or two. It wasn't a mountain cup race this year, but the USNWC has a half marathon series, so I didn't really know who would show up.

Coming off of the 1:16 half that I ran at Peach Jam, I felt pretty confident that I'd be able to run at the front, but that race was on a flat greenway. After an easy two mile warm up, I switched shoes (La Sportiva Mutants - great shoe but the course was a little hard packed for them) and made my way to the start.

At the gun, I went right to the front and quickly settled into a good tempo, which was about the same pace that I'd run at Peach Jam the week before. I felt confident that I could go out a little harder and back off once I got into the woods with that race under my belt, so I decided to go for it and try to see how the rest of the field would react. I was a little bit surprised that no one went out with me at the start and 200 meters into the race I was already on my own out front.

Once I entered the woods, I tried to settle in a little bit and just keep stretching things out. The course is definitely more challenging that it appears. Last year was a complete mudfest so I wasn't really thinking about the time I ran. I figured that I'd be way faster since it was dry. To my surprise the course had some real bite to it, or it was long. One of the two.

The course is two laps of a six point something loop, with a one lap race starting 30 minutes after the half marathon. The first few miles are very bumpy. No big elevation changes but a lot of short, steep climbs. It was also a little more technical than I remembered with scattered roots and rocks. Once things straighten out a little, probably around four miles in, it's a little less punchy. There is one substantial climb up to the power lines but other than that I found the second half of the lap to be a little more forgiving than the first.

I felt pretty strong on the first lap. I moved through the early miles well and then really got into a good rhythm on the back half. After about five miles, I took a couple peeks back but couldn't see anyone so I relaxed a little bit and told myself to try and maintain through the rest of the race. I rolled through the first lap in 50:28 with what I assumed was a substantial lead.

Despite what I felt like was a little bit of a slow lap, when considering the effort, I felt fairly comfortable heading into the second lap. It also seemed like it might have been a little long, but I'm not going to be that guy that says 'my GPS says the race is really 14 miles' I think the course has a lot more bite than bark.

After cruising along for the first two miles of the second lap I started catching up to the tail end of the quarter marathon (one lap race). This wasn't as frustrating as last year, but I still had a couple of issues getting by people. Most were encouraging and worked with me when it came to passing, but I got a couple of dirty looks and one guy (unintentionally) caught me with an elbow in the ribs in one of the narrower sections.

The up and down and constant passing really started to take a toll on me after about four miles on the second lap. Even when things opened up a little bit I was firmly planted on the struggle bus. I glanced at my watch a couple times and figured that I was in for a really slow second lap. I tried to focus on catching the people in front of me but that became more mentally exhausting than encouraging as the miles wore on.

Once I crested the climb up to the power lines I felt a huge wave of relief wash over me. I was only about a mile from the finish and as long I kept moving forward I was going to get the win. It was such a different experience from the week before. At Peach Jam I felt completely comfortable and in control for 95 percent of the race. I had a couple of short rough patches but even at the end I felt like I was running very relaxed. Tuckfest was the total opposite. Some of that is probably due to the drastic difference in courses, but mostly I don't think I factored in cumulative fatigue (that's another blog for another day).

I made the final turn onto the last section of gravel road and picked off a few more of the one lap racers ready to cross the finish and enjoy my victory for the rest of the day. I crossed the line in 1:41 , just about even splits. Not bad considering my second lap felt at least 20 minutes slower. With a smile on my face, I started scanning the crowd for Amanda when I heard one of the guys at the finish line say...

"Did you just finish the half marathon?"
"Yeah."
"Nice job bro, second place."
"Ah, what? Not possible. No one passed me."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I led from the first step and never got passed, so it's not possible for me to have finished second." - That's how it sounded in my mind but in reality it was probably more like "No. Can't. First." - Cut me some slack I just ran a half marathon.

If this is starting to sound familiar, that means you read this blog, so first thanks, and second yes this happened last year. In last year's race I was second the whole way behind La Sportiva's Ryan Woods. I ran with him for a few miles then he dusted me. He won but in the process he had to pass the guy that "finished second" some where on the second lap. When I came in they gave me third. Fortunately Ryan helped me straighten it out since the only way the guy could have gotten in front of him was to cut the course.

Flash forward to this year and we have almost the same situation. Admittedly, I was pretty salty about it. I try to be diplomatic at all times when I'm at races. I know the RD and the volunteers work hard to make sure everyone has a good experience, but two years in a row of someone cutting the course and getting away with it did not sit well with me.

I did my best to calmly plead my case for winning. I felt like I had pretty solid evidence. I was leading by a wide margin, which someone had to see, and I ran even splits, so in order to beat me this dude would have had to run major negative splits. That's not impossible, but it seemed pretty unlikely to me. I was a little worried that maybe I screwed up and ran long, but I ran even splits so again that was pretty unlikely.

The RD asked if we tracked the race. We both had, cutty mccutterson on his iPhone and me on my Garmin. He decided he'd take a look at the GPS maps and make a decision after that. I had to walk to the car and grab my phone, which turned out to be a good thing. On the way to the car, I was heated. I was ready to leave and say I was never coming back. Amanda must have really enjoyed my bitch sesh.

By the time we made it back I calmed down and showed the RD my phone. He compared the two and immediately realized that the other guy cut a section of the course. The RD says "I have to DQ you, give me a minute" and he walked away. At this point the other guy goes, "Sorry bro, the same thing happened to me last year."

Get a load of that shit...it was the SAME GUY! The same dude that cut the course last year cut the course again this year. WTF. It's not a hard course to follow either. How does that happen?

Looking back, I made a mistake by not spending the extra money to get a chip, so I'd have an official time, but I'm not running in their race series so it seemed like a waste of 10 bucks. This other guy though, he was running in the series so I got a peek at his splits. Homeboy ran 52:15 for the first lap - pretty solid - then 46:10 for his second lap. He cut out six minutes, nearly a minute per mile. According to Strava, I was 50:25 and 50:36 for 1:41.

I was happy to get everything sorted out and once I cooled down a little bit, both literally and figuratively, things were - as Local H said - copacetic. It didn't dawn on me until a little while later, because I was being selfish, but the guys that got second and third nearly got hosed too. They were definitely happy to have things figured out before the awards though.

We each got a man can of Bell's Oberon and a cool medal with the guitar logo on it. The beer was excellent by the way. It paired very well with the tacos I had later.

Here's what the race looked like on Strava:

 After the race Amanda and I walked around and checked out all of the vendor tents, played some corn hole, tried out slackline (only about four inches off the ground). We grabbed some food and beer and found a spot along the side of the whitewater course and watch people hitting the rapids in kayaks, rafts and on SUP boards.

An awesome day

We listened to some cool music and relaxed for a couple hours before we decided to hit the whitewater ourselves. I was hoping to enter the Tuckfest photo/video contest but we're still working on Amanda's shooting (she loves the vertical shot) and I didn't realize there are a few settings you need to adjust when you are shooting in slo-mo on the iPhone. Next time I'll stick to the GoPro. I did get some good stuff from whitewater rafting that I'll have to put in a video later, but I digress.

Whitewater rafting was AWESOME. Amanda was a little nervous when they started telling us to expect to fall out of the boat, but we ended up with a good group and some how all stayed out of the water. We started off with a couple of runs down the class 2 and 3 rapids, which were like the green circle sections. We got soaked pretty early on, but once that was done with it seemed like everyone relaxed a little.

After a couple runs down the easier sections we tackled the black diamonds. I'll admit I was a bit nervous going down those. I figured I'd probably end up in the water and told myself to remain calm if that happened. I was the only guy in the boat, so I wanted to make sure I didn't look like an idiot if I fell in. Fortunately, we rocked it. We blasted through the rapids and drops with only a minor stall in an eddy. If you are ever in the Charlotte area I highly recommend going to the USNWC and doing the whitewater rafting. It was awesome. Next year we are planning on hitting it two or three times throughout the day.

Next we made our way to the ziplines, but a two hour wait was not our idea of a fun time, so we decided to try out one of the ropes courses. This was a poor choice. My legs were toast, the wabble factor was cranked up to 11. Also I'm not a huge fan of heights. I do okay on things like that when I'm moving through them but I got stuck behind one kid that was having a bad time, so I was stranded 30 feet in the air on a swaying tree platform. Not cool. After that I had to rescue a little girl that couldn't reach one of the little switch points. This meant I had to take the black course aka the hardest one on my shaky legs. I was done with the ropes course pretty quick.

Following our misguided adventure on the ropes course, we made our way back to the whitewater channel and stage to grab some more food and beer. We hung out long enough to catch Red Bull's Alex Morgan do some slackline over the whitewater, which was pretty gnarly. He ended his...session...sesh...I don't know...back off Warchild...with a back flip into the water so that was cool.

We had a blast at @usnwctuckfest this weekend. Check out @alexomason slacklining over the river from Saturday night @redbull #tuckfest #usnwctuckfest

A video posted by Matt Haley (@mattmhaley) on Apr 25, 2016 at 4:18pm PDT

After the slackline performance we decided to stay for a song or two of the headliner, Langhorne Slim and the Law (the song in the instagram post above) then headed back to our hotel. It was a long day but definitely an awesome one. Staying the extra night was a great call. We zonked out at the hotel as soon as we got back, but we were able to relax in the morning and take our time heading back to Atlanta instead of getting back super late on Saturday night.

Two trips to Tuckfest are in the books and it's starting to become one of my favorite weekends of the spring/summer. The race is pretty tough, but it's good work on some challenging terrain, plus it brings in an element of unknown when it comes to the competition, which is nerve racking but good.  

Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Olde Rope Mill Trail Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's what the race looked like on Strava:

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

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

Recovery Beer of the Week: Reformation - Union

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

Road Tripping: Rock/Creek River Gorge Trail Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About to make the pass at Snooper's Rock

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

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

'Just keep him in sight!'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am a Jedi. Like my father before me.

I've got to work on my GoPro skills

Trying to be Bear

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

One of my best Instagram photos

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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:

Race Recap: Thrill in the Hills Trail 1/2 Marathon

Better, but still not great...

The Thrill in the Hills 1/2 Marathon marked the sixth race in the 2014/15 XTERRA Georgia Trail series and the first of three races in the series to be held in 2015. This race is held at one of my favorite spots to run and ride, Ft. Yargo State Park in Winder, GA. The course has changed a couple times over the last few years but the 2015 version was the exact same as the 2014 course. Unfortunately for me, my 2015 fitness and my 2014 fitness at this time of the year are markedly different. 

The race begins at the main mountain bike parking lot and starts with about 3/4 of a mile on the road to stretch out the field before dipping into the woods for 12+ miles of single and double track. For the most part the course follows the park's outer loop mountain bike trail (seen below in blue). The only deviation from the out loop comes when you reach the western end of the dam. At that point the course hugs the lake shore on the inner, yellow loop until you reach the six mile mark. Then you climb up a powerline trail and re-join the outer loop for the remainder of the race. This is done to avoid the "Monster Mile", which is no fun to run as it's got a bunch of steep U shaped drops designed for mountain bikers.

The race starts and finishes at the mountain bike trail head marked with the star.

The course is challenging because of it's constant elevation changes. It gains 1,200 feet, which doesn't sound bad but it's a lot of short punchy climbs with a couple of longer sustained climbs mixed in. Saw tooth is how I would describe it. After re-joining the outer loop there is a nice long descent then you are back in the hills for the final five miles.

The elevation profile from RD Tim Schroer

Going into this race, I figured I'd be able to run somewhere under 1:28, which is around what I ran for second on a super muddy course two years ago, but not much faster than 1:25, which is what I ran last year after starting slow and dropping a great last 5K. My expectations were definitely tempered since I've been working to correct my hamstring issues and the longest run I'd done in the two weeks leading up to the race was seven miles. I gave some thought to skipping the race after spending three days in Indianapolis for work earlier in the week, but I figured it would be a good long run at a faster tempo and whatever I finished I would pad my lead in the overall point standings.

My gear for the race:
Singlet: Wild Endurance
Shorts: Saucony 7in (fat kid shorts till I'm in better shape)
Socks: Darn Tough no show merino wool
Shoes: Scott Trail Rocket 2.0
Fuel: Untapped Maple

At the start of the race, I settled into a comfortable rhythm letting Jesse Rappole and one other guy go hoping that I'd be able to snag the third and final spot on the podium. I hadn't seen Jesse in a while, but the way the race started I knew he was in good shape and would chase down the kid that blasted the road section. Last years race started exactly the same way and I was eventually able to move into second in the final 5K. That wouldn't be the case for me this year, but it's what I kept telling myself early on.

I focused on staying in a rhythm and running the course, rolling the downhills and flats while surviving the climbs and not losing that rhythm on the climbs. Things were going pretty good early in the race. The two leaders were gone, but I was running comfortably in third. I got through Three Step Hill (the first named climb, even though it's rolling and has no net elevation gain) and was feeling okay, not fast but I felt like I could hold the pace. By four miles it was clear the runner behind me, Evan Dare, was going to catch me. When he did I tried to stick with him, but given my hamstring issues I didn't have the ability to change gears and stay with him as we climbed up to the dam just after five miles.

At that point, I knew I was going to be in no man's land the rest of the race, except for when I was passing marathoners (the marathon starts 30 minutes before the 1/2), but I still held onto a sliver of hope that I'd catch someone that blew up later in the race. Things took a turn for the worse on the inner loop potion of the course. This section is double track, relatively flat, exceedingly, and runnable. It's one of my favorite sections of this course and really of the trail system in general and when I felt like I couldn't change gears there I knew it was going to be a long second half.

Coming off of the inner loop, I grinded my way up to the top of the race's biggest climb. I used the marathoners to help pull me along and when I reached the top I popped open an Untapped maple syrup packet, but even that sweet delicious nectar of the gods couldn't save me from the sufferfest that was about to ensue.

side note: Untapped is amazing. If you haven't tried it I strongly urge you to. I've tried nearly every GU, PowerGel, ShotBlock, and most of the other energy gels and Untapped maple is the best. It goes down easier since it's just all natural maple syrup and it's easier on my stomach. I couldn't recommend it more. Check it out: Untapped Maple

After the long descent, I was fully on board the struggle bus. I felt like I was having a tough time catching the marathoners and every step seemed a little harder than the one before. In retrospect, I probably should have had the maple shot a little sooner. I was able to take a few minutes to recover and when we crossed the road at the B entrance with 5K to go I put my head down and tried to grind my way to the finish. The marathoners definitely helped, but I was also lucky that I was out in front of fifth place as much as I was. I don't know that I could have fought anyone off at that point.

I rolled into the finish in fourth at 1:26:49, so about where I figured that I would be. I won the 30-34 age group, but missed the podium for just the third time in a Dirty Spokes/XTERRA race since I moved to Georgia in 2010. That was a little tough to swallow, but I've had to re-adjust my goals and expectations while working on this hamstring issue. Below is my Strava data from the race. My GPS lost a full mile in the woods.


Overall the race was what I expected. I struggled with the distance but still got a good long workout in. Originally, I wanted this to be a good build up race and barometer for River Gorge coming up at the end of March, but the injury has changed things a little bit. I'm still going to run River Gorge, but my revenge plot may not work out as planned. Post race, I got a chance to catch up with Jesse, who had the whole crew out to the race. It's always good to see them. We've built up a good friendly rivalry over the last few years, always pushing and testing each other. I was happy to see him get the win (1:19:12) even if he stomped me harder that he ever has before. He is rolling right now in preparation for the Rock and Roll marathon in Nashville next month. Based on that time, he should be all set for a PR. Jesse also beat the kid that sat on me for seven miles at the last race. He told me the kid tried to do the same thing to him but he was able to drop him after a few miles, so that felt like a moral victory. Despite the fourth place finish, I held onto my overall lead in the points standings and baring disaster, I should be on my way to a third straight XTERRA Georgia title.

After the race I stopped at Barberitos for a much needed burrito then headed home to grab Amanda. With the cold temps in the area we thought it would be fun to go up to Helen and try and see if we could find some frozen waterfalls. Closed roads due to ice and downed trees kept us from the waterfalls but we still got a cool snowy hike in around Unicoi lake and saw some Loon's chilling.

Next up for me is a recovery week with some easy running and work in the weight room. I'm hoping to get a good trail run in up in Chattanooga next weekend, then I'll be heading home to Hoth/New England to spend some time with my family and hopefully get in a little Wild Endurance time with Ferenc and Greg.

Here's the race day video from Dirty Spokes:


As always a huge thanks to Dirty Spokes for all the work they do. Tim and his dad along with Johnny Garner (Outdoor Mafia) did an amazing job clearing the trail of all of the downed trees and limbs from the ice storms that we had earlier in the week. It must have taken them hours to clear the trails. Thank you to YABA, they do a great job maintaining the trails year round. Last but not least, thank you to the Wild Endurance sponsors for helping make this team a reality; La Sportiva, Untapped, Darn Tough, and Julbo USA.

Race Recap: Dirty Spokes Heritage Park Trail Race

That did not go according to plan...frustration and aggravation.

Saturday was the second race of the 2015 Dirty Spokes Trail series at Heritage Park in Watkinsville, Georgia or Oconee county as they say down here. They love counties down here. This is a really nice course with a good amount of up and down and a mix of single track mountain bike trails and double track equestrian trail. The course starts with a loop around the gravel road that circles the equestrian show arena thing, which is about a half mile before hitting the entrance to the equestrian trail and getting into the trails. After a short stretch of double track the course turns right onto the mountain bike trails and descends until the 2.3 mile mark, which was the split for the short course (2.8 miler) and the long course (7.85).

At the start a group of four shot out to the lead with Mitch Novy at the front again. I was a little off the back but by the time we got into the woods I had worked my way up to the lead group of four. This is were the frustration started to settle in. As I said in my last race recap, I'm not in good shape right now, and I knew that I wasn't going to run particularly fast, but I figured 'what the hell'. Around 1.5 I felt like the lead group was just sitting on the kid in front and I don't like to race that way in a race like this. My goals in these races are to run hard and get in a good workout, so when I saw a little bit of room to the side of the trail I made a hard move to the front.

My move split the lead group of four into two duos with Mitch and the other guy in the short race falling off and myself and the other guy in the longer race taking a 10 or 20 yard lead. Okay this is actually were I started to get frustrated. Once we hit the three mile mark it started to become apparent that the dude running behind me was just hanging out there. I threw in as many surges as I could but I just couldn't manage to shake him. After we hit the five mile mark, I started to get pissed. It was clear he had no intention of doing any work and was planning to just sit on my shoulder and out kick me. Which is exactly what he did.

I don't have an issue with losing the race. I was fully prepared for that going in. There's usually one or two guys from UGA that come down from Athens and tune me up in this race every year, but I did take issue with the way this guy ran. I appreciate tactics as much as anybody, but in a race like this to sit and kick, I think that's bush league and a shitty was to compete. To be honest, the guy probably could have run a minute faster if he would have just gone. The fact that I knew he was going to sit and kick took me out of my race too, I started yo-yoing, running fast then slowing down trying to get him to go around.

When he finally did go around with about 200 to go, I tried to kick with him, but I just didn't have the gears. I said 'you waited long enough' when he passed and he told me 'I didn't know who you were', it doesn't matter dude just race. I was pretty salty after the race but I just walked to my car and tried to cool down. This has actually happened to me at this race before and I'm not going to make a scene and look like a sore loser, I just think it's bush league. Maybe I need to wise up and I should have just stopped and let him go, I don't know maybe it's foolish but part of me said maybe I can out sprint him.

I was pretty hot about it for a about 15 minutes, but once I talked to Amanda and Mitch and got my frustration out I settled down and got over it. I still think it was a shitty way to race. If this was a championship race or there was money on the line I wouldn't have cared as much, but I think the guy could have run faster but decided to go the easy route. I'm not wired like that. I know we all have a tendency to put it in cruise control when we can get away with it, but I also think you owe it to yourself to give it your all. Maybe that's dumb, but that's just how I feel about it.

After the race we headed back to the house and met up with our friends Eric, Joanna, and Tyler and headed down to Atlanta to check out Monday Night Brewing and Sweetwater for Eric's birthday. Monday Night was the winner. I was a big fan of their Fu Man Brew. After that it was off to Cheekys for some tacos. I went with a couple different varieties but their Pork Carnitas tacos are amazing. Amanda and I passed out shortly after that. Not a great race, but a good, full day.

Race Report: XTERRA Georgia Ft. Yargo Trail Race

Last weekend Amanda and I drove out to Winder for the second race of the 2013-14 XTERRA Georgia Trail Series at Ft. Yargo State Park. I was looking forward to this race ever since seeing it announced by Dirty Spokes during the summer. Ft. Yargo is one of my favorite places to run and the course that Tim set up did not disappoint.

 

We got there a little later than I would have liked but our plan to park at the A entrance and walk over to the start at the B entrance worked like a charm. I grabbed my number and exchanged a few pleasantries with all of the usual suspects. Amanda pinned my number on, which has been good luck, but for like the third race in a row she put one of the pins all the way through the jersey, pinning the front to the back. Thanks. I did a short warm up over the first mile or so of the course then talked to Matt McNamara (who I’ve now roped into two of these races) about what the course would be like.

 

The 8.5 mile trail course had a little bit of everything, fast sections of hiking trail and fire roads, twists and turns, up and down, everything. It started out on the inner loop hiking trail with a gradual climb before hugging the lakeshore until we reached the man-made dam. From there we were treated to a wide open flat section that led back into the woods and onto the main mountain bike trail. The first two or 2.5 miles were straight forward and relatively flat, which allowed for some fast racing early on. Once we hit the mountain biking trail things got more technical with more twists, turns and roots. Around the halfway point the course straightened out a bit that again allowed for a faster pace before we started dealing with some late race climbs. Like I said a little bit of everything.

 

Tim did a great job of making the course different from the half/full marathon course while still utilizing the same trails. Big shout out to the YABA (Yargo Area Biking Association) for maintaining a great trail system. Okay, now onto the race.

 

I didn’t see any of the normal front runners milling around the start area, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect out of the field. Going into this race, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hold up the pace that I ran a few weeks before at Harbins for 8+ miles, so I planned to run more conservative and try to use my knowledge of the course to my advantage.

At the start I went right to the front to make sure was clear of any traffic and tried to settle into a fast but relaxed pace. I felt pretty strong early on and ended up building up a good size lead, probably 50 meters or so, but I was running comfortable. Once we hit the first mile marker, I felt like I was running well, but within myself. I tried to use the early part of the course to run in a good rhythm and stretch things out without getting in over my head. When we hit the mountain bike trail I tried to focus on maintaining a good tempo and working the course, running fast in the sections that allowed for it and using some of the other sections to recover.

 

By this point, I was all alone by a good amount, but I never really had a good idea of the kind of gap I had built up. For most of the race I figured it was probably around a minute or two. I’m not sure where that time came from, but I think it was mostly just me telling myself not to relax and to keep racing. I didn’t want to get caught, so I just kept telling myself to keep racing. I had a few spots where I slowed down more than I would have liked, especially late in the race, but it was probably for the best that I didn’t know how big the gap was. That way I just tried to keep pushing. Hopefully that mentality will pay off the next time I am close race.

 

Three races this fall and three wins. From here, I’m going to run the USATF Georgia 15k Championship on Saturday at the Peachtree City Classic then I’m planning to run the remaining XTERRA Georgia trail races before taking a little bit of time off to recharge before ramping back up for the winter and spring. I’m hoping to start working some more biking into my repertoire this year, we’ll see how that goes.

Here is the Strava data for the race:

A Look Back: September

September marks the end of training camp and the beginning of the NFL regular season, which means a slightly more normal work schedule. With that, training becomes easier and the possibility of racing returns. Surprisingly, I managed more miles (207) in August than in September (170), but I chalk that up to having road trips to Baltimore and Nashville that allowed me to run 10+ miles and the fact that I took a few more days off in September.

 

September was definitely successful for me. My mileage may be down substantially since the summer, but I still ran nearly every day (I take a day off either on game day or the day after depending on schedule, travel, etc.) and ran two solid races.

 

The first race was a road 5k down in the city, the Back to Football 5k presented by the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Track Club. I got a free entry for this race through work so I figured why not go down and run it. It was a pretty standard 5k, except for the fact that it finished inside the Georgia Dome at the 50-yard line. Amanda and I headed down the Dome early for the 8 am start, grabbed my number and set out for a short warm up. I warmed up about two miles, a little shorter than I would have liked, but enough to loosen up a little bit. I caught up with a few people from the office who also came down for the race before hand, stretched and then made my way to the start.

 

We started at Falcons Landing between the Dome and Phillips Arena, then ran around the Omni Hotel and CNN Center out towards Castleberry Hill and Morehouse College then back down Northside drive to and into the Dome for the finish. At the start, I surged to the front. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of competition, so I just planned to go out and try to run between 5:05 and 5:15 in the hopes of trying to run under 16:30 and maybe make a run at sub 16. I had control of the race pretty early on and as we climbed the slight rise past the CNN Center and Phillips Arena I started to stretch things out. By the mile mark I had gapped the rest of the field, coming through in 5:05.

 

At this point, I felt like I was going to be able to cruise to the win, but I really wanted to try to get under 16. I tried to keep pressing the pace, but slowed down a little on the second mile, running 10:14 (5:09) through two. I relaxed too much during the last mile and slowed down to 5:18, hitting three miles in 15:32 then crossing the line in 16:01 on my watch, 16:03 officially. Damn! So close. I miscalculated the finish a little bit, not realizing how close the 50 yard line is to the service entrance of the Dome. I held just a little bit back, wanting to really rip coming onto the field, but what I thought was a good 400 meters was really only about 200. Once I hit the loading dock ramp I started sprinting. I knew I was close to getting under 16, so I didn’t really take in much of the fanfare except for the fact that I knew I had to make sure the mascot, Freddie the Falcon, didn’t out kick me in the final sprint. On second thought, for the sake of the story, let’s say I got distracted by the cheerleaders and let off the gas too much and that’s why I didn’t get under.

 

After crossing the finishing line, I got a few high fives and cheers from co-workers that were helping to run the event on the field. I cooled down with a couple of laps on the turf then walked up to the stands to meet Amanda. We waited for the majority of Falcons employees to finish before heading out to Falcons Landing for the awards. Amanda was quick to correct someone that said “The Falcons president ran and none of his staff beat him.” Her response was, “that’s not exactly true.” We hung around for the awards, four tickets to the Falcons-Rams game and a Julio Jones signed ball. Amanda took the ball as a birthday present for herself and I was able to give the tickets to a friend, since I work every game, so overall it was a pretty good haul for a Saturday morning trip to the city. We headed home, stopping at Whole Foods for some pumpkin and apple spice treats, because I was ready for Fall to officially start.

 

Here’s the Strava data from the race:
 

 

I was impressed my Garmin worked inside the Dome. Kudos to Garmin on that one.

The next weekend it was back to the trails for the first race of the XTERRA Georgia Trail Series, my de facto cross country season. I roped a few friends from work into doing this one since it was on the relatively easy trails at Harbins Park. I conveniently “forgot about” the half mile climb in the middle of the race and that the second half was steadily uphill when I told them about it, but they still had a blast and are now hooked.

 

Once again Amanda and I set out early, getting to Harbins about an hour before the race. I warmed up on the first mile of the course then met up with our group for a bit before the start. I ran into Jesse Rappole, Brennan Pratt, Matt Shechtman, and Woody Dover at various points before the race, so I knew it was going to be a battle. All of those guys have the ability to win on any given day and that led to everyone being on the gas from the gun.

 

My plan was to stay relaxed and see how the race panned out, so early on I settled in behind Woody and Jesse. Once we started making our way downhill towards the main trail I moved to the front. I hit the trail with a small lead over Matt, but Jesse made a big move early to get up on my shoulder. The two of us ran together trading the lead and working together to stretch the race out. We were able to string things out a little bit because the wide track allowed us to run a little more compact, similar to a road race. That helped with trading off the lead and kept us from running into each other in some of the turns.

 

I tried a couple of short accelerations out of turns to see if I could stretch the lead at all, but Jesse was up for the challenge and stayed right with for most of the first half. Once we had gotten away from the other leaders, I wanted to make sure we stayed on the pace to try and make it a two person race. I wasn’t 100 percent confident in my fitness going in, so I was hoping that the fact that we strung the race out would give us a better chance at surviving until the end. We hit the main climb in the middle of the race together, but as we started to crest the hill Jesse let a small gap open up and I decided to try and use that to jump away. I was able to get clear at the top of the hill and that move ended up propelling me to the win. I probably went a little too early and the fact that I didn’t allow myself much time to recover at the top of the hill came back to bite me later in the race, but I was able to build up a big enough lead to hold on for the win. I kept repeating the Jens Voigt mantra in my head for the last 2.5 miles “Shut Up Legs!”

 

I think that the fast early pace probably helped as much as it hurt because no one really seemed like they had much left in the tank at the end of the race. Brennan ended up catching and passing Jesse, so I was definitely trying to keep an eye out for him over the last two miles. I had this grand plan of really hammering the final paved section, but by the time I got there I was just on a mission to get to the finish first. I was fortunate to hold on for a really exciting win. Going into the race I wasn’t sure how well I could run because my training has been mostly maintenance miles. Once I got into the race I just went for it. Anytime I am fortunate enough to win its special, but to be able to win against such a deep field was really exciting and it was a great confidence booster. Also the 12 pack of Terrapin Recreation Ale and the Rudy Project gift certificate were pretty sweet. 

 

Huge win for me and a big confidence booster for the rest of the series this fall. However, it was a little rugged the last few miles. With the next race being 8.75 miles, I’m definitely going to have to run a little smarter.

 

Here’s the race video, featuring a sweet commercial for Saucony for the first minute or two of race action.
 

 

I also was interviewed by XTERRA for getting the win. Here is a link to XTERRA’s race coverage:
http://www.xterraplanet.com/news/dsp_content.cfm?id=3705

 

September wrapped up nicely with two solid races coming off of training camp will hopefully lead to a successful fall season. On the upcoming calendar, I’ve got XTERRA Georgia races at Ft. Yargo, Big Creek and Little Mulberry parks and I’m toying with the idea of running the Peachtree City 15k, and possibly the Georgia Cyclocross race in Marietta in November.

Catching Up

It’s been a little while since I’ve taken the time to update my log so here comes a short and sweet overview of my training the last two months or so (wow it really has been a long time). When I last left off I’d only been running 40-50 miles a week, so I have successfully upped my mileage. I went from 50s to the mid/high 70 with a down week in between due to the NFL Draft. I probably jumped a little quicker than I would normally like to, but I did it by adding a second run of three to five miles in the afternoon on most days, so that really helped me up my mileage without putting a ton of extra stress on my body all at once by increasing the length of my morning runs. Ideally, I’d prefer to just run 10 on one run then seven and three, but with my work schedule that’s where I am at.
In addition to increasing my mileage I ran four races, all on the trails (three wins, one nightmare), rocked an idiot 20 miler at Ft. Yargo, and had the race that I’ve been super excited for canceled.

You’re an Idiot
I will gloss over my idiot 20 miler real quick…I was trying to be a tough guy and I was really frustrated with some stuff at work, so to get my anger and aggression out I decided to run 20 on the trails at Ft. Yargo. Terrible idea. I should have gone with my old standard of running a really hard workout, like the time I caught Wilson on the Base Hill 10 mile tempo, blacked out with a mile to go, and apparently sprinted through traffic on Rt. 9. Anyway, I ran the half marathon course then added on the seven-ish mile hiking trail. It was fun for about 15 miles and the last five were awful. My legs were completely dead, I was dehydrated, my feet hurt, and I had to take a couple Raymond breaks along the way. I got home and booted. Woof. Whatever, I still got 20 in.

The four races…

Dirty Spokes Olde Rope Mill 6.5 miler
I had my best run at Rope Mill park, taking first on a tough 10k course against some stiff competition, including a high school kid that made me really nervous for the first three or four miles. It was my first win in three tries at this race too so that made it extra sweet. I went out a little conservative and hung behind Jesse Rapole for about a mile and a half before I decided to surge and take the lead at the top of one of the numerous short climbs. From there I was able to open a good gap that I maintained until the final two miles were I really opened things up. I ended up running sub-6 minute pace on a tough course.

Mountain Goat Alatoona Creek 9 miler
The next week I returned to Allatoona to defend my crown from last spring. The course was different this year and didn’t have as much of the cross country style open fields as last year, but I was able to open up a big gap early and despite the water logged conditions I cruised to the win. I also won $100, can’t beat that.

Dirty Spokes Running the Rocks 10k
My next race was Running the Rocks at the 1996 Olympic Mountain Bike trails, which is one of my favorite races and Tim from Dirty Spokes really put together a fun course, the best of the three that I’ve run during my time here in Georgia, but some stomach issues ruined this day. I woke up really excited to run, I was feeling really charged up after the events of the Boston Marathon and I just wanted to get out and run hard after all of that, you know try and return some positive energy to the world. Unfortunately, something I ate the day before changed that. I had major stomach issues before and during the race. I was able to hang with Jesse until about 1.5 miles before I had to let of the gas. Once I took care of my stomach issues, I was able to bring the race home and I managed to finish second. I definitely had to forget this one quickly.



Dirty Spokes Mt. Tabor 8 miler
I rebounded well from my nightmare day at Running the Rocks to pick up my first win at Mt. Tabor. Now the only Dirty Spokes races that I haven’t won at least once are Heritage Park and Running the Rocks (and Haw Creek, but that hasn’t been run yet). This was a weird race in that it wasn’t all that hot out but I felt like I was melting, and I also felt like I was running a lot faster than I was. For the first time since Gainesville State, Mitch and I ran the same course as the 8 mile race was a double loop while the 4 miler was a single loop. I decided to go out with him and just try to work together to see if we could get things rolling. I know if Woody Dover, my main competition, would want to go out that hard and I felt like I had the benefit of having someone to work with. That worked well for about two miles, then I took the lead to try and spell Mitch so he wouldn’t be leading the whole way. We ran together for a bit then I started pulling away as I surged in and out all of the tight turns. My legs were not feeling good so I was trying to force myself to run harder than my legs thought they could handle. That plan worked pretty well for six miles, then it was a death march to the line. I was able to hold off Woody for the win though. The course is called Mount Tabor, but there isn’t a lot of climbing, however it’s one of the tougher courses for me because it’s so tight. There are a lot of tight turns and not a lot of spots to open up your stride. Also this one should be called running the rocks…cuz…mad rocks yo.



Since I got into the swing of racing I my running was feeling much better. I’ve also successfully recruited Amanda to join me on most of my afternoon runs. I run while she bikes, we even got 10 in one afternoon a week or two ago. I did find myself in a bit of a rut in early May though. I was running a good amount of miles but not great quality miles. I was just kind of running. Then I got some family news that hit hard and the USATF Trail 10k Championships, my big goal race for 2013 got canceled. That was a shitty couple of weeks, but I soldiered on thanks to some motivation from Strava’s May Massive. I’m rocking that Challenge. As of this writing, I’ve run 481 km in May and I rank 28th in the world and I’m the 15th highest ranking American, pretty good for running 7 in the morning and 3-5 at night.

Once I found out I’d be missing the XTERRA Georgia Championship due to an impromptu trip home and with the USA Champs race being cancelled, I’ve had to focus on Peachtree as my big race. That’s helped me get out of my little rut. That and a beautiful new pair of Kinvara 4’s that make me want to run fast every time I put them on. I’ve started working in an up tempo morning run and got in a killer 3xmile workout up Currahee in on Memorial Day (more on that soon…for real).