Trestle Run // Tour of New England 2018

Yes, finally our annual trip to New England. Amanda and I look forward to this trip all year. It's our best opportunity to see family and friends and do all of the things that we miss doing now that we live in Georgia. A few years ago we decided to turn this into a two-week trip and it's been one of the best things we've ever done. One week just isn't long enough to fit everything in. Honestly, sometimes two weeks isn't enough for everything we want to do, but we're still lucky that we're able to get back-to-back weeks off from work.

On to the 2018 edition of the Tour of New England. It actually turned out to be more of a tour of Massachusetts and Maine with a couple of diversions into New Hampshire this year. One of the things we didn't get to do due to some scheduling difficulty was a day in Vermont. That was a little bit of a bummer, but fortunately, I was able to get up there for a bit when I was home earlier in the year. That and Richardson's Ice Cream has maple walnut, so at least I still got to have my annual giant cone of that.

Before we headed back up to Boston, I jumped in the Dirty Spokes Haw Creek 10k trail race. I missed a bunch of Dirty Spokes races last due for a number of reasons, so I really wanted to make sure I made as many as possible this year. We ended up booking our flights home for the late afternoon, which gave me enough time to get over to Haw Creek and get the race in before leaving. I really planned it out well, because after the race I still had time to head down to Dutch Monkey and get a few post-race donuts.

As far as the how the race went, it went out fast. Very fast. Tim Spradlin, who is 54 and has been on fire in the short race series this season took it out at a blistering pace. I probably should have hung back a little bit but I jumped early and ran right on his heels for the first half mile or so. I tend to have issues settling in sometimes and the fast start ended up putting me out front solo fairly early. Things were all good for the first loop, but I really started to pay for it on the second. The heat, humidity, and fast start made the second lap of the course very tough and I was super relieved to be able to hang on for the win, which sealed the series win for me. I'll still have to run the final race, but barring injury, I'll be at that one.

I recruited a couple of friends from work to come out and do the race as well, so after I finished up cooling down with Mitch Novy, I met up with those guys and grabbed donuts and watched a little bit of the world cup before heading home and getting ready to fly to Boston.

Tour of New England
We started off our vacation with a few days at the Park Street Inn, a.k.a. my parent's house. I got some good mileage in on some of my favorite hometown routes. I hit an old favorite that runs past Amanda's old house in North Reading, the standby Peabody Street loop, and a cool run up to what used to be the Danvers State Hosptial - the inspiration for Arkham Asylum and now an apartment complex. We spent a fair amount of time by the pool and got in a beach day up in York and made sure to hit up a few of our favorite local spots to eat, namely Sam & Joe's pizza in Danvers.

I got a couple of nice runs on the Topsfield Rail Trail, including two workouts which allowed me to snag a KOM. I'm sure it won't last long, but it's fun to snag one or two of those on popular local routes.

After spending a couple of days of relaxing by the pool and on the beach we decided to get out and move around a little bit. I've been wanted to get up to Mt. Agementicus for a while but it's one of those things that I always think of after the fact. Fortunately, this year I thought of it early one day and we decided to take the short ride from York, Maine to check it out. It's a very small mountain. More of a large hill, but it's really close to the coast, so on a clear day you get some cool views of the Atlantic from the top.

We did a short hike around to the back side of the mountain and then up to the top before doing a little exploring around the summit. It's a pretty neat little spot actually. At one point it was a small ski hill and the remnants of the old chairlift are still at the top and the old lodge has been renovated and gets used for classes and groups. We were a little early for the wild blueberries, so we'll definitely have to get up there again if we go back later in the summer.

A few days later we made our way up to Portland to spend some with Amanda's sister and dad. We took the scenic route, stopping at Stonewall Kitchen for a big breakfast and hit up a few awesome little coastal towns along the way. As usual, I spent the next few days tramping all over the place catching up with some friends. I made a diversion into New Hampshire to meet up with my brother and best friend growing up to play some paintball

I drove down to Weare, New Hampshire to meet up with them and we got in a full day of paintball. We spent most of the day in the woods then got in a few games on the speedball field to close it out. AG Paintball was an awesome field to play at. One of the better ones I've been to in New England. We dominated a couple of games on their new S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier field and the castle field before the staff broke up our little team. It was a super fun day and I definitely miss getting out and playing paintball. It's such a fun sport to play. I'm hoping I can get a group of guys from work together for a day at some point over the next couple of months.

After a full day of running around in the woods, I made my way up to Topsham, Maine to catch back up with Amanda and her family for a nice dinner. The next day, I was up early again for an adventure run with Joe Reynolds. We'd been planning a run for a couple of months leading up to this trip and he picked out Camden Hills State Park in Camden, Maine. He picked me up early and we made our way up Route 1 along the coast to this awesome state park.

Rad Run // Camden Hills State Park //
Obviously, Acadia gets all the love in Maine. And while I would love to get up there at some point, Camden Hills is an absolute gem. It's nestled right on the coast and sits next to a picturesque lake and the Camden Snow Bowl - site of the Toboggan World Championships.

We started off on the Ski Shelter trail - an amazing bridle path trail that worked its way up to a small ski hut in the middle of the park. Our plan was to hit as many of the summits in the park as possible. There are something like seven or eight summits contained within the park, but we figured if we hit between five and seven of them we'd run around 10-12 miles.

*side note: These summits aren't overly high. Only three are over 1000 feet, so it's mostly rolling, with a couple of steep climbs mixed in.

Things started off really well. We rolled on the ski hut trail for a while and cut through the majority of the middle of the park easily enough. When we reached the Bald Rock trail we decided to skip Derry Mountain and Frohock Mountain since we'd end up having to run pretty much straight back to the car if we took that route. If we only knew.

We elected to climb up to Bald Rock Mountain, which sits at 1200 feet. I quickly found out how well Reynolds trail training has been going as he gapped me easily when we started going up. I was struggling a little bit on the steep and rooty climb, but I settled into my own pace and ground my way up to the top. When we reached the summit, we were treated with a spectacular panoramic view of the Penobscot Bay.

Leaving Bald Rock mountain we made our first misstep of the day. When we rejoined the Ski Hut trail and consulted our map, it appeared we needed to head a little further out on the trail to catch the next one we were looking for. That wasn't the case. It was basically right in front of us, but we had a nice 15-minute detour before figuring that out. No big deal. We planned on sticking to our original plan anyway and it would turn the run into a 14 miler. If we only knew.

We crossed paths with another runner, who told us the route he was going and we considered running with him for a few minutes, but he said he was looking for 3000 feet of elevation gain and that seemed a little aggressive for us so we went our separate ways. If we only knew.

Based on the route he told us he was taking we knew we needed to skip one left turn, so we took another look at the map and headed off into the woods on the Sky Blue trail. This trail was fantastic. It was a mix of a little bit of everything. Doubletrack, singletrack, soft dirt, pine needles, roots, rocks, ups, and downs. I have no clue how long we were on that trail but it was one of those times when you feel like you could just run all day. If we only knew.

After a super enjoyable section of trail, we reached a junction and headed left. At this point, we paused and looked at the map again, which had pretty much disintegrated due to sweat. We both thought it was the left that we were supposed to skip, so we decided to go back, make the right turn and then take our next left. Unfortunately for us, that left never came. We had misread the map and ended up popping out in someone's backyard. Uh oh. We looked at the map again and immediately realized our mistake. I pulled out my phone and we decided that our best bet was to jump on the road and make our way to the Maiden Cliff trail entrance, some two miles away.

This was a little bit of a blow to morale. We were 11 miles into the run at this point and we figured it was going to be somewhere around six or seven more miles before we returned to the car. There wasn't a whole lot we could do about it at that point, so we just started rolling on the road. Despite our sizable miscalculation, the morale was still fairly high between the two of us. We both seemed to just accept that it was going to be a while but all we could do was run so we might as well try to enjoy it and enjoy the fact that we were running together.

We stopped for a few minutes at a boat put in on Megunticook Lake and dunked our heads and hats in the water to cool off a little bit. This was a nice little pit stop because it reminded me to take a second to enjoy how amazing the area we were in was. Shortly after that break, we arrived at the Maiden Cliff entrance to the park. We stopped for a minute and looked at a good map, since ours was toast, and figured out our best path back to the car. The morale took a bit of a blow when we realized we had to go up and over Mount Megunticook, a 1000-foot, two-mile climb before we'd descend down to the car.

We ended up splitting up on the first part of the climb as Joe went into full grind mode and just clawed his way up the first half mile or so of the climb. I alternated between running, "power" hiking and just plain hiking for a while. I also broke out my emergency Untapped packet, which really saved me. I had a little bit of a mound conference with myself while I was downing the maple syrup and that helped me embrace the adventure of the day.

I was grinding my way up the trail 25 or 50 yards behind Reynolds and was just kind of in my own world for a little while. I was so in my own world that he had to call out when he had stopped and pulled over at an overlook. Without that, I would have blown right past it. I'm glad I didn't. The incredible view of the Snow Bowl and lake - along with the maple - gave us a second wind and we wound up running the rest of the climb together.

The climb actually got a little easier as we went along with a few ridge line breaks. It seemed like it took us forever but we eventually made it up to the summit of Mount Megunticook - the tallest mountain in the park. We took a minute at the top to grab a couple pictures and figure out the quickest way down, making sure we didn't end up doing something dumb and adding another handful of extra miles to the day.

From Megunticook we descended down to the Ocean Overlook, which instantly made all the effort of the climb worth it. The view was epic. You could see the bright blue water of Penobscot Bay as well as the idyllic town of Camden below. The low lying clouds that we saw on Bald Rock had moved away and it was picturesque. I could have just sat down and hung out at the Ocean Overlook for the rest of the day, but Reynolds told me he packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and they were waiting in the car. I hugged him, we got a few side eyes and then started to make our way down.

The descent was fun but definitely a little precarious. We were 16 or so miles into the run and had to be really careful not to get lazy and take a fall on the way down. We passed a bunch of groups of people heading up to the overlook on our way down and we probably scared a few of them, since we were borderline delirious at that point.

Finally, after descending nearly three miles we made it back to the parking lot. My watch said 17.8 miles, so 18, Reynolds phone said 19 miles and we ended up climbing more than 3000 feet. If we only knew indeed. We tried to find a spot to get into the ocean after finishing the run, but we weren't really willing to spent too much energy hiking down and decided to make our way back to Portland.

With Reynolds being in the craft beer industry, we stopped at a small brewery in Rockport and while they had solid beers they didn't have food, so we made the executive decision to go to McDonald's and get 20 McNuggets each. The last time I went to McDonald's was after a six-hour hike on Mount Washington with Ferenc in 2010. I got 20 McNuggets that day too. After Reynolds dropped me off back with Amanda I ate a bunch of Chinese food and passed out on the couch at like 8:30.

I spent the next day two days doing some very easy running on some local trails. Reynolds and I met up the next morning for a very mellow five at Bradbury Mountain State Park and the next day I went to Pineland Farms to explore their XC ski trails. Amanda's sister and her husband showed us a really cool breakfast spot in Yarmouth, so I tried everything on their menu before and after those runs.

A Couple More Rad Runs
I did a few more cool runs over the final week of our vacation, hitting up Breakheart Reservation in Wakefield, Mass. one day, running to Cape Neddick lighthouse and the Wiggly Bridge in York, Maine another and closed out the trip with a double loop of Trav's Trail at Maudslay State Park in Newburyport.

The run at Maudslay was a great way to close out the trip on the final day. I met up with Ben Kelley, an old friend of mine that I have known since elementary school but had not seen in forever. Ben is training for the Bay State marathon and he's into a little bit of everything when it comes to endurance sports. He's a running, cyclist, and AT skier, and we reconnected through Strava and Instagram. It was awesome to get a chance to catch up with him and chat about what he's been up to. I'm hoping to catch up with him again the next time I'm home for a run and maybe a little uphill skinning.

Tree Tapper 
My brother is really into the craft beer scene in Massachusetts and he's been singing the praises of Night Shift Brewing for a while. Coincidentally, Night Shift Brewing did a collaboration with DRINKmaple and announced that they were having a release party for their Tree Tapper, maple water pale ale while we were home. I had to go to that so Amanda and I made our way back to Massachusetts and grabbed my brother then made our way over to the brewery. Tree Tapper is pretty tasty. Now it doesn't taste like maple. The yeast feasts on all the sugar, so the maple flavor doesn't really come through, but it was still a good beer. Everyone knows I like to judge a beer on the 'how well does it go with pizza' test, so clearly that's why they had a pizza food truck for the release party. I'm happy to report it passed the test easily and paired nicely with both the standard cheese pizza and the more exotic BBQ pulled pork pizza.

Rising Tide
Since we were in Portland and visiting Reynolds we had to hit Rising Tide as well. I love this brewery. It's in a nice spot in the Back Cove where it's close to everything but still out of the way enough that it's not always jammed. They also have one of our favorite beers, Pisces, a Gose brewed with Maine seawater. Reynolds got us into it last summer and Amanda has been on a sour kick ever since. I personally love a Gose on a hot day after a bike ride or run. I think a lot of people are scared off by the salt, but that's the best part.

Gear Review // Myles Apparel // Switchback Shorts
I wanted to pack somewhat minimal for this trip and made the decision to go with just two pairs of running shorts. This decision worked out because I packed my Myles Apparel Switchback Shorts. I pretty much live in one pair of their shorts or another but these things have become my go-to everyday training shorts. The brand makes a few different pairs of go anywhere, do anything shorts. I'm actually wearing their Everyday shorts as I type this.

The Switchback shorts though are their first dedicated running shorts. They have a standard brief liner, which I prefer to the boxer brief liner, and feature both regular side pockets as well as a zipper security pocket. The zipper pocket fits an iPhone 8 plus, you notice it's in there but it fits and doesn't bounce, while a regular iPhone 8 fits with a small amount of movement, not an issue if you feel like listening to a podcast while running or something like that. I've used the zipper pocket for my phone, GoPro session, Untapped packet and house key - not all at the same time - and it's been ideal. They are six inches which give you enough length to grab a post-run coffee or sandwich without looking like a weirdo.

I highly recommend giving them a shot if you are in the market for an everyday training short.

What I've Been Into Lately
Ted King // King of the Ride Podcast
I have been really, really into Ted King's podcast since he launched it a month or so ago following his second win at Dirty Kanza. Sometimes podcasts with interview formats wear a little thin on me, but that's what I really like about this one. It's more of a conversation than a straight-up interview. Ted meanders through the career/life of his guest, keeping both the audience and the interviewee on their toes. He's had some really interesting guests that all have one thing in common, they love riding bikes. I really enjoyed the episode with Farid Noori, the founder of Mountain Bike Afghanistan.

Lance Armstrong's // The Move Podcast
Another bike-centric podcast for you. While I have my hangups about Lance it's hard to deny his knowledge of the tour. Granted, his knowledge of today's riders may be a little off at times, it is still interesting to hear him break down the stages. If you want really good analysis, listen to Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano on the Recon Ride. They are better when it comes that, but I still find Lance's commentary interesting. I particularly enjoy the guest appearances by George Hincapie. He seems like one of the few people that can call Lance on his BS and it's actually pretty refreshing. Lance actually admitted that he was a dick at one point. It's interesting and that's how I'm looking at it.

Outside/In Podcast // Paintball History Lesson
While I was home I ended up joining a couple of buddies for a day of paintball in New Hampshire. Oddly enough while I was driving down from Maine to meet them, I put on an episode of Outside/In and it happened to be about the origin of paintball. I knew that the sport started in New Hampshire, but the nuanced storytelling was really interesting. It featured a couple twists that I don't want to spoil, but if you are a fan of paintball or a good origin story give it a listen.

What's Poppin on IG

s t a r g a z i n g #milkyway

A post shared by Austin Hittel (@ahittel) on Jul 3, 2018 at 5:07am PDT

My co-worker Austin Hittel spent some time in Yellowstone during his summer break and took some epic photos. I highly recommend checking them out.

RoadTrip New England- Picture of the day- Today’s photo is from. . 🏆 @thelostbuoy🏆 📸 Cape Neddick Lobster Pound (Maine) 👍🏻Thanks for the great #NewEngland capture! . —————————— We’d love to see your New England adventures! Want to be featured as our daily pic? 1️⃣ Please follow @roadtrip_newengland 2️⃣ Tag your pictures #roadtripnewengland 3️⃣ Please geotag the location 4️⃣ Must be your own photo —————————— Looking for the best pics in New England travel- Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island & Connecticut. . 👍🏻Thanks for sharing your adventures! . . . . . . . . . . #roadtripnewengland #newengland #maine #vermont #newhampshire #massachusetts #rhodeisland #connecticut #travel #ttot #travelphotography #roadtrip #roadtrips #roadtrippin #roadtripselfie #travelling #travelgram #travelblog #travelblogger #optoutside #bestoftheday #picoftheday #photooftheday #instagood #instagrammers #igers #igersusa #ig_northamerica

A post shared by Roadtrip New England (@roadtrip_newengland) on Jul 1, 2018 at 5:31am PDT

I had a little case of nostalgia from this photo.

#protectthishouse !!! #VT is my home, no such thing as half way crooks. #run #stowe #stowevermont #catamounttrail #greenmountains #ultrarunning #ultrarunner #epic #wild #endurance #wutang

A post shared by Wild Ferenc (@wild.neoteny) on Jun 24, 2018 at 4:14pm PDT

Josh Ferenc has been on a tear lately. I missed him while we were home, but he picked up the win at the Catamount ultra 25k back in July.

Trestle Run // Playing Catch Up...Again...

The stretch of the year from mid-April until mid-June is always kind of crazy for me. I go from being in the middle of the offseason for work with seemingly all the time in the world to 'oh crap, we're running out of weekends' in a three or four-week span. Of course, that means I've fallen behind on blogging once again. Between Ragnar - my last blog - I've actually been up to quite a bit as I try to get the most out of the few remaining weekends that we have before work ramps up at the end of July. With all that said, here's a rundown of what I've been up to and into over the last month and a half or so.

What I've Been Up To
The week after Ragnar, Amanda and I went up to Charlotte for Tuck Fest - a four-day music, outdoor sports, and lifestyle festival at the US National Whitewater Center (USNWC). This will be the subject of my next vlog, hopefully. This was the fourth year that we've attended Tuck Fest and it's grown a lot since our first trip. This year, the festival was expanded from three days to four and they moved the half-marathon up to Friday. That ended up being an awesome change because we drove up Thursday night and turned the trip into a long weekend.

I ran the half on Friday and was able to pull off the win, my third straight. I ran really well on the first lap of the course, building a nice cushion, so despite my utter collapse in the second half, I was able to hang on. After the race, we hung out and enjoyed some food, beer, and music.

The next day we returned to the festival and spent the day doing a bunch of different activities. First, Amanda rented a bike and got 7 or 8 miles in riding alongside as I ran. We moved on to the whitewater where we had quite the adventure, losing everyone in the boat except our guide when we went down the competition channel. I got some great footage of that on my GoPro. The fall, the swim, and the rescue. Hands down the best thing I've gotten on the GoPro.

We decided to chill out after that and did some flatwater kayaking and more eating and drinking. On the final day of the festival, I went over early to jump in the trail 5k, which seemed like a good idea at the time. I ended up grabbing second

The next weekend was the Draft, which meant three straight days at the office. It's a brutal weekend that doesn't lend itself well to any kind of running or training. It's also the start of the busy part of the offseason. Draft, rookie minicamp, OTAs, and then a minicamp all over a 6-8 week period from the end of April until the middle of June.

Over this month and a half span I've thrown in a bunch of Dirty Spokes races, including a 7 miler at Harbins Park, 5 miler at the University of North Georgia, and the Peach Jam 1/2 Marathon. I picked up the win in each of those races with my running steadily improving with each outing. The 1/2 wasn't the most amazing time I've ever run, but after a start that I worried was too fast, I ended up running really strong over the last 11 miles and taking a nice win with a really solid effort.

Here's the Strava info from the race...

Other than a bunch of local racing, we've also tried to make the most of our weekends with some cool day trips. We spent some time up in the North Georgia mountains scoping out waterfalls and some really cool rapids. We used some loyalty points to get a free one-night stay up in Chattanooga where we hit up all of our favorite spots.

Through Strava and Dirty Spokes races I was able to connect with a group of guys that live in my area and all train together. They graduated from Augusta State a few years ago and are all currently training for a 50k in the fall. I might not be an ultra runner, but it's been awesome getting a chance to run and train with people for a change. I've been jumping at any chance to catch up with these guys and get some good miles in.

Rad Run // Chattahoochee Hills
With the Dirty Kanza wrapping up awhile ago - and my close personal friend Ted King taking the win - I got curious about what gravel roads Georgia had to offer. I found a 20-mile gravel bike route called the Dirty Sheets down in the Serenbe/Chattahoochee Hills area and decided to see if I could find a way to adjust it to a 10-15 mile route that I could run and that Amanda could handle on her bike. I settled on a 10/12 mile route depending on one early right or left.

I started working on the route on a Sunday night and spent the rest of the week being irrationally excited about doing a run that would be 75 percent dirt/gravel. We woke up early on the next Saturday morning and made our way south of Atlanta to Cochran Mill Park in Palmetto, Georgia. The parking lot was steadily filling up with road and mountain bikers as we got ready. Due to the low traffic in the area, there is also a very popular 35ish mile road ride called the Silk Sheets in addition to the gravel route that I found. Cochran Mill Park also has a trail system great for mountain biking and trail running. I didn't check out any of those trails on this trip, but it's definitely a good excuse to go back.

Amanda and I set off on our route with an easy first mile on the road before turning onto the gravel. Things were going smoothly early on, so smoothly that Amanda decided we should go for the 12-mile option. She wasn't having a ton of fun on the rolling hills we encountered and we ended up retracing our steps and taking the 10-mile cut through. We still ended up running 12 because we waited too long to turn around, but that didn't really matter. After a short spell of difficulty, Amanda rallied and ended up having a blast the rest of the way.

Six-or-so miles into the run, we hit the pavement for a two-mile stretch that cut the route from 20 miles to 10/12. We saw five cars and a 25-person peloton of cyclists. It was pretty easy to see why this place is so popular among riders. After the two-miles of pavement, we hung a right and got back on the dirt for the final 3.5 miles of the run. The first mile of this section was the same as most of this run, a regular dirt road. With 2.,7 to go we came up to a yellow gate that marked the end of the road for motor vehicles. From here on out it was doubletrack with a few rutted out sections and some singletrack. The people from SORBA Atlanta warned us that this trail was in the worst condition of any in the park and they were planning on working on it in the future. It really wasn't that bad. Amanda actually enjoyed the last couple miles more than anything else.

We'll definitely be returning to Cochran Mill Park and the dirt roads in this area. I'd love to knock out the entire 20-mile route at some point. I don't know when that would be, but I think it would be a really cool long run to do. I'm also eyeing this loop for when I get my Cannondale Slate. If it comes in during the summer, this will be one of the first places I take it to ride.

After we wrapped up our 12-mile jaunt, we made our way to Serenbe which is a cool but kind of weird town made up of four hamlets - their words, not mine - with the goal of creating a sustainable community that is connected to nature. We visited two of the hamlets, grabbing lunch at a neat little cafe in one and King of Pops in the other. Serenbe also has an inn, horse stables, and an organic farm. It was a pretty interesting place to visit, but part of me felt like there was some bizzaro, the Village, Divergent, World's End, stuff going on. I realize this is ridiculous but there's a 30 percent chance everyone there was an alien robot or something.

What I've been into...
Dylan Bowman's Lost Coast FTK


I really like what Red Bull does in supporting their athlete's passion projects. A few years ago Red Bull did a video with Tim Johnson where rode up Mount Washington in the winter on a fat bike, which is insane. These adventure projects are really cool to see and it's always good to see what some of these top-tier athletes are like outside of a race day. The Lost Coast is particularly well done as it was produced, shot, and edited by the Ginger Runner Ethan Newberry. If you have never seen his YouTube channel, I highly recommend it. His long-form videos on the Barkley and Western States are really good, and his reviews are excellent as well.

#TheWanderer
Speaking of passion projects, Salomon TV has teamed up with one of its athletes to produce a series called the Wanderer. The first episode takes place in Maine in and around Acadia National Park. It's a pretty interesting series that follows Kalen Thorien as she ventures from the USA to Europe and then Japan while taking part in various outdoor sports. Just like Red Bull with Dylan Bowman, I think it's really cool that Salomon is willing to work with its athletes to showcase things that both the brand and the athlete are passionate about. Of course, if you want to be cynical, this is essentially a three-part commercial for Salomon gear but this is the kind of commercial I can get into.


What's Poppin' on IG

Great Adirondack Run 2018 ✔️ WIN ✔️ COURSE RECORD ✔️ #litework #WEWILL #run #trailrunning #trailrunner #underarmour #mountains #adk #adirondacks #NY #highpeaks

A post shared by Wild Ferenc (@wildferenc) on Jun 9, 2018 at 6:30pm PDT

Josh Ferenc - now running for Under Armour - set a course record at the Great Adirondack run in early June.

w a c o #bigslide #gopro

A post shared by Austin Hittel (@ahittel) on Jun 3, 2018 at 4:36pm PDT

My buddy Austin Hittel was in Texas and went to one of those giant ski jump slip and slide parks. It looks awesome and I need to go to one.

Winning with style... Thanks for a great race @pinelandfarmstrailchallenge

A post shared by Joe Reynolds (@reynoldsjosephp) on Jun 1, 2018 at 2:10pm PDT

Joe Reynolds took home the win at the Pineland Farms Trail Challenge up in Maine. I've got more on Reynolds, Maine, and Pineland Farms coming in the next blog.

Up Next
This is how long it took me to finish this, but we had our annual two-week tour of New England so that'll be the next thing I cover on here - plus the Peachtree Road Race and the Dirty Spokes Trail Series finale.

Race Recap // Ragnar Trail Atlanta

I really wanted to try and do some different things this year. I feel like I end up doing a lot of the same stuff year in and year out. I run a lot of the same races and we take a lot of the same trips. With that mind, I decided to take up an offer to join team Night Train for Ragnar Trail Atlanta. Having never done one and not really knowing anyone on the team, I thought it would be the perfect something new to try. I picked up a tent and a sleeping bag, charged up my headlamps, and gave it a go.

The Atlanta venue for this race was the Georgia International Horse Park, which was the venue for mountain biking at the 1996 Olympic games. There are miles of trails - mountain bike and equestrian - here and it was actually where I ran my first Dirty Spokes race after I moved to Atlanta.

// The Course //
Before I get into the recap, here's a quick rundown of how Ragnar Trail works. There are three loops - green, yellow, and red - and a team of eight (or four for you ultra folks) run relay style, alternating loops until each member of the team has run each loop. The fastest team to complete the 24 laps (3 loops x 8 people) or roughly 120 miles wins. The loops break down as you would imagine, green being the easiest, yellow the intermediate and red the most difficult. As the safety video I watched before the race started, the loops are graded on relative difficulty so that's not always the case. For example, I thought the yellow loop was harder than the red, but I can see why they choose to label them that way.

Each loop started and ended in the transition zone. A tented area in the middle of Ragnar Village - the epicenter of the weekend's event. From transition, you ran into a large open field and followed the signs to whichever loop you were assigned to run. All three loops finished with the same final "quarter mile" - it was much longer than a quarter. You ran through a timing mat that registered the team's chip and bib which would then come up on a monitor in the transition area (that's how you knew it was time to get in their to switch each lap). After crossing that you made a long sweeping left turn, more of a dogleg really, before one final dip into the woods. When you popped out of the woods it was about 100-150 meters to the finish/transition.

Green Loop | 4.5 miles | The green loop was definitely the most beginner friendly of the routes. It began with a few hundred meters in the big open field where you ran alongside campsites, before breaking right onto a long section of double track. The first mile and half or so of this loop was flat and fast. No matter whether you ran this one late at night or on tired legs, the opening was a perfect spot to settle into a nice rhythm and cruise.

Once the trail thinned down to single track things got a little bit trickier but the course was still fairly mellow. There were a handful of switchbacks and some up and down but nothing too crazy. I thought it was fairly similar to the UNG trail by my office. Tricky in a couple spots but overall you were able to move through it fairly quickly. It shared the same last two or so miles with the yellow course but I think the thing that made those sections more difficult was the fact that I ran them both at night. I don't think they would have been as challenging in the daytime. The worst parts were the wooden bridges that had two or three-inch gaps between the boards. That got sketchy on tired legs. I wouldn't be surprised if a few people caught their toes and took falls.

Yellow Loop | 5.4 miles | The yellow loop was the quickest to dispatch with the pleasantries of the open grass field and double track. After a short stretch of both, you quickly dipped into the single track for a roller coaster course of ups and downs, switchbacks, rocks, roots, and more of those nasty little wooden bridges. No matter when you ran this loop it was tricky. It was a mountain bike trail through and through so that made it difficult to really settle in. The fact that it shared a couple of miles with the green loop helped with one or the other. I ran yellow first so, it was super helpful to have already seen that section.

Red Loop | 5.5 miles | While it was labeled the most difficult, this was my favorite loop. It might be because it was my only daylight loop, but I felt like it would have suited me best either way. The loop started with a long stretch in the grass field. You ran past a bunch of campsites, which was fun, then you dropped down a short hill and into a tunnel that took you underneath the access road. It was pitch black in there even in the daylight. It must have been really cool looking at night with headlamps zipping in and out.

Coming out of the tunnel you realized why they marked it most difficult as a long climb greeted you. About halfway up this climb, the surface switched from grass to exposed granite. Once things leveled off at the top of the climb things switched between short sections of trail and exposed granite slabs. The trail was pretty well worn into granite, so it was actually fairly easy to pick a line. I don't know if that's normal or if it was just because it was run so many times over the two days of the race, but it was very helpful to me on my final leg.

The trail dropped down off the backside of the granite hill and turned into a soft, wood-chip surface that worked its way along the shore of a pond/bog/swamp thing. You gradually began climbing back up with mostly longer gentler grades before being hit hard by two steep, rutted double track ascents. The elevation gain wasn't insane, but it was noticeably more than the other two loops. On top of the hill once again, you worked your way through similar sections of granite outcroppings and short trails again before dropping back down to the tunnel.

Coming out of the tunnel, you hit the short ramp of an uphill and then had a long stretch of field/dirt road - with one more little grinder of a hill left - before looping around to the quarter mile to go timing mat.

// The Race //
The race started on Friday with teams setting off as early as 9 am and as late as 6 pm. We started at 3 but since I was the anchor leg, I wasn't scheduled to run my first leg until 7 or 8. I ended up getting to the race around 4 and spent about an hour and a half getting checked in and set up. I brought way too much stuff by the way. Way too much. I don't think I used a quarter of what I brought, but at least I was prepared.

By the time I got squared away we were a few legs into the race but I took some time to meet all of my teammates and get a quick scouting report from a few people around that had already run the yellow loop. We ended up being a little bit behind the schedule that Allen had predicted for us, so I didn't start until after 8. I was hoping to get started before sunset but ended up starting just after dusk but before it was full on dark. That made things a little tricky because the headlamp wasn't quite as effective as it would be later. I got a short warm-up in before heading to the transition area where I milled around until I saw Night Train come up on the monitors. I took the belt/number from Allen Bray - the guy that invited me to join the team, our captain, and seventh runner - and set out on my first leg.

I got out a little quicker than I probably should have, but all of the waiting around made me a little anxious and it was hard to keep my adrenaline in check early on. I spent a lot of the loop passing people, which made Allen's explanation of our team name make a lot of sense. With the light from my headlamp, I really did look like a train barreling down the tracks. I had a really difficult time settling into the first leg. I never felt like I was comfortable or in a groove. It felt like I was fighting it the whole way. I'm not sure if it was the waiting around or racing at an odd time, or the heat but something just felt off.

Despite feeling uneven the whole time, I actually ended up running solid. I think it was a touch longer than the advertised 5.4 miles - I'm calling it six - so that messed with me a little bit as It ended up being a few minutes more effort than I was thinking. Once I finally hit the timing mat, I felt like I brought it home fairly strong but man was I glad to get that first leg over with. I handed off to Errol - our first runner - just inside of 40 minutes.


After finishing the yellow loop, I jogged a short cooldown, just to try and settle down a little and bring my heart rate down. I was worried about everything locking up on the third leg if I kept running hard and then just stopping, so I tried to at least jog a mile after each leg. Once I cooled down a little and changed, I made my way to the mess tent to grab something to eat. I wasn't going to do that initially, but I figured I had at least six hours between runs, so I should try and get something solid in my stomach instead of relying on Clif Bars and Pop Tarts from the jump. Fueling was definitely something I was worried about going into this whole adventure. I haven't done anything that's lasted this long or had this much downtime in between efforts, so I was really nervous about my stomach rebelling against me. I wouldn't say I nailed it, as there were plenty of trips to the Port-Os, my stomach never really bothered me on any of the loops.

Once I had eaten a little, I decided to settle into my tent and try to get some sleep before my next leg. I set an alarm for 12:30 am, thinking I'd run around 1:30. Finding sleep was a little tough since our camp was right near the finish line and people were really festive pretty late into the night. I finally felt like I was drifting around the time my alarm went off, because of course. When I finally rustled myself out to of the tent and started moving around a little bit I found out that we were running about an hour behind Allen's predicted times. That wasn't a huge issue because we were recording everyone's in and out time, so we had a pretty good idea of how long everyone would be out on the trail.

I ended up starting the Green Loop around 2:45 am, which was a trip. My body was all sorts of confused, but like I said above, this loop had a great start. I really felt like I was rolling on the gravel double track. I felt about a million times better and that went a long way for my confidence. Even when we got off of the double track and on to the proper trails I was feeling strong and smooth. There were a couple times where I thought maybe I should have sprung for a more powerful headlamp but that seemed to coincide with the times I passed people that had like 800 lumens, 200 dollar lamps on so probably not a good comparison.

The wooden bridges were definitely a little sketchy on tired legs. I decided to take them a little easier and make sure that I didn't catch a toe and take a tumble. Because I felt better on this loop, I felt like I was able to enjoy it a little bit more than the yellow loop. I really had fun on the section of this loop that featured a soft pine needle surface and twisting trails. It was super peaceful as I was in a little bit of a no-man's land situation for a few minutes. I could only hear my feet, my breathing and whatever was scurrying around in the woods.

I was snapped out of that little trance when we popped out on a section of trail along the entrance road and ran right under the street lights. Shortly after that, I crossed the timing mat and drove home for the finish.


I finished the green loop around 29:30, which I was much, much happier about than how I ran the first leg. I handed off to Errol, we started our final rotation through the lineup, and then I made my way back to our camp to get something to eat and figure out a plan for the final leg. I did another quick cool down to try to keep my legs from locking up and then made the decision to try and lay down in my tent for a little bit. I finished around 3:15 a.m. and figured I wouldn't run again until 8 at the earliest so I laid down and actually ended up catching a little bit of sleep.

After a few hours, I got out of the tent and started to mill around camp a little bit. It was probably around 6 or 6:30 a.m., so I was very excited to see that we had multiple pots of coffee going since coffee and maple syrup where pretty much what my body was running on at that point. I took my sweet time getting loose for the final lap and spent some more time talking with other people who had already run the red loop to get some intel on what was coming up. There were a few people on my team that said they thought I was going to crush the red loop since I was running it in the daylight. I wasn't sure since I already had 10+ miles on my legs, but I was looking forward to bringing it home.

Similar to the green loop, the red loop started out firmly planted in my wheelhouse. The long lead-in in the big open grass field allowed me to get into a rhythm early. I was excited to be running in the daylight finally and set my sights on passing as many people as possible over the course of the 5.5 miles of the trail ahead. This loop definitely had the most sustained climbs but save one rutted double track section that was steep AF. The loop was kind of a lolly-pop shape which climbed then descended then climbed back up before coming full circle. Once I pulled my way back up to the top of the exposed granite hilltop, I set out to bring the race home for Night Train.

I let gravity do some of the work on the way back down to the tunnel and then once I got into the big open field for the final kilometer I really tried to pour it on. I could see a bunch of runners ahead of me and just tried to reel in as many as I could. After the long stretch othe f grass field at the end of this loop, I was not excited to see the final little section of trail. My legs really didn't like that change up so close to the finish. Fortunately, it wasn't a very long section and before I realized it I was onto the final stretch.

This was the coolest part of the whole experience. When I got into the finishing corral, the entire team was there waiting for me and we all ran across the finish line together. That was what I did this race for. It was really fun to be part of a team like that. Everyone put in so much effort and it was really cool to all cross the line together.


I was 37:12 on my watch, which was pretty much right on what Allen had predicted. He took the 10k pace that we submitted and added 5% for the trails and then an additional 5% for each loop to account for fatigue. It's not super scientific but I think his overall prediction was pretty close to our team finish time. After finishing our final leg we checked in to see where we ranked. We were the first team in the open division to finish, so at around 9:45 we had the lead but we had to wait to see if any of the teams that started after us finished in the next couple of hours.

We ended up finishing in 18:39:32 and went on to win by about 14 minutes (18:53:44). The top three teams were all under 19 hours and four of the top five teams were in the open category (3rd place was a masters team).

My official times were - Yellow - 39:55 | Green - 29:58 | Red - 37:17

Talking to Allen a few weeks later he told me that he had dumped all of the results data into excel and did some sorting and calculating. It turns out I had the fastest total time and ran the fastest on each loop. I'll admit, I thought that I was capable of that, if I ran well, but i didn't really know what to expect because there are so many people running. I was pretty excited when I heard that though. It was a nice little boost. Also, apparently we get belt buckles for winning, which is pretty sweet. We are trying to get a little team party together to celebrate and hand them out.

// Recovery Beer of the Week //

Curious Traveler - Pineapple Shandy
I am an unapologetic shandy guy. Say whatever you want. I don't care. I thoroughly enjoy them. Usual,ly I stick with the lemonade variety but since it's starting to warm up here in Georgia, Amanda and I decided to give this pineapple version a shot. It was pretty good. A little sweet and very easy to drink. They didn't last long in the refrigerator. We'll have to remember to pick up some more when the mercury really starts to rise as the spring goes on.

// Closing Thoughts //
As cool as the camp spork medals are, I'm pretty stoked for the belt buckle. It was really cool to win this event. Allen told me he thought we would have a shot based on what he figured everyone was capable of doing but, to be honest, I wasn't really super worried about the results. I wanted to run well personally and to help the team but I wasn't going to obsess over times or stress out if we fell off the pace. This race/event was about the adventure. I wanted to do something a little different and yeah sure when I was out there on course I was just racing like any other race, but the atmosphere was different and it was definitely different trying to figure out how to eat and sleep and then try to race again and again. I really enjoyed getting a chance to meet some new people and bond over super early morning coffee and the different routes. It was also really cool to see so many people at this event. There were 182 teams that finished in the regular category and another 19 in the ultra category. That's more than 1,500 runners in total. Awesome.

This is definitely something that I would like to do again. Hopefully, we can keep the team together for next year. Maybe someday I'll think about entering the Ultra division if I can get Ferenc and some others to come down. For now, though, I'm stoked to be a member of team Night Train - the defending champs. I have a million race t-shirts, but this one gets added to the wear with pride category for sure.

Admittedly, this is super late but I'm glad to finally get it posted. I'm cutting myself a little slack because the next weekend we went to Tuck Fest and I made a vlog about Ragnar, so that took up some time. You can check out the vlog on my youtube channel or in the blog below. Hopefully, I'll have a Tuck Fest vlog and a catch up blog coming up soon.

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...

Race Recap // Rock/Creek River Gorge 10.2 Mile Trail Race

Every now and then I go into a race completely unaware of how things will shake out. There's always a little bit of uncertainty about how things are going to go, but I normally have a decent grasp on my fitness and how that will match up with the course and competition. Traditionally, River Gorge has not been one of those races. I've probably run what I thought I would go in once, maybe twice in five attempts. Admittedly, the first year that was due to some hubris but other than that it's been a mixed bag. It's still relatively early in the year, it's a tough course, and there is always very good competition.

This year was certainly no exception. I felt like I had good training going into the race but I was unsure of how that would translate to the difficulty of this course. You need to be able to stay up front in the early part of the race and then you need to stay strong in the later stages when things get tough and fatigue sets in. That's probably why guys like Nate Holland have been so successful here. Ultra runners that are training for/running long events but also have the ability to throw down on the more mild terrain.

I knew that I had better training going into this year's race than I did going into last year - my worst showing in five trips - but I wasn't sure how it stacked up to a couple of my better performances where I had more strength based work under my belt. With that in mind - and the struggle of last year lingering - I went into this year's race with no expectations. Not low expectations. I wasn't sandbagging and going into it thinking 'Oh I'm going do so bad...' or something like that. I had no expectations. I had my mind set on going out and running my race and letting the chips fall where they fell. Just run. Don't worry about what anyone else did. Maybe I would get back on the podium, maybe not. Maybe I'd bomb or maybe I would win. I was nervous but ready to just go run.

Oh yeah, a few days before the race Rock/Creek announced that Rob Krar - the two-time Western States 100 winner - would be at the race. I didn't know if he'd be really racing it but it was pretty cool that they brought him in for the race. Last year, Ricky Gates stopped by and ran the race as part of his trans-America trip, so it was cool that they've continued to build on their sponsor relationships (Salomon & North Face). I think it gives a good idea of the prestige of this race.

// The Course //
The River Gorge course starts on a gravel road at the Mullins Cove Loop trailhead in Prentice Cooper State Forest. After a short climb up the gravel road, the course takes a sharp left onto a Jeep road then drops down to hit the single track. The first half of the race is pretty runnable. There's a good balance of up and down and most of the trail is pretty straightforward. There are a couple of creek crossings and rocky sections but for the most part, it's the kind of stuff that you can get into a groove on.

The first few miles of the course run along the bluffs of the Tennessee River Gorge and spectacular views of the river below. There are a few spots that are a little precarious, as in a wrong step and you are tumbling off of a cliff. It's more technical than what I am used to but it's a good warm-up for what comes later.

Photo courtesy of Jacob Wuertz

You reach the first aid station at Snooper's Rock at 3.5 miles then begin the first sustained climb of the day. It's not steep, more of a grinder, but you definitely feel it after all the downhill in the early going. Once you reach the halfway point things start to get more difficult. The terrain features more rocks and less straightforward trail. There are a couple of spots that you have to be attentive for the markings to keep from wandering off into the woods. This is when the race really begins.

When you hit seven miles you climb up onto a washed out Jeep road (Haley Road), which is steep and usually a mess of ruts, mud, and loose rocks. After you reach the second aid station you make a left back onto the trails. This is the toughest climb on the course. It switchbacks up for what seems like an eternity before finally leveling out again. Things are fairly mellow after that before you plunge into the rock garden - a boulder field in a small ravine along a creek.

After fighting your way through the rock garden you face gradual, climbing single track all the way to the finish line.

// The Race //
One of the best things about this race is the pre-race packet pickup. Local outdoor outfitter and race sponsor, Rock/Creek hosts packet pickup on Friday night at one of their stores. Not only does it make things a little less stressful on race morning, it also gives me the perfect excuse to leave work early on Friday and get settled into the hotel to have a restful night. When I arrived at the trailhead on Saturday morning, I spent a couple minutes catching up with my cousin Greg before setting out for my warm up.

After a quick warm-up, I switched into my race kit and made my way to the start line. The night before Amanda commented on how a lot of the people at check-in looked legit and that there was a guy signing autographs - a.k.a. Rob Krar. That's definitely true at this race, there are plenty of legit runners on the starting line. Rock/Creek fields an All-Mountain Team of local athletes, plus it always pulls in strong runners from around the Southeast and beyond.

Photo courtesy of Jacob Wuertz

I ended up settling in right next to Rob Krar. It wasn't by design, he just happened to walk over next to me where there was some space. I got a chance to meet him and chat for a couple minutes before the start, which was pretty awesome. Like I said in the course layout, the race starts with a long climb up a gravel road for the first 400 or so. This makes things a little tricky. You want to get out and get in the front group but the climb can burn out a lot of the overzealous starters, so you don't want to find yourself in that boat.

As I have in the past I settled into the group for the early climb as everyone kind of looked around and tried to figure out if the guys off the front were worth chasing. As we came over the top of the hill and made the left hand turn onto the Jeep road to guys from Rock/Creek made a move to separate themselves from the pack. I figured they were worth following and settled in behind them. We rolled along the long descent, shuffling back and forth for the next couple of minutes. As we approached the singletrack a four-man lead group established with the rest of the field stringing out behind.

At this point, I was thinking that I was in perfect position. I was second onto the singletrack with the two Rock/Creek guys (Johnny Clemons & John Wiygul) behind me and an unknown guy up front. I followed the leader through the split rock, which he kind of struggled to move through. I didn't think much of it at first. I'm not a great technical runner, so I figured that I probably looked the same trying to navigate that feature.

Despite my attempts at being more patient in races, I found myself running right on the heels of the leader pretty quickly after getting through the split rock. I tried to ease off and give him some room, but it seemed like I was yoyoing back and forth. Drop back a few yards, then close right back up on him. That made it really difficult to see the trail in front of me and I felt like I was going to burn myself out from all the back and forth.

"Don't do it. Don't do it. Forget it. Just go."

That was my thought process. I had zero desire to lead but I had to get some clear trail in front of me, so I took a few quick strides through the side brush and took over the front of the race. Johnny Clemons and John Wiygul got held up for a few seconds as they moved past the early leader, which stuck me in a little bit of a weird off the front no man's land. I fought the urge to surge, seeing as we were only about a mile into the race at this point and tried to focus on settling into some kind of rhythm.

To my surprise, they just kind of left me out there. I'd gain a few seconds on a downhill and then give a few back on an uphill but they were always just a little bit behind me. That odd distance where you can let the person dangle a little because you have plenty of time to reel them in or with one short surge you could close the gap. Things stayed that way for a long time.

While I had an initial moment of concern about going too early and not being able to run away, I spent the next few minutes trying to relax and settle down. I told myself that I was still following the plan. I might be out front but I was just running my race. I didn't need to try and run away from them. All I needed to do was run my race. If they caught me, I would try and go with them and if they let me go, well that would be quite alright with me.

Photo courtesy of Jacob Wuertz

By the time we hit the first aid station at Snooper's Rock, I had successfully gotten myself to chill out. I was focused on the trail ahead and not what was going on behind me. I actually felt pretty comfortable for the next couple of miles. I was running a good tempo but I wasn't burning myself up with an ill-fated attempt to run away from those guys. I was following the plan.

I made it through the first half of the race pretty smoothly. I remember thinking that it was much more runnable than I remembered. I felt like I was running well but smart. Things felt controlled. It continued that way until just before the second aid station. Johnny Clemons had started to eat into my advantage as the course started to toughen in the second half. After one of the creek crossings, I made a slight misstep and when I got back on track Johnny had pulled even. I'll be honest. I had a moment of weakness at that point. He initially was going to let me retake the lead but I slinked back and ceded it to him.

Rob Krar (Photo courtesy of Jacob Wuertz)

I dropped back a few meters at first, starting to feel a little sorry for myself. At that moment we popped out onto Haley Road. I fought the urge to ease off and set out on grinding my way up the first part of the climb. Despite losing some ground on the hill, Johnny dipped back into the woods just as I passed the aid station. He was still right there. All I had to do was get through the second part of the climb and I would have a chance to sort things out.

For once in my life, I actually gained on someone while running uphill. Johnny was power hiking some sections of the trail, which allowed me to close the gap and make contact with him. However, what I learned about power hiking at that moment was that when he switched from running to hiking, he instantly gained four or five strides on me.

"Just keep grinding!" is what I told myself as I tried to claw my way to the top within striking distance.

When we finally made it to the top of the climb, Johnny had opened a small gap, somewhere in the 5-10 second range and I had maybe 30 seconds on John Wiygul. This was the make or break moment for me. I could either take a short spell to recover and then go after Johnny or I could sink like a stone. Chase back to give myself a shot at the win or drop back into third and try to fight my own personal battle to stay on the podium.

With about a mile until the rock garden, I felt like I could get back to Johnny. It took a while for me to get there but as we started to descend, I began to eat into his advantage. Once we hit the rock garden I was right on his heels. Unfortunately, this was also the exact moment that the cumulative fatigue of the race started to set in.

Photo courtesy of Jacob Wuertz

I would find myself back in contact one minute but then as soon as the trail tilted up, I'd lose ground. Back and forth, back and forth, this went on for what seemed like forever. Every time I would lift my legs gravity felt a little more difficult to defy. As we exited the rock garden with one final uphill push I lost contact with Johnny. My legs were toast. It's a long run into the finish from the end of the rock garden though.

I did my best to recover and hoped that he went too early and would fade. My mind was in it for one more effort but my legs didn't want to respond. After a few minutes on the struggle bus, they started to come back to me. I gave it one final surge but it was too little too late. We made a big sweeping hairpin left hand turn then wound through the trees to the finish - Johnny Clemons taking the win in 1:16:36 with me grabbing second in 1:16:53 before John Wiygul in 1:17:20.

Less than a minute separated the top three after 10.2 miles in one of the closest trail races I've been a part of. While I definitely faded over the last couple miles, especially in the final mile, I was really happy with my performance. Coming in with zero expectations and getting back on the podium was a great feeling. It really felt like redemption after having a tough go of it last year. Even though I've run faster in this race before, this felt like it was everything I had on that day. Sure I wish I didn't fade at the end and I would have loved to have won, but I went out and I raced. I could have packed it in on the Haley road climb and spent the next couple of miles feeling sorry for myself but I didn't. And that's something to be proud of no matter the final place or outcome.

Photo courtesy of Fred Doss

You may notice that Rob Krar isn't in the top 10. He finished 21st. Clearly he was just chilling, but still, it's pretty cool to be able to say that I beat him. In all seriousness, though he was a cool guy and it was awesome to see him hanging out just chatting with everyone after the race. He's definitely down to earth, which I appreciate.

Post-race, I talked to Johnny and John for a bit. Turns out Johnny is training for the Western States 100, so he's obviously super strong. He was worried that I was going to claw back but felt like he still had good legs for a sprint. That would have been pretty crazy. A two-up sprint after 10 miles. If only! I tried to cool down a little and then curled up in a ball in the back of the Renegade (everytime I see the wording on the side of the Jeep I sing the opening of Styx Renegade in my head - don't judge me) for a few minutes before heading back to the finish to cheer on my cousin Greg - who's finish I somehow missed. After that, I went back to the hotel to grab Amanda so we could go to Mean Mug and I could drink all the coffee and eat all of the biscuits.

// Recovery Beer of the Week //
This was a tough one. I won an awesome River Gorge Growler from Chattanooga Brewing Company but because of an awards snafu I didn't get it after the race and we ended up going to Hutton & Smith.

Hutton & Smith - Belay On!
A slightly hopped up version of their blonde ale, Belay On! is light and refreshing with just enough bitterness. It's a solid post-run session ale that reminded me a little bit of Terrapin's Recreation Ale. I put it to the pizza and beer test at Community Pie in downtown Chattanooga that night and I'm happy to report that it passed with flying colors.

// Closing Thoughts //
I was thrilled with the way the race went this year. Plain and simple. I went out and I raced on the day and I had a little bit of redemption from last year. There is no way I could have expected anything more. While I still feel like I have a ways to go to get where I want to be as the year goes on, but I certainly feel like I'm progressing. I need to work in more sustained effort work, tempo runs, fartlek runs, those kinds of things, but all in all I feel like I'm in a good place.

After the race, Amanda and I went to Mean Mug for coffee and a bacon and egg biscuit then we spent the rest of the day walking around Chattanooga. We ended up at Hutton & Smith where we had a flight and a pint before heading to Community Pie for pizza and more beer. My brother has been raving about Hutton & Smith for a year and this was the first time we went. It definitely did not disappoint. It's a small spot but had a cool vibe.

Sunday morning I woke up and did one of my favorite Chattanooga runs. From the hotel I ran out to Stringer's Ridge - where Amanda and I got engaged - and then I ran across the Walnut Street Bridge and back to the hotel for a nice and easy eight miles. My legs were a little cooked from the race, so I kept it short.

Next up I'm back on the Dirty Spokes train with the Road Atlanta trail race. That should be cool. It's the first time the trails will be open to the public. After that it's Ragnar Trail Atlanta, which should be an adventure, and then Tuck Fest. April is going to be a very busy month, but it should be fun.