Race Report - 2014 Tick Ridge Trek 25K

That's right, that white dot behind me is Cary!

I signed up for this race thinking it would be a nice and easy run on some easy flatish trails. After all, this race took place somewhere out in the country just 45 minutes north of Huntsville. I pictured cow pastures and flat jeep roads maybe, but not any challenging terrain. Boy was I wrong! This one turned out to be a challenging trail race, indeed and I am glad I treated it as a training race considering the shape I was in when I signed up for this awesome race.

I arrived at the race site with plenty of time to spare prior to the race start. It was a rather chilly morning and the RD and crew of volunteers had a lot of foresight and set up not only large tents, but heaters as well. And fret not if you forgot to grab some breakfast when you headed out the door to attend this race. They were serving up lots of goodies, coffee, hot chocoloate, and even oatmeal and other post race goodies. I opted for some coffee but decided to keep the food for later.

The race started on time and both the 10K racers and the 25K racers took off on the same course, that would later diverge to separate the two groups of racers. I decided to take it easy as my training was just now picking up, my mileage increasing ever so slowly week by week. Cary was working on some racing strategies for his upcoming Thunder Rock 100 Miler in May and so decided to take it slow and easy as well, which allowed for some great company throughout this race. Thanks Cary;-) We also "picked up" Shar along the way, who ended up running with us for quite a while as well. This race was gnarlier than I and a lot of other runners had thought and that wasn't just because my training wasn't quite what I wanted it to be. Then again, some other runners (e.g. Will and Benj) had some great races, so maybe it was just my perception:-)

With a couple of miles to go, I decided to push my pace a little to try to giterdun. While I started slow, I finished strong. Final thoughts? Great first time event, great race organization, great race team of volunteers, great food. What's not to like? I'll be back for more next year:-)

Race Report - 2014 Mountain Mist 50K

Our entire ultra training group before race start.

This is my first ultra marathon finish race report since 2012, when what seemed like a minor ankle injury during a soccer match just 4 days after my second Pinhoti 100 attempt turned into something a lot more major and complicated. Less than 12 months after what hopefully will have been my last surgery and hospital visit for a while, I was able to toe the starting line of the Mountain Mist 50K.

I wasn't really prepared to run this race. I was making progress in my recovery, but I continued to take two steps forward and one step back. Just 2 weeks before the race, I went back to my ankle surgeon to check on an issue. Thankfully, he reassured me that everything had healed perfectly and cleared me to run. Unfortunately, an intense one week work related class kept me from training yet another week and before I knew it, race day had arrived. Further reassurances from some of my fellow training buddies whose training hadn't gone according to plan, either (read: severely undertrained is an understatement) convinced me to try to run. The goal was to finish under the 8 hour cutoff, so I would get an official fourth finish at Mountain Mist.

I met up with Rich at his place at 6:30am to make sure we wouldn't miss the 7am race start check in. It seemed Mike was running late, so my antsy @$$ decided to head up the mountain ahead of them to get checked in and mingle with some of the familiar out of town runners that I hadn't seen in a while, most of them GUTS runners from the Atlanta, GA area.

Our entire training group had signed up for this race: Jerry Abbott, James Duncan, Ed Johnson, Mike Trice, Richard Trice and myself. Thankfully, everyone made it in time for our obligatory pre-race group photo. Half of us were ready to PR and the other half was ready for a long day in the woods.

Ed, Jerry and James lined up near the front of the pack while Rich, Mike and I found the tailend of the field. I planned to run conservative from start to finish. It had worked perfectly for me during the Rocket City Marathon and it was in line with my new mantra, keep it slow and steady, speed is not important right now.

The race course had been modified this year to allow for a larger field of runners and to allow the front of the pack to spread before entering single track trail that would make passing more difficult. However, this approach really only worked for the front pack. The back of the pack continued to create trains at just about any uphill and downhill section of the race.

The three of us in the back kept to our slow pace and it worked. None of us really had a serious drop off in physical or mental determination to finish this thing. Well, if we did, none if us verbalized it. The result was a long trail run with a positive attitude and engaging conversations through the day. The only complaints to be heard were related to the windchill that would frequently chill us to the bone throughout the day and keep us from shedding ANY of our three to four layers.

As the day progressed and I realized that I was likely to finish this race, I became even more enthusiastic. I was still able to run ultras after all and I was actually able to finish them. I realized that I might still be an ultra runner after all, albeit without any speed. Who cares, I can work on speed later. Rich and Mike were a large factor to me finishing this thing as I'm not sure I would've stayed the course for almost 8 hours without their company and reciprocal encouragement. The scenery provided an amazing backdrop to our adventure with frozen waterfalls, and the ever popular stone cuts. It made climbing waterline trail and the other sections almost "a walk in the park". Well, it was a walk based on our actual pace:-)

When we started to hear the cheers at the finish line about 1.5 miles out, I started to get choked up just a little. We all relied on each other to finish today's race from start to finish, so it was only fitting that we decided to cross the finish line together, not holding hands in a "Kumbaya" kind of way (we wanted to maintain some type of manliness), but next to each other nonetheless. We were the last of our training group to finish, but it seemed today provided to be a challenging race day for all of us, with times slower than initially anticipated. However, a finish is a finish and that is all that mattered to me. After all, I am one of the ones lucky enough to be able to be out here, period. Hopefully, there are many more ultra attempts and finishes in my future. With friends and running buddies like these, I don't see why not:-)

First ultra marathon finish since my return thanks to the Trices.

Jerry ran so fast, he was gone when the last of us finished:-)

Race Report - 2014 XTERRA Alabama Monte Sano State Park 15K Trail Race

I signed up for this one last minute. The goal was to have a good time and to finish without hurting myself. I managed to do just that. With a finish time of 1 hour 46 minutes, I ran it 20 minutes slower than last time, but that's ok. My mantra for this year is to enjoy every mile run without any regard for pace or PRs. I want to stay healthy. I figure a year at easy pace will allow me to do just that.

I arrived at the race with 20 minutes to spare, enough time to pick up my race packet and chat with Benj and Cary and some other folks I hadn't seen in a while. It had been raining heavily the days prior, so we all knew it was going to be muddy, but I don't think anyone was prepared for just how muddy it really was. Actually, muddy was an understatement. Half of the course was literally under water.

It was a lot of fun to watch folks try to avoid the water and puddles for the first 2 miles. By then, every single runner realized that there was no way to avoid it and started to finally just plow through it. I used this opportunity to use my awesome Christmas present from my wife (GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition), recording all but the last 10 minutes of the race as my battery died. However, I haven't been able to edit the video just yet. Apparently, 30GB of HD video requires a lot of computing power. Oh well, it's gonna take me a while, but I hope to end up with some cool footage from this one.

My race plan as to start slow and to keep it steady. I did that until the last 2 miles when I tried to pick it up just a little. I crossed the finish line slightly winded, but within 5 minutes, I felt recovered, no stiff muscle feeling or any other painful movements for that matter. While I used to love to gun for a PR every chance I got, I do prefer not having aching muscle and joint pains after an event and being able to go for a run the next day without extreme muscle soreness.

I was glad to see a lot of familiar faces. Mountain Mist is next, but I will be glad just to toe the starting line.

Race Report - 2013 Recover From The Holidays 50K (DNF)

I signed up for this one pretty much last minute. After surprising myself by crossing the finish line of the Rocket City Marathon just a couple of weeks earlier, I was feeling great, but that inner voice was telling me once again to take the foot of the gas and take it easy. I still wanted to see local running friends (almost all of our usual training crew signed up) and try out my awesome christmas present (GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition, review to follow) from my wife, so I signed up anyway with the intent to only ran a few miles.

Chris Estes and I chatting prior to the race start.

I arrived at the race about 30 minutes before the start. James Duncan and Ed Johnson had already set up the "mandatory" crewing chair near the start/finish area and kindly allowed me to drop my stuff there as well:-) The weather was perfect for racers, but for me planning to get in some easy miles it seemed just a little too chilly. I kept on all of my layers as I grabbed my GoPro camera and strapped it to my head. As is the case every year, lots of my local running friends and heroes were in attendance once again. I managed to catch up with a few of them before the race started. I lined up in the back third of the field of runners. I wanted to take it really slow and decide after each 3 mile lap, if I was going to go out for another.

10 miles into the race, I decided to call it quits after completing another lap to get a nice half marathon in for the day. Since I didn't have to go much longer, I tried to pick up my pace jut a little. When I arrived at the finish line, I felt like I should do another lap, so I guilted Cary Long into running one lap with me. I continued to keep pace, chatting away and focussing on my footing as to not reinsure my ankle on my final lap. All went well and I finished the day with 16 miles at 9:45 min per mile pace, not too bad for a gimp on trails:-)

Happy New Year everyone.

Action shot brought to you courtesy of Gregg Gelmis:-)

Race Report - 2013 Rudolph Run 5K

Another great little local 5K race just before christmas. I had signed up the whole family for this one. I decided to run with my wife once again as I plan to do for all of my upcoming shorter distance races. My son decided to go at a slightly faster pace to improve on his previous 5K. He'd been taking it easy, not really running at all following his first High School Cross Country season. Every athlete needs to take some time off anyway and this allows him to just run what he feels.

I decided to pace my wife again to see if she couldn't edge out another PR. This course was hillier than the Frosty Freeze 5k course a couple of weeks earlier, so it would be tough to beat that time. We kept a steady pace throughout the race, but didn't manage to get that PR for my wife. Didn't really matter anyway as I'm the only one in this house that is driven by finish times:-) Being thankful for just being able to run after dealing with numerous setbacks over the last year has made me rethink that approach. This next year I will focus on just enjoying different events without pressing for time. Crossing finish lines with a smile on my face has become my only goal for the foreseeable future.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

Race Report - 2013 Rocket City Marathon

I really had no intention of actually running this race to finish it. I had no place at the starting line to begin with. The only reason I even toed the line?...I had registered months ago in hopes of my recovery and rehab going better than expected by the time December rolled around. All in all, rehab had gone quite well, but I continued (and continue) to have episodes of "worry". Worried that I'd reinjure my ankle without any notice or even a warning of anything being wrong, worried that I'd develop another blood clot and on and on. There was really no rhyme or reason to it, I just started to feel like this sometimes and as a result, I would back off my training. I would increase my mileage, never really pushing my pace just to be safe, but then I'd back off again on barely run at all.

So when marathon week arrived and my running had actually gone pretty well for a couple of weeks with increased mileage at a "safe" pace, I figured I'd just head downtown to see how far my feet would take me. I was hopeful that I could maybe complete 20 miles before the wheels would come off either due to pain or exhaustion. I hadn't run more than 15 miles at a time in the last 12 months and that only once, but I had been running and logging at least some miles. I figured finishing was out of the question, but maybe 20 miles would be realistic.

In order to accomplish my goal, I decided to be extremely conservative with my pace to increase my chances of completing 20 miles, but not too conservative because my wife and I had tickets for the Nutcracker that afternoon, so I really needed to be done in 5 hours to allow myself to limp home and take a shower before heading to the concert hall. 5 hours was the goal no matter what distance I would cover. Missing the Nutcracker with my wife really wasn't an option:-) I was very happy to read on FB the evening before the race that there was 4:55 pace group (thanks Suzanne and Carrie), so I figured I'd try to stay with them as long as possible (read: until the wheels came off).

As luck would have it, the skies also cleared somewhat just in time for the race start. After mingling with some familiar folks at the Holiday Inn (for the last time before it gets torn down), I headed outside and to the start line. The temps were perfect and the rain had mostly stopped. I was going to have a great 20 mile training run. With my cell phone in hand (to call my wife for pickup along the course), I started my fourth Rocket City Marathon.

For the first time, I was able to talk while running anything shorter than an ultra marathon. I usually push so hard from the start that I never really have the extra energy required to carry on conversations during the race. I always felt bad, because peeps must have thought I was just rude. Nope, I was just busy breathing:-) It was great to actually be able to carry on conversations while I was out there, presumably for 5 hours or less, hopefully reaching my goal of 20 miles. The conversations continued and the miles slowly clicked away.

I continued to check my splits every mile but other than that, I just kept going, enjoying a nice long run. An hour went by, then two, and I continued to feel great. No pain anywhere. I was starting to feel confident that 20 miles was very possible today. I kept a steady 11 minute pace and wasn't great. I wanted to pick it up, but I kept reminding myself that it's all about making it to 20 miles today, just like the days when I first started running and it was all about just completing the distance for me, never about pace.

The miles continued to pass and as I approached mile 20, I was still on track to actually finish the full distance in 5 hours. Not only that, I was still feeling great, even ready to pick up my pace. I also started to pass some people, which really has never happened to me before in a marathon. Why? Because I ALWAYS blow up. Not today. I decided to take it one mile at a time until I started to hurt or slow down. Neither happened and when I made the final turn to the finish and saw David Bier's confused look, it finally sunk in that I was actually going to finish my fourth Rocket City Marathon. I was just as confused as him and I have never had a bigger smile on my face when crossing the finish line than today. Yes, it was my slowest marathon ever, but I managed to finish it, just a year after my "little health scare" and just 10 months after reconstructive ankle surgery.

I'm looking forward to whatever is next!

Race Report - 2013 Frosty Freeze 5K

While I'm not quite ready to do any sprints or all out race in any official event, I do enjoy participating in our local 5k races regardless of my abilities or pace, so I signed up my whole family to run the Frosty Freeze again. My son is now part of his high school XC team, so I figured he'd enjoy the friendly competition or at least an opportunity to get a run in.

My wife and I decided to run together and not worry to much about our time, so it was a big surprise when we found out later that she had actually placed second in her age group almost 3 minutes ahead of the lady in third place, but who's keeping track. I'm certainly not;-) It turned out to be a very enjoyable race. It was pretty cold, as usual for this race. Thanks to Jon and Kelly and their team of volunteers for putting on another great event. It felt great to be back out there, just to run, nothing else.