ASC Trail Marathon Race Report (Read 315 times)

Yeah, so this is about a month after the fact, but I was waiting on the race director to post the pictures to the web site because there was no way I could do the race justice. I dont normally post race reports (or anything else for that matter, but I do read a lot of the forums) but I thought this one was a little different then most of the racees I've run. This was my first trail marathon and it was tough. The race was run at the Anne Springs Close Greenway, which is located in Fort Mill, SC (just south of Charlotte, NC). The trails are pretty well maintained, and are usually great for running, walking, biking, etc. However, on this particular Saturday, the course was pretty much flooded after about 2 days of rainfall. The race started at 7:15 in the morning, and the temperature was great, around 60 degrees. There was a slight drizzle to begin the race that lasted for about 2 hours, which meant that due to the previous mud and the rain, nothing remained dry, (or clean) for very long. The race itself was great, although the mud and hills made for a challenging day. I think I could have cut about 30 minutes off my time if this were run on the road, but I didnt run this race expecteing a great time. I just wanted to finish. We ran on a variety of trails from single track to dirt roads to absolute mud bogs. Due to the race size (less then 40 finishers) I ran alone for the majority of the race and even saw some deer at one point. Despite being a trail run there seemed to be plenty of aid stations offering pretzels, jelly beans, water, GU packets, etc. The one thing I think the race director could have done better was in the area of marking the course. I didnt get lost, however, there were a few times where I didnt see a race marker for quite a while and thought I might be going in the wrong direction. Other then that, I had fun running through the mud. Anyway, check out the race website and the photos to get a better idea of the race. Now that I have the time to run more consistently, I might be posting on here a little more. http://sites.google.com/site/weddingtontrack/Home/asc