Date: 2/7/15

Where: Elkton, TN

Distance: 25K

Temp: perfect, 33 at the start, 50 at the finish

This race was about an hour drive for me up into to southern central Tennessee, and it was just $45 dollars for the entry fee. The race swag was exceptional by getting a sweat shirt, and a finisher mug. It was held on private property with 3 different land owners as the hosts. For a “small” race, this was about one of the best experiences that I’ve had since running. The volunteers were great, the RD did a fantastic job, the money raised was used for some good charities, we had medical volunteers, we had fire pits, we had beer, we had chili, we had cookies, and we just downright had a good time.

This is by far the most beautiful run I have ever done, yet it was also the hardest. We run through fields, pastures, and woods, creek beds, cut corn fields, trails, mud, and more. I wish that I would have taken my phone with me to take some pictures along the way. It was a 25k, which according to my watch measured 15.61 miles. There’s no need to share mile splits because there is much walking, or hiking involved with all the steep up hills. But for those that are curious, my fastest mile was mile 4 at 9:26, and the slowest was mile 11 at 15:06. There were plenty of times that I was running in the 8:30 range, and more times where I was running in the 10:30 range. On a couple of the descents, I managed to catch a glimpse at 7:15 pace, and plenty of times during the climbs where I was barely doing a 19:00 pace. I heard there was about 2500 feet of elevation climb, but my Garmin only registered 2000 feet.

The race started in some pastures, and by ¾ mile we had the first big hill. Every time we went up, we then had to come back down. I’m not sure what was worse, the brutal climbs, or the super fast descents that were tearing up my quads, and toes. I may lose a couple toenails, I know, I know, toenails are for sissies! At mile 4.5 we started climbing, and climbing, and climbing, damn, is this ever going to end. After looking at the course elevation, I think this was the worse one. The rest of the course was just steady ups and downs till the finish. One thing that was really neat was at about mile 12, after coming up a big hill from the woods, and into a pasture, there was a RC controlled drone hovering around taking your picture. I haven’t seen these yet, and if I do, I’ll add them.

My finishing times was 3:05:27, for an 11:53 overall pace. I’m not sure how to gage this because it’s only my second trail race. I finished 77^th of 143, so right in the middle. The winner set a course record, beating the old time by 20 minutes; he finished in 1:43, with the second place finisher at 1:54.

I love trail running! Being in the outdoors is quite refreshing, and offers a lot more than running on the roads, IMO. The camaraderie is above awesome, and the whole atmosphere is more relaxed. I have 2 more major trail races coming up that I’m looking forward to. There’s another 25k on March 28, and the 3 day stage race at the end of April. I also have hopes that the trail running will make me a bit stronger for the road running. I don’t think I will give up either, but will just have to figure a balance.

Here are a few pictures. Thanks for reading.

Mitch

Nice job, Hog.  Fire pits, beer and cookies, what a perfect way to end a run.

Pace means nothing on a trail run.  Way too many variables with elevation, conditions, terrain etc. No way to compare to road running.

Pace means nothing on a trail run.  Way too many variables with elevation, conditions, terrain etc. No way to compare to road running.

What AT said.  The best thing you can do to measure trail improvement is to run the exact same race year after year.

Congrats again! 

Nice race and nice report. Great graphics on the mug and sweatshirt. Definitely keepers.

Way to go Mitch!  Nicely done.  Thanks for sharing this race report.  I agree with everyone that pace is pretty irrelevant when you're running trails.  You never know what you're going to get into.  Respectable finishing time, dude! Glad you had such a positive experience.

I love trail running!

This says it all.

Thanks for sharing.  Loved the pictures.

Great job  seems like a good time for that cousse.

Congratulations! Makes me want to make a trip to Tennessee next year!