Sweet H2O 50K

This year, I have been looking for races that were closer to home that wouldn’t require an overnight stay. In years past, I have not really looked at Georgia and South Carolina races because, well, it’s flatter and hotter... isn’t it? But I took a look at the Sweet H20 50K in Lithia Springs, Georgia and was pleased to find that it was just on the other side of Atlanta, under three hours away. So at 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Alan and I left Tony sleeping and resting up for the first day of trout season and headed south.

Atlanta traffic on Saturday morning was light and we arrived at Sweetwater State Park in plenty of time to pick up the cool tech t-shirt and a number, get ready and head to the start line. I was pretty relaxed, as this was really a training run for the 24 hour run in a couple of weeks.

Lithia Springs was one of the areas Sherman visited and to connect the race to the area’s history, the starting gun was actually a cannon fired by a group of Confederate reenactors. The large crowd recovered from the shock and headed down a paved road out the park’s entrance and onto a highway. We passed by a couple of lakes (where the fishermen were asked dozens of times, “Have you caught anything, yet?) and finally onto the trail.

The couple mile paved run did allow everyone to spread out a little so there was not a big traffic jam as the crowd hit the single track. The trail was nice and rolling, padded with pine needles and running was easy, until the rappel down the sides of the spillway. Okay, it wasn’t really a rappel, but you did have to lower yourself down a rope down the concrete side of a spillway, run across the shallow water, and pull yourself back up the other side. Then it was back to the nice, soft, rolly stuff, interrupted by a couple of short, steep rocky and rooty descents.

The trail then followed the river, which had some serious flooding earlier and there was a lot of loose sand and debris in places. There were a lot of very rocky and rooty areas, some hills, but it was all runnable. The course finally veered away from the river on a flat, runnable trail. (I almost gained twenty places here as a crowd has missed a turn-off and was back-tracking to get on the correct route.)

After a run through a grassy area punctuated with very short, very steep drops to little creeks and back up, the difficult part starts. After a steep climb up a gravel road, you are treated to a view of hill after hill with little tiny people going up each one. If you are from the mountains, picture the power line cuts minus the power lines. It is clear-cut with a rocky clay trail that follows the very steep hills and very steep descents. It is as steep as anything I have run, but thankfully, much shorter. The longest ascent probably only took five minutes or so, but it was in the full sun and the repeated climbs wore you down.

Finally, you reached the top, ran through a pleasant area with shade and a breeze, crossing over “the top of the world”, which afforded a nice view of the Atlanta skyline to the next aid station. This area included a mile of out and back so you had an opportunity to see some of the people ahead of and behind you.

Then it was back to an area where there actually were powerlines with a couple of steep hills, and then down to river again, up a trail to the next aid station and back to the start/finish area on mainly single-track with a little gravel road mixed in. You then repeated that 15 mile loop, with the exception of a detour across the river and back. The race crew had long ropes stretched across the river, probably a hundred yards or so wide. This was an area of some almost waist-deep, cold whitewater, and you pulled yourself across the river, to where a rescuer was waiting on the other side. Then it was up another hill, and back down, and once more across the river.

The powerline cuts were even more fun the second time around, as you are around mile 25 or so. Once more, over the “top of the world” and back, down to the river and eventually finishing at somewhere over 33 miles, I was told. A barbeque dinner was waiting, along with a large group of people cheering the runners on.

This was one of those rare races where everything went right for me, except for leaving my water bottle at home. Despite the heat, my electrolytes stayed in balance and I remained hydrated (thanks to my high-tech Sam's Purified Drinking Water bottle). I used gels the whole time with the exception of some oranges, bananas and pretzels at aid stations. I had no stomach distress, either during or after the race, my asthma gave me no problems, and my energy level remained high. I probably passed 15-20 people on the powerline cuts on the last loop. Even though all the snow running didn’t help my speed this winter, it certainly made me stronger. I wore my Brooks Ravennas (road shoes) which happily worked very well on the rough and rocky terrain. Despite all that, I still felt like I was moving pretty slow, but steadily. I was happy with a 7:03 for a 33 or 34 miler and I was surprised to find that I had finished 51 out of 155 finishers, 9th in the women, and first in my age group. Not too bad for a training run!

The race well very well organized, all the aid stations had lots of goodies, everyone was friendly and helpful, and you ended up with a nice tech shirt and a tech hat. It was a challenging course, hot, yes, but not flat!

And Tony caught a 4-pounder, along with several other trout. A good day all around.

Not the Official Crowder's 50K

A couple of weeks ago, I ran the “unofficial” Crowder’s Mountain 50K. Aaron Ligon had organized a F.A. style run since this year the official race was on hiatus. Around 20 people showed up to run various distances, although most opted for the 50K.

It was a beautiful day, although pretty hot considering I had still been running in snow the week leading up to Crowder’s Mountain. The run started at the Linwood parking area, as the original race had done and followed the forest service up towards the top of Crowder’s Mountain. But instead of heading down the stairs, this route took a fun, rocky trail down the mountain and towards the park office and visitor center.

After leaving the park office, where Aaron and friends had left a cooler full of goodies, you followed the Ridgeline trail out to the 16 mile point at Kings Mountain and reversed course. The route included some steep climbs and descents with rocky terrain along with some rolling trail with a nice runnable surface. There were views along the way and a nice climb to the top of Kings Pinnacle. All in all, a very nice trail to run with rocky terrain that you wouldn’t expect right outside Charlotte. And as an added bonus, the route back included the long stair climb from the original course.

I finished pretty slow, 7:10, but I wasn’t in a big hurry and I enjoyed the run. Aaron and his friends did a nice job of organizing the run and providing better “aid station” fare than most regular races.

Fria'ing my Butt Off.....Nantahala Fria Run Report

Three years ago, Sarah Lowell called me and asked me if I wanted to go run around in the mountains in the cold and snow for 100 miles or so. For some reason I agreed (although it would be nice to have a friend who calls and asks me if I want to head to the Bahamas or something) and thus the very informal Nantahala Fria Running Festival was born. Just a few local runners have participated, but this year, Sarah decided to invite more people to enjoy our “backyard,” the Southern Nantahala Mountains. By the day of the run, however, over ¾ of the runners who wanted to come cancelled (wisely) due to the weather and course conditions. Sarah had already altered the course away from the more remote and technical areas, but runners would still be dealing with 4” to 3 feet of snow along the way.

Only two of us planned to do the 100 and we each started at different times on Friday. The other runners would run on Saturday. I waited until the early afternoon to start because it was in the 30s with high winds and the winds were SUPPOSED to die down by 3pm or so.

Loop #1 was nice. It was cold, but not horrible and I got pretty warm on the initial 5 mile climb. The first section of trail was very snowy, 6-8” on average, but runnable. Once I intersected with the AT, there were actually a few bare spots in the trail, but soon it was back to all snow and ice. The problem with the snow this year is that the temperatures have been near or below freezing for a good part of the winter up there and it is actually ice that just looks like snow. Once I hit the couple of miles of AT that run along the ridgeline (at 5,000’), it was very difficult to run or even walk on the trail. Many hikers had sunk 6” or so into the foot of snow and their footprints had frozen solid. I couldn’t find a flat place to step, my ankles rolled constantly and I was frequently knocked off balance. It was worse than the worst sections of the Massanutten.

Once I got off the AT, it was all closed forest service road back to the start. But the first couple of miles were still all high elevation, exposed to wind, with deep snow (this is where the 3” drifts were). It was very slow going until the road dropped in elevation and the wind died down.

As I said, Loop #1 was nice. Alan Buckner came to run with me on Loop #2, since that started the night portion. Loop #2 was not too bad, but the high elevation section was getting downright cold. By the time we got back to start Loop #3, it was 24 degrees at the lowest elevation. As we headed up in elevation, I put on another shell (I already had 3 shirts and a shell on) and was toasty…for about 15 minutes. After I won the bet with Alan for correctly predicting at what point he would start projectile vomiting (always about 20 miles into a run), it got VERY cold. It was easily in the lower teens or single digits up top. And the wind was literally roaring at this point. On the road sections, as we tried to pick our way through the deep snow, the wind was knocking us around. The water in my water bottle first turned to slush, then ice. We couldn’t get the lid off until I put it under my jacket for a couple of miles. Then when we did get it off, I had to use a rock to chip away the solid sheet of ice that was in the lid, blocking the valve. And after already being cold and then putting a bottle of ice up against me, I couldn’t get warm. As the road dropped in elevation, it did not warm up like in previous loops and the wind continued to roar.

When we got back to the start/finish area, Alan decided he didn’t have the energy to go another round. I felt fine, but was very cold. Then I had one of those moments that my husband is proud of me for having (because they don’t come often). I actually used common sense. The run had become way too dangerous with the weather and the snow. There were no aid stations to get help at and only one other runner out on the course. Help would be a couple of hours away, way too long in those conditions. And my greatest fear is becoming one of those hiker/runners that they have to rescue. (As a teacher and coach, I would never hear the end of THAT from my students). So I decided to stop. Prince, the other 100 mile runner, also stopped when he came in on his next loop.

So I did 50 miles and then came back the next day for another 16. I am bummed about no 100, but as soon as it warms up (if it ever does), I am ready for round two.

BTW, those are Kahtoolas on my Brooks Ravennas. They are microspikes that are so much better than Yaktrax or screws.

The Nantahala Fria blog is at http://www.nantahalafria.blogspot.com/. I posted a course description and condition report there the week before the run.

Nantahala Fria 100

This weekend is Sarah's Nantahala Fria Running Festival. This is the run we did in 2008, when she was working on an arctic slam, and we did a very abbreviated version in 2009. The conditions this year look to be appropriately "fria." We've had more snow this year than I can remember in the 20 years I've lived here. When I went up on the course this weekend, there was anywhere from 4" to 3 feet of snow. Sarah has rerouted the course, as the original course would be almost impossible to do an ultra on because of the ice and snow. I am planning to run the 100, although it will be slow going unless we get some miracle heat wave in the next few days (it's actually supposed to snow more tomorrow and Thursday). I am a little concerned about the 100, since I have not been able to get the miles in I wanted to because of the snow and because I didn't do a 100 last year. But it's 90% mental, right???

2010 Goals

Although I don't make New Year's Resolutions, I thought I would set a few goals down in writing:

1. Not to go to races that cost so much between fees and travel that I could have fed a hungry family for a month.
2. Do more fun stuff and just enjoy running through the woods.
3. Allow more time for the basics (crunches, pushups, lunges, etc)
4. Drag the darn tire up the mountain.
5. Spend more time in the gym : (
6. Do more speedwork, even when training for a 100.

Some specifics for the next few months:
1. Nantahala Fria 100
2. Crowders Mountain (?)
3. Burningtown 100K fun run
4. SCAR in under 24 when I-40 reopens
5. finish all 900 miles of trails in the Smokies (over halfway done)
6. A double ALTAR in warmer weather
7. An adventure race with Tony

Tsali Frosty Foot Fest 50K

Plans kept coming unraveled in late December, early January. ALTAR was canceled because of the snowstorm, Nantahala Fria 100 mile was postponed due to date conflicts and I backed out of the double ALTAR attempt because of bad weather. So, I ended up running the Tsali 50K again this year, which was not a bad thing because it raises money for breast cancer research. However, I live 30 minutes from Tsali and am burned out on running there.

I asked Tony to drive me there and I am glad I did. It started snowing hard and by the time we got to Tsali everything (including the roads) was white. The Frosty Foot lived up to its name. Snow, ice, brisk wind, frozen ground and never getting out of the mid 20s all day.

The race was very well organized and all the volunteers were so cheerful despite standing in the middle of the woods freezing. My performance was okay. I ran 9 minutes faster than last year, but I have been training for 100s with a lot of uphill speed walking, not for a 50K. My legs felt very slow, but I felt good all-in-all all day. Only two issues: I kept having to blow the water back out of my Camelback hose because it froze very quickly and I got a very nice hip bruise when my foot caught a root sticking up and I landed on the (frozen hard!) ground. (I got up quickly to make sure no one had seen it.)

For my own future reference, the clothing choice was perfect. I only got cold on a couple of occasions when the wind hit me hard. (Brooks LSD thermal velocity pants, two layers under Brooks jersey- Massanutten long sleeve and a CWX, Brooks Vapor Dry 2 gloves).