Big Frog Half Marathon

Who da thunk I would skip a mountain bike race on Saturday to run a foot race on Sunday?  Ten years ago, running was not even on my radar.  Today, it is a regular part of my fitness routine, along with lifting heavy sh!t.  Part of that is just wanting to new challenges, and part of it is because of Honcho.

Today was the third race in Mountain Goat Adventures Trail Running Series.  It was held at the Ocoee Whitewater Center. It was drizzling and 46 degrees when I arrived and pretty much stayed that way the entirety of the race.  I was not too enthused, as I have been dealing with a 3 week hamstring injury.  How I got it, I do not know ... at my age now, I probably rolled over wrong in my sleep.  But seriously, it probably has something to do with my ongoing grumpy L4-L5 facet joint, which has been plaguing me on and off for the past 5 years.  

After a 20 minute bundled up warm up, I stripped down to a T-shirt and shorts.  At 8:30 am, Lisa released us and we began with an immediate climb up Bear Paw.  I went by both perceived exertion and heart rate, keeping myself in the low to mid-tempo range.  I stayed conservative, as the trail was wet and the roots and rocks were slick.  The last thing I wanted to happen was to further injure myself and say good-bye to my upcoming races War Daddy and PMBAR.  Today was all about good training and not aggravating my hammy.

I saw Zeke as I turned onto Lower Chestnut.  He was a course marshal and told me that I was second woman and 6th overall at this point.  Still, so many miles to go.  With that initial 1.5 mile climb, I was perfectly comfortable and the body was feeling good.  I did get passed by a group of guys midway through this section; I was just glad  to be by myself at this point, as I had paced them up the mountain.

I am a terrible descender, so Thunder Rock was meh.  I tip-toed across both bridges as they were skating rinks.  At the bottom, I took a cup of water and a gel.  Then began a 2.7 mile climb back up the mountain.  Running back up the mountain felt good.  All body parts were happy; I was happy.  It was good for my soul to be in the forest.

I stopped at the second aid station and repeated.  The Quartz Loop was a little tricky as the single track was tight; half-track in places, which made for focused foot placement.  Once I was on Bypass, there was only a little more climbing to go and then I could "send it" back down to the finish.  Back on Chestnut, I wanted to go fast, but I kept the strides short.  I did not want to trash the quads, fearing this could affect next weekend's race, the War Daddy.  I kept it chill, passed by Zeke, who was walking up and down his posted area, trying to stay warm.

Once on Bear Paw it was about a mile to the finish.  At this point, I opened it up a bit and kept saying out loud, "Pick up your feet."  So close to the finish, I did not want to trip now.  I came through the finish line with a time of 2:24.   Prior to my grumpy hammy, I had hoped to run close to 2:05-2:10.  Yeah, I was a little frustrated at being slow, but I had to keep the long game in the picture.  This running thing is not my primary goal.  I am doing it for funsies.

Adele schooled me today with a time of 2:05 that gave her a 5th overall.  It is going to be an exciting final at Rope Mill next month ... I hope.  I just need to get this ischial tuberosity/hamstring attachment inflammation thingy resolved.

Thanks to Mountain Goat Adventures once again for a fun day.  I am slowly collecting enough Fleet Feet gift cards to buy a new pair of shoes.  And I have a good Ka'Chava stock for my lunch time smoothies.

Chattanooga Epic 10 Hour Adventure Race

This race is put on by Warrior Races.  There was also a 30 hour race.  I chose this one to come out from under Lisa Randall's wing and race it solo.  I had only done 2 other adventure races, both with Lisa, who was the navigator. Even though I am familiar with the Chattanooga area, I was more nervous going into this event than I was when I took the SAT! Normally I sleep well the night before a race; well, not this one. I had even gone down the Thursday prior and ridden the last few miles of the course to the finish, along the River Walk just to bolster my confidence.

River Walk

For the 10 hour race, an experiment was being performed by the race director.  We were allowed to use GPS as an aid.  This was in hopes of encouraging newbies to come out and give adventure racing a go.  A phone was a mandatory gear requirement, so I brought mine along.  I did not use it for anything other than taking pictures.  

We were given the race schematic a few days prior.  I love this kind of homework.  By using this I was able to prepare my gear choices.  I did have a paddle bag, in which I placed paddles, PFD, and a dry bag full of extra shoes, socks, base layer, and hydration pack for the trek and bike.

We were bussed to the start, near Suck Creek, and the race began at 8 am.  Starting temperature was 39 degrees, but felt much cooler with the wind coming off the river.  I was wearing a heavy weight wool baselayer, my Rescue Racing cycling kit, and rain jacket/pants.  I had chemical warmers in my gloves and shoes.  I was perfectly comfortable, temperature-wise, with all these layers.

I was second in the water, but by the time I hit the first CP, half the field had passed me.  I equate paddling to the swimming portion of a triathlon ... it sucks!  I felt like my kayak had a "flat."  No one else passed me as I made my way to CP2.  As I was reaching up to punch my card, my left calf knotted up in a major cramp!  Which lasted 4-5 minutes, as I continued on in the paddle.  Good Gawd, what brought that on!  I cannot remember the last time I cramped in a race.

The paddle take out was near the Pot Point Cabin and the beginning of the Ritchie Hollow Trail.  I stripped off my rain gear and changed into my trekking shoes. I got out my map for this portion and marked the CP's.  Then I took off.  CP3 was a drainage.  I elected to attack from the road and climbed mostly on all four's to reach it.

From there I continue to climb upward until I hit the trail.  All together it was about a 100 meter climb straight the F up!  I was no further than 100 meters when I realized that my satellite tracker was on my PFD.  F me!  Not wanting to beg forgiveness later and also to play by the rules, I ran back down the trail to the paddle take out and grabbed it.  Then retraced my steps back up to the CP.  I climbed that MF'ing drainage twice ... ouch! That rookie mistake cost me 12 minutes.

I was now almost in dead last place.  But I was ok with that, heck I even embraced this extra challenge.  I mean, the weather was warming up, the sun was out, and I was playing in the woods.  What more could a girl ask for? 

Ritchie Hollow Trail took me to the next CP, Blowing Wind Falls.  Stunning!  I punched my card and continued my way up the mountain, passing teams left and right.  I even did a little bushwhacking, trying to gain back those minutes I lost.  Not sure if that was the right idea, but I had fun doing it.

Checkpoint 4

Once I grabbed CP5, I took a time check. I decided to skip CP 6 (Ransom Overlook), as I figured it would take 25 minutes. Next I hit CP7, then CP9, bushwhacked (more like butt slid) down to the trail and did an out and back to grab CP8 at Snooper's Rock.

CP8 doesn't get any better!

From there I ran along the Pot Point Loop Trail and then back down Richie Hollow.  Oof!  I don't know what was worse:  running up it or down it.  The volunteer at the paddle TA told me I was the 4th one to get back on the water.  Holy smokes, I made up a lot of time.  Guess I can run and navigate.

After stowing my gear and cramming a bag of potato chips down my gullet, I hopped back in the kayak for the 4 mile paddle to the base of Raccoon.  Tortuous with the head wind.  I never thought I would see the large steel circular object (hydroelectric turbine?) near the boat ramp.  It still took another 10 minutes to get there.  

Susie and Jim were there to greet me. I took a few minutes to organize, pee, change shoes, mark the bike CP's on the map, and refill my CamelBak.  I rode up the pavement, and did an out and back to grab CP14 on Live Wire 2.

CP14

I then climbed up Live Wire 1, which at this point, my legs were definitely feeling the prior trek and all the elevation gain and scrambling.  CP18 was "top of large boulders" in the Chunky free riide area.  Hell, all of Chunky has large boulders!  It did help that the foliage wasn't full out and I spotted it from afar.

I continued in a CCW direction, grabbing the one at the Switchyard fence line next. It was attached to the fence with large warning signs (high voltage).  Plastic is not a conductor, right 😬?  After I nabbed CP17 at the overlook on Small Intestine, I did a little bike whacking to avoid riding this trail in its entirety. 

CP17

Getting to CP18 required getting shredded by the briar thickets.  CP 12 was along Grindstone Ridge.  Once I acquired CP11 on Megawatt, I did another time check.  Trying to go for the one on High Voltage would be risky, as I would be cutting it super close to the 6pm time cut off.  So I opted NOT to go for it, which would give me a nice buffer to get to the finish.  At this point, I wish my brain would have realized that had I bike whacked up to CP11, and then continued to bike whack in a southeasterly direction, I could have cut off about 0.6 miles of trail. 

At the end of Megawatt, I hit the connector to the Laurel Point Road and then made my way to Electric Avenue Trail, where I grabbed CP13.  I now had 90 minutes to get to the finish.  I made my way down to Elder Mountain Road, took a right, blasted down off the mountain, and took a right on Isbill Road.  This led me to Kelly's Ferry Road, where I picked up CP19 at the I-26 overpass.  Turning left on Cummings Road, I made my way over to Old Wauhatchie Pike.  Mind you, I am trying to read a 1:24,000 map, mounted to my handle bars, while I am pedaling at 10-15mph, with old eyes.  There are no road names, as my route is now in the bottom right-hand corner of the map ... almost damned well off the map!  I had to stop a few times to get my bearings.  But finally I was convinced I was on course.  Seeing CP 20 confirmed and made me smile!

Old Wauhatchie Pike

Knowing confidently where I was, I was able to push harder.  Grabbing CP21, I made my way through throngs of people enjoying a beautiful spring day on the river walk.  I came through the finish at 9:25, 35 minutes to spare.  

19 out of 21 checkpoints.  Confidence boosted like a Space X rocket!  I was first Solo Woman.  I also ended up (I think) 2nd overall.  There were 2 teams who cleared the course.  Brad Cobb and Scott Brannon smashed it with a time of 8:51, despite their hairy descent off the escarpment at Prentice Cooper.  Now I really know why they make us wear tracking devices ... to find the bodies 😆

The Oswald father/son duo also cleared the course, but came in over time, so were deducted 2 CP's, I think.  This would put me ahead of them, based on time.  After talking to them at the post race meal, their first goal is always to clear, even if it penalizes them.  Now that is a goal that I hope to one day achieve, but within the time allotment.

I felt that this race was a good one to dip my toe into the solo category.  Now that I have gained some confidence, my next goal will be to enter a solo race where I am not as familiar with the territory.  I also like the 10 hour length, but hope to one day step up to the 24-30 hour distance.  Just gotta find one that doesn't have 20+ miles of paddling all at once.  I hate paddling!

I want to give Jim Farmer a huge thumbs up for a great and challenging course that allowed us to choose our own adventure. I cannot even begin to imagine the number of hours and miles biked and walked to lay out this course.  Thanks to Susie for allowing him to do this and staying sane.  The volunteers were awesome and upbeat!  And to Warrior Racing for getting me hooked ... I hope that this navigation thing will stave off dementia, as adventure racing is mentally challenging.