On Friday, May 9th, 2014, Tony Branam, Jason James, Justin Rueckert and I ran the Ridge Trail in the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. We started in Ewing, VA and followed the ridge trail to the pinnacle and then down to Iron Furnace in Cumberland Gap, TN. The whole trip was about 20 miles with 4,062 ft of elevation gain. We started at 7 am and finished around 11:20 am.
It was definitely one of the most beautiful trail runs that I have done. I really enjoyed it. The views make up for the challenging terrain. It follows the top of the mountain ridge the entire way. We used Hensley Settlement as our aid station to refill our packs and water bottles. At Hensley, there is a spigot with clean water.
Once you get past the initial climb, the rest of the run is not bad. There was a lot of ups and downs, but a very run-able course. Below is the map and elevation profile.
This is actually the first 20 miles of the Cumberland Gap Ridge Trail Marathon and then it continues on into the hills behind LMU and ends in Cumberland Gap, VA. I love this trail and I recommend it for anyone wanting a beautiful, challenging and rewarding long run.
I finished my first 50 Miler. I went down to Alabama and raced it with my brother-in-law, Neal (the guy that introduced me to trail running a year ago.) What a run!!! The rain made it feel like it was a tough mudder at times, but 50 miles long. We ran a 25 mile loop twice. There were two aid stations #1 The Stables (Start/finish/aid station) and #2 Heavens Hills (the only decent view on the course.)
My initial plan was to run the race with my Salomon hydration pack. However, after talking with Neal, I decided to start out with a water bottle and switch to a pack if I needed since the aid stations were about 6 miles apart and very well stocked. I loved running with a water bottle and I never switched to the pack. Water bottle the whole way.
Here is Neal and I before the race. All smiles then.
We started the race in some light rain which picked up a little as the race went on. Here is a picture of me pulling into the Heavens Hills aid station.
Heavens Hills aid station was pretty good. I liked all the food choices. The first 18 miles was pretty good, I took it easy which paid off in the end. One thing I love about trail runners is how friendly they are. I paced with a 100 mile racer from Fort Worth named Gerardo Ramirez. He does races like this every couple weeks, I gathered. Anyway, we had some good conversations, great guy. Later on, I found out he got 1st place in the 100 miler. I was pretty happy for him. later on around 15 miles, my mind wandered and I took a wrong turn. I realized it about 1/3 of a mile into my new path, and I turned around and went back. I cannot explain to you the discouragement one can feel when they take a wrong turn at one of these ultras. I had to quickly forget about it and move on. I pulled into the stables aid station at 18 miles feeling pretty good. I set off to do the south loop. For some reason, I hated the south loop. I did not have fun on that loop. I don't know why. Later on, Neal told me that was one of his favorite sections, lol.
When I pulled into the half way point back to the stables, Kat, Kristin and the kids surprised us to cheer us on. That was SOOOOO motivating. I am so grateful they were there. It gave me the boost I needed to go run another 25 miles. I pulled into the half way point about 10 minutes after Neal at about 4 hours and 50 min. Here is Neal pulling in at 25 miles.
Here are some pics that Kat got of me finishing the first 25 mile loop.
It was awesome to see Ivy. She really gave me a lot of motivation. Here are some pics at the aid station at 25 miles. I had a drop bag and I changed my shoes, socks and got a new shirt.
I filled up the water battle, got some grub, gave my little girl a kiss and headed off to do another 25 miles.
It was AMAZING to change into dry socks and dry shoes. But, it really only lasted a couple of miles before they got wet again. Here are a few pics of the surrounding areas.
Here is Kristin and Noah by the stables. Thanks again for coming guys. It meant a lot, really.
The last 25 mile loop was very hard. It was muddy and wet. Looped courses are not fun in the rain because the mud gets worse and worse. I slid and fell a couple times. I got some good battle scars to show my wife :) I had never run past 32ish miles before this race, so I was venturing into new territory. At the 32 mile aid station, I was so hungry, I over ate and I felt it on the next section of the run. I was careful not to over eat again. I honestly can't really remember many of my thoughts on that last loop. I just remember being tired and I just keep chugging along. Its funny, during the first half of the race, I was social with people. But during the second half, I just wanted to run alone. It was pretty thinned out by then anyway, so I didn't see anyone. One guy came cruising along and passed me. I just wanted to say "Uh, what have you been doing the last 38 miles?" From then on out, I passed a few people that were caught up at aid stations and what not.
I do remember dreading the last 7 mile south loop. My main goal was to finish under 11 hours. So during that last loop, I picked it up a little bit. I really tried to enjoy it as much as I could. :) I actually passed about 3 people on that last south loop. Neal said I would see some carnage out there and he was right. These people were trying so hard to move their legs, but were having the hardest time.
I pulled in under my goal at 10 hours and 51 minutes. I was SO happy that I reached my goal of under 11 hours. Here is a short video that Neal caught of me finishing the race. I did receive a good welcome from the spectators. You will notice that I ran into the Stables to tell the guy that I finished lol.
I felt pretty good after the race. It was such a relief to be done. I was SO happy that it was over. I just wanted to relax. I went and took a shower and sat down and ate some cookies and about 3 bowls of chili. Here are some pics in the stables after the race.
I ended up getting 16th out of 78 starters and I was pretty happy about that. Neal did awesome. He got 9th and finished at 10 hours. He told me that it was one of the hardest 50s he has done. We both agreed that a point to point with views would be more ideal, but we were glad that we were able to do the race together before they head back to California.
I weighed about 185 lbs for this race. For my next ultra, I want to weigh about 175 lbs. I still feel like I was a little heavy for this distance. The recovery was far more fatiguing than any other race that I have ever done. I felt tired for about a week after. I was just exhausted. My MCL was a little sprained, but I am getting over it. I tried to drink and eat as much as I could after the race, but my immune system was still a little suppressed from the run. I got a little cold, but it didn't last long.
Not only was it a good physical exercise (understatement), it was an awesome mental exercise. I know that there are gonna be many long, tiring days and night ahead of me during medical school and residency and I say, Bring it on. I know what it is like to be fatigued, I know what it is like to be in pain. I know what it is like to be tempted to quit. AND I know what it is like to finish!!! I'll do it again.
Thanks Kat for letting me do this race and for supporting me during the training. You are the best!!!
I had been eyeing this race since November. After the crazy elevation in the Georgia Sky to Summit, I wanted a break and this was the perfect race. They did a great job with the race. It was two loops around Fort Yargo Lake. My 1st half marathon loop was 1:57 and my 2nd was 2:12.
When I got there, I saw this awesome Muscle Milk Jeep. I wouldn't mind having one of these.
I grew out a beard for this race because I was training in the coldest of the cold. Many of my training runs were in the snow. So my beard was my permanent ski mask.
The race felt good. I had two goals. I wanted to get 4:30 or below and the second was that I wanted to see how close I could get to 4 hours. So I was pretty happy with 4:09 considering it was trail. I loved running along the shore of the lake and as I have mentioned before, I love running in tall pine trees. Georgia has plenty of that. I got 30th overall and 3rd in the 25-29 age group. There were only like 7 people in my age group, but hey, it felt good to get another medal.
Jason pulled in a little later and I was very pleased when he wasn't crossing the finish line cursing me. He said he enjoyed it. We got medals AND sack lunches AND they served us pizza at the end of the race. I think I ate about 7 pieces. That was awesome. NO SHAME, I just ran a marathon.
I felt really good at the end of the race. Although, at mile 24, I got really light headed. I am not sure why. I have been thinking about that ever since. I think I may not have fueled enough. I did have some food, but maybe not as much as I should have. Overall, the race was awesome. I love being able to fly through trails in the woods.
Jason and I were looking for a 50k to do. The Stumpjump 50k was sold out so we found this one. It looked so appealing with the views and the climbs. It was the inaugural race for the GS2S 50k. Runbum did a great job putting the race on. We climbed the summit of Rabun Bald (the second highest peak in Georgia) twice. There were three major climbs in this race as you can see by the elevation profile. The last one did about kill me. But we got to end with a nice two mile downhill.
The night before, we met up with Run Bum and the other runners at a lookout point that overlooks Clayton, GA. It was beautiful. A ranger told us all about the area. Then we found this italian place to eat pasta. Zeppelin's Pasta House. It was AWESOME. The lady that ran the place was the chef and everyone called her Mama.
The morning of the race was FREEZING, about 26 degrees F. Don't worry, it got warmer throughout the day. I always like to wear my BYU beanie and I found two other runners there wearing BYU apparel. Madison did the 8.5 miler that summits Rabun Bald once. She did great.
The race started and we climbed 4.5 miles up to Rabun Bald. Then descended about 7 miles down to a turn around. At the turn around there was an aid station with lots of warm food and a fire. I loved that aid station. Jason caught a video of me leaving the aid station.
Then we climbed back up to Rabun Bald. On the climb, my socks were falling in the back and the shoe was rubbing on my heel. LESSON: Wear good socks. I changed socks when I got to the tower at the summit, but that didn't help much cause I just changed into the same junk socks, just dry ones. I made sure to drink electrolytes at every aid station. A guy at the top gave me some electrolyte caps which were great too. In this video, I was 18.5 miles in.
Then I started my second decent down from Rabun Bald. It was pretty steep, I couldn't run for about the first quarter of a mile because it was steep and technical. Then we went through a gorgeous area on the back side of the mountain.
We got down to a gravel road where the next aid station awaited us. It had TONS of food. I literally had 2 slices of pumpkin pie. They had the music blaring and I did not want to leave. But I did. and I headed up the gravel road.
After a mile or so on the gravel road, we popped onto more single track and I passed by this sweet waterfall.
Before the run, I had studied out the course and thought that the 3rd and final climb would be the easiest. I was WRONG!!! It was the hardest. At times, I was grabbing onto roots above me to help me pull myself up. It was rough. I thought there was an aid station soon, but there WASN'T. I ran out of water because I didn't fill up at the previous one and didn't have any for about 2 miles. After 27 miles, you need to constantly have water with you. It got hard. Another LESSON LEARNED. Fill up at every aid station. The last aid station was at 29 miles. I had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, m&ms and lots of Gatorade. Then the last two miles were pavement all down hill. Not bad at all. I pulled in at 7:16. I changed into dry clothes and had the post race pasta.
Jason finished a little later yelling "I hate you Sam!!!" as he crossed the finish line. I guess I had coerced him into the race. I am so persuasive without even trying :)
Anyway, Georgia Sky to Summit 50k was everything we had hoped and dreamed...PAIN and BEAUTY!!!
Besides getting stung by bee's, I loved this run. Starting the race with a downhill is the best thing in the world. You get warmed up, your joints loose with not much effort. I MADE sure to have water with me this time, so I bought a pack. The purchase was well worth it. I made sure to start off the race slower than I wanted to and that made all the difference in the world.
The run was very scenic. We ran under these big rock overhangs a few times that were awesome. Then my other favorite part was running along the ridge with a cool view of the river. Tennessee is awesome. The scenery is a very motivating factor believe it or not.
So as I was running, I heard this girl about a 100 ft. in front of me yell one of my favorite swear words and I was thinking, oh man, I hope she didn't fall and twist her ankle. Then about 10 seconds later, I felt two stings on my leg which make me shout out. It DID make me run faster when I realized I was being stung by bees. Then about 15 seconds later, I hear the guy behind me yell in pain. When the race finished, everyone was talking about how many bee stings they had. It turned into a bragging fest. It made me wish I was stung by more when I had to say "only two bees stung me."
This was meant to be a training run leading up to my first 50k. It was only an hour away and I needed the distance, so I said why not AND I am sure glad I did because they served us BBQ at the end!!! Ohhh yeah. Awesome event.
This race was 7 months ago, but I will try to remember some details. This was my FIRST trail race that I participated in. I didn't get any sleep the night before because I was so excited for the race. The 10k runners did the first 6.1 miles with us and we kept on going. Some things that I learned were:
Don't start the race off too fast
CARRY some sort of water (this was my first event, I didn't know anything)
I probably learned more, but this is all I can remember. I was SO tired at the end of the race, which is funny now because I can run 30 miles and feel less tired today than I felt after that half marathon in August. I thought the trails were very fun, I loved running through the tall pines. It was a very hilly, up and down course, which I did not train for very well. Overall, it was a great first race to get my feet wet.
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