It has almost been a full week since the running of this phenomenal race and I am just now getting around to writing a report. Kinda tells you how busy I have been lately. Anyway, I can not say enough about how awesome the course is and the organization as well. Mad A does a great job organizing this beast with perfectly laid out aid drops along the way. I never ran out of water or gels for this run and I might have come the closest to eating and hydrating correctly in a run of this magnitude. Although, I definitely did not run this race at "race" pace and very well could have bonked if I did. Well, onto the detailed report...
...Damian, Isaiah, El Guapo, and myself headed off from the Folk Art Center around 7:20 right as the sun was rising. The colors were amazing as the mornings light began to strike the golds, oranges, and reds of the autumn's leaves. There isn't a better time to run than when the leaves start to change. Usually, temperatures are going to be perfect, the skies are going to be clear, and the air will feel crisp. It sure did today. We all decided to stay together as long as we all felt good during the run and did just that for a whole marathon before splitting up as we headed over Blackstock Knob. I tried to stay on Damian's heels, but he was obviously feeling really good and I was just feeling good. Surprising considering we were 7+ hours into the run. Running with Damian and Isaiah was great for keeping the pace easy and enjoying the run instead of fighting it for a fast time. I had left my inhibition to set the FKT at the door that morning after feeling a cold coming on the night before. What a great idea. I haven't enjoyed a run this much since Rattle My Heart 50k back in February, although I have had some great runs during that time. I never really felt tired until I got to the flat Buncombe Horse Trail and realized that I would have to actually "run" for the first time the whole day. The running I had been doing before this was mostly aided by gravity. So after "running" 29 miles and 8 hours I was actually running and I could only muster out 3.5 miles of maybe 10 minute pace shuffling before I knew I was walking the rest of the way up to Mitchell. I really didn't care and was just glad to be climbing up Camp Alice trail less than a mile from the summit. As soon as I hit the paved walkway to to viewing tower though, I picked the pace back up and ran all the way to the top (maybe 100m). I asked a fellow observer of the beauty that lay before us atop Mt Mitchell the time and realized that I just finished my first FAC 50k in 9:10. This is about an hour off the time I was wanting to do going into the run, but it was exactly the time I wanted to run that day. You couldn't have asked for a better day to be running though the mountains!
Friday, October 21, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
FAC 50k Preview
Its been awhile since my last post and a lot has happened since then including a phenomenally important training run for the FAC 50k, which is coming up this weekend. The legs have felt good since that 29 mile outing on the MST a couple of weeks ago and I am ready to tackle this beast. Here is a little background info on this run for those who follow me and aren't apart of WNC Trailrunner, which you should be by the way!
The FAC 50k is the half portion of the Pitchell 100k, a run that starts at midnight on top of Mt Pisgah to the top of Mt Mitchell 67 miles away on the Mountains to Sea Trail. Here is what the info page says of the run: The Pitchell.....where to begin? This is one truly epic adventure! Hope you can be a part! Birthed by the mind of Mad A (Adam Hill) in 2004, this run has proven to be quite the challenge by the terrain layed forth in the mountains surrounding Asheville, NC, as well as the finicky weather in the month of October. Start at midnight on the summit of Mt. Pisgah and run, hike, and crawl 67 miles to the finish on the summit of Mt. Mitchell! Not ready for that much challenge? Join in for the FAC 50k...run from the Folk Art Center to the summit of Mitchell with a start time of 6 am. Almost all of the route follows the Mountains to Sea Trail and is pretty much all singletrack with the exception of about 3 miles of doubletrack! (More info here- see Section 7,8, & 9).
The weather is looking to be great this weekend with temps between 40-65 all day. As much as I wanted to run Pitchell this year, that last 29 mile training run revealed to me that I was not ready to tackle this beast. Two and half hours into the run I was already feeling pretty fatigued and this was on a much easier run. Visions of me stumbling down Shut-In and into my car at the Folk Art Center already were creeping into my head. I finally made the final decision to switch to the junior varsity race and attempt to run the FKT for the FAC 50k. This will still not be an easy feat as the record is 8:29 set by Andrew Moore who is a solid runner and seems to be right with me on all of the big runs we've done together. All I can do is hope that my body responds well to the challenge and doesn't shut down on me. Either way it will be a blast and at least I get to run through the beautiful fall foliage and summit one of the most iconic mountains in the East.
Oh yea, Matt Kirk has just thrown his hat in for the 50k and if he tries to "run" it then I can kiss the FKT goodbye. Matt just earned the title of Kitsuma Krunk! 'Nuff said!
The FAC 50k is the half portion of the Pitchell 100k, a run that starts at midnight on top of Mt Pisgah to the top of Mt Mitchell 67 miles away on the Mountains to Sea Trail. Here is what the info page says of the run: The Pitchell.....where to begin? This is one truly epic adventure! Hope you can be a part! Birthed by the mind of Mad A (Adam Hill) in 2004, this run has proven to be quite the challenge by the terrain layed forth in the mountains surrounding Asheville, NC, as well as the finicky weather in the month of October. Start at midnight on the summit of Mt. Pisgah and run, hike, and crawl 67 miles to the finish on the summit of Mt. Mitchell! Not ready for that much challenge? Join in for the FAC 50k...run from the Folk Art Center to the summit of Mitchell with a start time of 6 am. Almost all of the route follows the Mountains to Sea Trail and is pretty much all singletrack with the exception of about 3 miles of doubletrack! (More info here- see Section 7,8, & 9).
The weather is looking to be great this weekend with temps between 40-65 all day. As much as I wanted to run Pitchell this year, that last 29 mile training run revealed to me that I was not ready to tackle this beast. Two and half hours into the run I was already feeling pretty fatigued and this was on a much easier run. Visions of me stumbling down Shut-In and into my car at the Folk Art Center already were creeping into my head. I finally made the final decision to switch to the junior varsity race and attempt to run the FKT for the FAC 50k. This will still not be an easy feat as the record is 8:29 set by Andrew Moore who is a solid runner and seems to be right with me on all of the big runs we've done together. All I can do is hope that my body responds well to the challenge and doesn't shut down on me. Either way it will be a blast and at least I get to run through the beautiful fall foliage and summit one of the most iconic mountains in the East.
Oh yea, Matt Kirk has just thrown his hat in for the 50k and if he tries to "run" it then I can kiss the FKT goodbye. Matt just earned the title of Kitsuma Krunk! 'Nuff said!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Another New Little Hump Challenge PR!!!!
Heading out Saturday morning from my new residence in Mocksville to the start of the challenge, I would have never thought I would even come close to beating my previous PR of 1:55:30. In fact, I was expecting to run no better than 2 hours on this run. I relayed the same message to everyone at the start and seeing everyone take off ahead of me was a bit demoralizing, but expected. So I just put my head down (no views today anyway), and ran at a pace that I felt I could maintain. I power-hiked all of the extremely steep stuff on the OVT, which I usually try to run a bit of and didn't really care what my watch said. In my mind there was no way I was going to climb any faster than my previous best, but when I got to Yellow Mtn Gap and took my first split, it was 2+ minutes faster than my best. I really didn't think much of it and just kept doing what I was doing the rest of the way up the AT to Little Hump.
When I took my split at the turnaround I realized I just took off two minutes from my fastest climb. Maybe it was the lack of views, as I could only see 15 ft in front of me due to some heavy fog, but it revived me and I knew I could make it back down just as fast as before. Then, I turned on the jets and shaved another 2 minutes off my time on the descent. I set a 4 minute PR and came in at 1:51:10!!! Here are the splits from my previous best 1:55:30 (48:28,20:12) - 1:08:40 (13:13, 33:37) - 46:50 and my new best 1:51:10 (45:55, 20:33) - 1:06:29 (13:05, 31:36) - 44:44.
All of this was very surprising considering I thought I wasn't in as good of mountain running shape as I was when I set my old PR. I guess all the vertical I got at Hanging Rock State Park this summer is still with me or maybe the speed sessions I've been doing is getting my legs used to quicker turnover. Whatever it is, I just got a huge confidence boost in my running. Now to go out and get some more miles on the legs on some new trail at Lake Norman State Park!
Also congratulations to Tim Weed (1:34:21), Adam Hill (1:35:20), Lindsay Weed (2:03:31), and Rick Merriman for doing an equally hard summit run, just to the wrong summit. He actually summited Big Yellow Mtn, which would have been even more of a beautiful sight if not for the fog. The bench mark has been set by Tim and Adam with their stellar times! Those are going to be hard to beat!
When I took my split at the turnaround I realized I just took off two minutes from my fastest climb. Maybe it was the lack of views, as I could only see 15 ft in front of me due to some heavy fog, but it revived me and I knew I could make it back down just as fast as before. Then, I turned on the jets and shaved another 2 minutes off my time on the descent. I set a 4 minute PR and came in at 1:51:10!!! Here are the splits from my previous best 1:55:30 (48:28,20:12) - 1:08:40 (13:13, 33:37) - 46:50 and my new best 1:51:10 (45:55, 20:33) - 1:06:29 (13:05, 31:36) - 44:44.
All of this was very surprising considering I thought I wasn't in as good of mountain running shape as I was when I set my old PR. I guess all the vertical I got at Hanging Rock State Park this summer is still with me or maybe the speed sessions I've been doing is getting my legs used to quicker turnover. Whatever it is, I just got a huge confidence boost in my running. Now to go out and get some more miles on the legs on some new trail at Lake Norman State Park!
Also congratulations to Tim Weed (1:34:21), Adam Hill (1:35:20), Lindsay Weed (2:03:31), and Rick Merriman for doing an equally hard summit run, just to the wrong summit. He actually summited Big Yellow Mtn, which would have been even more of a beautiful sight if not for the fog. The bench mark has been set by Tim and Adam with their stellar times! Those are going to be hard to beat!
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