Kicking off the race season, Southern-Style

Sunday kicked off the 2010 Rock/Creek Trail Series, with the 2nd annual Southern 6 hosted on the beautiful Biology Trails of Southern Adventist University. The school is located in Collegedale, east of Chattanooga. Not near Lookout, Raccoon or Signal Mtns and not as far as Cherokee, but fear not: those ridges in the hills over there are something to respect!

Our random weather patterns actually worked in our favor today, with gorgeous sunny skies and warm temps. Spring fever fueled many, with over 180 runners toeing the start line - lots of fast folks itching to start their season and lots of first-timers acting on their new years resolutions. With my big race looming next weekend, I wasn't expecting much, but it's hard to stay away from a great local race :)

©LGmacfan

The race started with a short road prologue before hitting the trails. I tried to get a decent position going in, with a few strong ladies in front of me. Then the trail turned… straight up. And then up some more. Wow! I was immediately happy I shed my jacket moments before the start as I was overheating already. I was testing out a new pair of shoes today that I was super excited about - the Mindbender, a new addition to Vasque's spring line. When I first put on this shoe, it felt like it was made for my foot. The low profile kept me nimble on the trail, with solid footing the whole time. (totally toying with the idea of using these next weekend, although I know they may be too new to commit to a big race. hmmm..... ) I tried to keep a consistent, easy pace, keeping speedy Belinda and young 13-year old running whiz Sarah within sight. It was hard to hold on at times, but finally I got my chance to slip by Sarah on a downhill, hoping my longer legs & experience could hold on. Once we hit the pavement, I pushed harder - even though I knew I couldn't catch Belinda, I could hear footsteps closing in and didn't want any last minute surprises. (and I held off that surprise by 2 seconds - phew!)

©LGmacfan

I finished 4th in the women's open division - very happy to be so close to such speedy talent!

The gear:
Vasque Mindbenders - on the feet
Patagonia Capilene 1 - shirt
Pearl Izumi - knickers
Smartwool - socks
Ultimate Directions - handheld
Nuun - in the bottle
Headsweats - visor

Mullens Cove Loop

Wendy, Yoli & I checked out the Mullen's Cove loop today. It's featured in the upcoming River Gorge race as well as Stumpjump 50k in the fall. With all the recent rain, the dampness made for treacherous rock scrambles (the Blurs had great grip and handled the task like a champ!); however, the creeks were full and waterfalls plentiful!


Snoopers Rock

















Yes, that is the trail!

caving!

well, not an official caving outing, but we were in one so that counts, right?! granted i was in new running tights and vest (not the onesie official suits my crazy friend e.bee sports) so i wasn't eager to slide through the tight spots, but i did get sufficiently muddy and had a ton of fun.


the caves - or really cave, as i believe it was one long one with a few entrances - was on top of montlake, near the town of sewanee. officially, it is called Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lee Carter Natural Area. there was a 2 mile hike to the caves and with the rainy conditions as of late, it was a bit treacherous (and tiresome after racing wauhatchie this morning), with lots of rocks surrounded by clay-like mud. the caves themselves were awesome! i'm not sure i've ever really been in one. maybe a small one that you peer into, but this was huge - the entrance (of Peter I believe) was apparently 80ft high and 100ft wide. we climbed down and once over a lip, headlamps were on as it was completely dark. not 1 fleck of natural light anywhere.

middle cave entrance

the creek is right behind me... hard to see though

what's supercool about this cave is that a river runs right through it! it was flowing fast too - definitely some class 2 stuff inside, and 3+ outside. i did get a bit nervous at times. ever since the race at fall creek falls (and that damn canyoneering section), i don't trust myself enough on slick rocks and the last thing i wanted to do was have an impromptu swim. we must have been inside 1-1.5 hrs exploring. unfortunately the high water levels forced us to make it a there & back trek. would be cool to go back and hike the whole thing when the creek is lower.

above: the end of today's trek

the next 3 pics are standing in 1 spot.... creek exiting buggytop,
churning rapids, then the creek raging onward.

upchuck 50k

Our weekend adventures on the Cumberland Trail continued today with the 6th event in the Rock/Creek Trail Series: The Upchuck 50k. While I've been running much more lately, I didn't want to commit to the full 50, so some friends joined me on a tour of the Soddy Segment - about 16 miles of fun.

The story of the beginning of the Upchuck is a funny one (yes, it did deal with one of my teammate's upchucking during a training run on these trails). The Cumberland Trail is awesome, but tough. Opportunities for aid stations along the way are few and far between. So when we wanted to include this race in our series this year, we emphasized that this was NOT for beginners; that it would be primarily self-supported; that you would get wet from creek crossings. As if that wasn't epic enough, today's weather added to the adventure. The temp when I left my house at 8:30 was 52. It was a few degrees colder at the start, and only dropped as the day went on. The rain continued intermittently throughout the day (as it has for the previous 24hrs), with a few sleet showers thrown in and wind gusts up to 25mph. Yeah, not a day for the faint of heart.

Luckily though, we were only out for 4 hrs; I don't know how long it took the winners, or my friends sweeping the course (by then I was dethawing in a hot shower :P ) Anyways, here's a few pics from the day...

Oh, and the race logo was courtesy of me... thanks to chad for being my model!

the sleet was really coming down here although it's hard to see

Stephen Smith, 3rd place male at this point

Autumn on the Cumberland Trail

This is the BEST time to explore the trails... color everywhere! It does make for tricky footing though... Here are 2 recent runs:

Piney River

Possum Creek Gorge

Chattanooga Press

Chattanooga has been featured in several mags lately as one of the cool places to be. Last month's Outside Magazine chose Chatt as the #2 "Best Towns in America".  The September issue of National Geographic Adventure Magazine includes Chattanooga in its cover article, “Where to Live and Play Now: The 50 Next Great Towns." They did a small interview with me about my move from Atl to Chatt. Check it out!

Waterfront Triathlon

I've been a bit bad about writing lately, so I'll do a few quick posts to catch things up...

Last weekend was the BMW of Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon (yep, there's that site I designed again!) While I did the whole event last year, this time around I was only interested in the bike portion (just not enough of the other stuff going on), so I recruited a few friends to team up with me: Carol (who's becoming my #1 relay teammie - we've done Tsali the last 2 years together), and Kelly (who filled in for Michelle who couldn't make it down). We thought we had a solid team, although it's typical that the local high school all star athletes put together some ringer team, so who knows what we were in for.

Race weekend was fun - I had some friends in from out of town that crashed at my house, which meant some late nights. They weren't racing (just promoting their company, TriathlonDVD.com, so they didn't need the quality sleep I did!) Saturday we had some good storms - no worries, as long as mother nature got it out of her system. 

Well, she didn't. Sunday morning came along....  the rising sun just never broke through the clouds, which became increasingly dark and angry as the minutes ticked by. Carol began the race as our swimmer, getting in the water shortly after the start at 7:30am. Us bike relay people were in the transition area tent, eyeing the sky. Sure enough, about 5 minutes before Carol emerged from the water, the big drops started to dump. *lovely* Everyone knows how much I hate skinny tires on wet pavement. I usually avoid weather like this so my experience riding in it is scarce. 

Carol ran in, gave me the timing band, I ran to my bike and was off (trying not to slip as I pushed my bike down to the mounting area). The bike course is pretty cool, which is why I really wanted to do this race. From the riverfront, we head up MLK and hop on Highway 27. It's the main access road from I75/I24 through downtown. Long, swoopy and pretty straight. I don't know the elevation gain during these 40km, but it's pretty sizable for a tri apparently. My concern was riding on a well-traveled highway, and what the rain would do to the oil drips from cars that I was certain were running right through the middle of our lane (1 lane was used for cars, 1 for bikes). The left side of our lane was used for passing bikes, and I wanted to stay clear of the center, but riding in the right side of the lane was sketch as that was closest to the auto traffic. I just stayed focused and steady and did what I could. 

It rained steady for the first third of the course, then slowed to a sprinkle (not that the roads got any dryer!) Thank god for race adrenaline, as I think that gave me the confidence to keep a pretty steady pace... around 19mph. Not great, but faster than last year and not bad for crappy weather conditions that had me tense. I made it back into transition in one piece without sliding out (unfortunately several others did), and sent Kelly to attack the 10k run.

As racers finished and results were posted, it seems the women's relay was conveniently left out. We stuck around for the awards.. just in case. It's funny... we all thought our personal performances were rather mediocre... that if anything did happen , it was due to the awesome efforts of the other two. Well, our collective mediocrity still kicked ass, as we won our division! We got some cool etched wine glasses (that I have yet to break in) and Hammer Gel (always good to have as I suck that stuff down). 

A few pics.... the trio courtesy of Brightroom Photography.

trail running article

read the article from monday's interview. a few quotes by yours truly, along with some video footage. (none of me swatting bees though. but oh, look at all that lovely poison ivy everywhere that is now coming up on me; at least my face is looking almost normal!)

the videographer should have told us to hush up, as mark's interview has lots of background noise. sorry!

beware the death cookies

2 thursdays ago i played hookie and met up with some friends to go mountain biking out in tellico plains. zeke and i stopped at a great bakery/coffeeshop downtown (i'm not sure the name of it but i highly recommend!)  then headed to our meeting spot at north river campgrounds, where van and carey were waiting for us. the day began with a 2.5hr climb on forest service roads (with a little paved mixed in). yeah, what a way to warm up! the grade was never that bad, but consistent, climbing from around 1100' to 5000'. our efforts were rewarded with our arrival at an scenic bald covered with wildflowers. in the distance we could see the cherohala skyway (where i thought i would be today). 

after some refueling, we backtracked briefly before hitting some singletrack. now this isn't the groomed flowy stuff i've been riding as of late; it was rough, overgrown, barely used, raw stuff. it reminded me of trails we'd hit on remote adventure races.. the road much less traveled. then throw in the rocks/boulders, and it became very pisgah-esque. that's where the "death cookies" (named by carey) entered the picture. we'd be riding along, then the randomly placed loose rock would jump in front of your wheel and just stop it. as long as you could see around the overgrown brush, you could navigate around these suckers, but every once in awhile they could catch you by surprise. luckily, no unplanned dismounts!

the ride was awesome - quite nice to escape to some place new & explore without much of a plan. looking forward to the next mid-week rendezvous soon i hope!

bald river falls

carey & van

zeke & carey

speaking of sports + design...

a website i designed for the bmw of chattanooga waterfront triathlon went live recently. big thanks to the team at technology projects for their expertise in programming (i stick to the visual stuff and leave the code to others) and the chattanooga track club for letting me have some fun.

in the green at the Greenway Challenge

jim and carol put on a small adventure race, the greenway challenge, every year to benefit the north chickamauga creek conservancy. in the past, it has been a team-oriented event; this year though, jim changed it up offering only solo & relay divisions. unfortunately the event didn't sell out this year, but we still had a great crowd and raised between $2000 & $3000 for the conservancy (much needed after a fire they had this spring that destroyed a barn full of paddling equipment).

while the masses may not have liked the new format, it suited me well with the training i've been doing lately. well, sort of. the short speed stuff hasn't been a focus, but hopefully i've had enough of it to not totally blow up after the first leg. it would be an interesting race though - some top female athletes were coming and it ended up being one of our hottest days yet.

the open men solo started at 9:30, then we took off 10 minutes later. (the remaining divisions were scattered after us which seemed to ease potential congestion on the trail.) we staged our bikes at the top of a hill and had a le mans start. the problem was, i dropped off my bike when not many were up there so i hesitated a minute before finding it and hopping on. lisa & patsy already built up a nice lead - i knew they'd be duking it out the entire race and that i wouldn't factor much into their game. heather was right there with me and we yo-yo'd during much of the bike leg. she's a super fast runner, but i haven't seen her on the bike in awhile so i thought i might have a chance. we wound around the wildflower field and encountered a few cyclocross barriers. yeah! i definitely made up time here and pulled ahead; however, it proved to be not enough, as she passed on a paved section a bit later. darn! i was trying to pace myself as i was already dripping with sweat, but at the same time knew that the race was short and you had to go all out the entire time (and perhaps suffer the consequences). 

next up was a short singletrack section that i think i got to ride for the first time. usually things are so backed up here that we are forced to walk, but the new format helped. we encountered the lead males as they ran a short section on foot, but there was plenty of room for us to work around eachother. back to the gravel roads and then it was full steam ahead to the transition area - but not before gingerly stepping through a giant cobweb challenge (imagine knee-high strings crisscrossing... you had to carry your bike across and try not to trip. luckily i cleaned it both times we had to go through it). 

back to the TA - change shoes, grab water, gel & ecaps - and off on the run. we began with a rarely used trail that abruptly ended with a 200' scramble to the highest point on the farm. i heard this was going to be nasty, but it actually wasn't as bad as i thought. i was able to pass 3 guys here that were thinking way too hard about finding the best path. just go! the only thing that sucked about this was the mega amounts of poison ivy that seems to flourish in this drought the south is having. (and yes, it started popping up on me within 30 hrs of exposure, despite scrubbing twice with Tecnu. normally it takes me 3-5 days to see symptoms; i really hope this isn't going to be a bad case!)

once on top, we hit a trail and could once again run in a normal gait. the problem was my entire torso was cramping up and i was doubled over doing the old man shuffle for a bit. i think my waistpack was too loose and the bouncing around was the culprit. ?!?  anyways, after 5 min of this (and frantically looking over my shoulder to make sure no girls were behind me), i was feeling normal again. we ran through the rope challenge area and had 2 obstacles here (easy!) then off for a loop on the boy scout trail. i was doing most of the passing until my rock/creek teammate jaclyn was nipping at my heels. (i was hoping she'd be whooped still from her win at the scenic city marathon last weekend, but alas, she has superhuman legs.) i let her by and tried to keep her in sight for as long as possible (which wasn't long enough!). we hit the razorback ridge trail alongside the quarry (beautiful, but treacherous with rocks and cliffs), then another singetrack section before heading towards the TA. 

after another rope challenge (crawling underneath a bunch), we ran to where our boats were staged. i had one of those weird heart palpitation things when carrying my boat to the water. i had to slow to a walk just so i could keep moving forward and not fall over. i was happy that i could get off my feet and recover quick; when this happened during the duathlon run, it lost me several minutes. sitting down in the boat helped and i was able to regain focus quickly. the paddle was nice and peaceful and mostly shaded (yeah!). i passed a few boats here - thanks to carol for letting me borrow her speedy perception cadence (hhmm, maybe this would be a good tsali boat?!) only 1 mishap on the water - when going under a low hanging branch, my tifosis got snagged and fell in the water. dang! i'm moving forward at a fairly decent speed; do i stop in hopes of finding them, but risk 6th place catching me? no! (i figured they sunk quickly anyways.) so on i go. i could see jaclyn ahead, but our paces were similar so there was no catching her. 

my final time (1:39.42) was less than 1.5 minutes behind her. 1st place (patsy!) was at 1:27, so the 5 of us were relatively close together (6th was another 10 min back). in all, i was super pleased with the result. everyone that i thought would be head of me was; no one snuck by that shouldn't. and best of all, i finished in the money! granted it was just $20, but will come to great use in replacing the sunglasses. (and at least this green won't give me a blistering rash that drives me nuts for a week or two. ugh!)

the day ended with complimentary pressure point massages, lupi's pizza, lots of smiling faces and lots of sun (but no burn thankfully!). it has been fun to hear about the experiences of the AR newbies - hopefully they had a great time as well and will try one again soon (and practice running up hills in the meantime - yes, even if there's not a trail we still run!)

i don't have any action shots of me yet, but here's a nice video from the local paper, as well as a few pics.

running with the boonies

last weekend was the scenic city trail marathon, sponsored by rock/creek & the boonies and presented by vasque. the weekend kicked off with the trail running 101 clinic i gave at rock/creek. i was a bit nervous, but the presentation went great! there was about 25-30 people there and thankfully none of my friends made faces at me :)  

saturday morning started early - i was up at raccoon mtn a bit before 7 to get the east overlook aid station set up. lynn seeger & sheridan ames manned the station with me, which was mile 3 & mile 15 (the marathon was a 2-loop course). the day started cool, got hot, rained, and cooled down to a very pleasant afternoon. we had a great time keeping people fueled and hydrated. the first lap had people pretty stacked, but i was able to whip out the camera during the second lap.

while it was hard to sit this race out, i know it was what my body needed. plus it was great fun to cheer on all my teammates and friends during the day. next time i'll be out there with you!