Today is July 3rd.
The FL National Forest is situated on a long ridge that divides the two lakes. It’s high up, plateau like, so that the views from the topmost pastures are pretty sweet.
The course is a 25K-ish loop, repeated once for the 50k. The fifty miler is 3 loops of the main course plus a short finishing loop. This year’s race eliminated the northernmost portion in favor of a new section on the south end of the course. This was much to my liking. It added some hills and shaded forest and subtracted some sun exposure, roots and mud. The trail was pretty dry this year – last year after weeks of major rainstorms it was ankle deep in mud.
The race started with the usual instruction: “don’t let the cows out.” The trail passes through a couple high pastures with panoramic views and (potentially) cows. Joe Reynolds reminds us: “you must shut the gate behind you!”
Once we’re moving I feel better. Even though I haven’t been here for a year, things look familiar. After running Laurel Highlands, where aid stations are few and far between, it’s great to see aid stations close together and well stocked.
I have my first trouble about six or seven miles in. I trip on a root, which I saw coming but failed to step high enough over, and go down. My right knee is banged up and bleeding a little. Shit! I get up, walk a bit, and worry I might have to drop out. But a couple of advil and 15 minutes later I’m running again, though slower.
The course is fairly flat. There’s one big downhill before you hit the gorge trail, which climbs back up, and a number of other gently rolling hills. Yet the course is deceptively hard. It’s hot, for one thing, and although most of the course runs through pleasantly shaded woods, there is some sun exposure through the fields. It’s also fairly rocky and rooty – nothing crazy but enough to slow you down a little.
My knee is bleeding where I fell. I tried putting a bandage on it, but it rubbed against the cut and hurt, so I took it off. At each aid station I wipe up the dried and dripping blood, but the small cut is exactly on the part of my knee where the skin flexes with each step, so the cut keeps reopening and bleeding more. So I figure – let it bleed until it stops. I got some funny looks from course volunteers: “crazy runner!” with blood dripping down my leg, but it didn’t hurt much, and there wasn’t that much blood. So, carry on…
About two miles from the end of the first loop I take a wrong turn. I am chatting with a woman who is from my home state of Michigan, and miss the turn off. My bad. The course is extremely well marked; we just weren’t paying good enough attention. We retrace our steps and find the turn. Not long and we’ve made it around the first loop.
Our time is slow – four hours plus for 25k– though I didn’t know it at the time as I forgot to bring my watch. I must say it is a great feeling to run without a watch. I change shoes and socks in an effort to prevent blisters in the hot weather – then set out for loop #2. This loop was thankfully uneventful. I fell once, though avoided banging my bruised and bloody knee.
My time was 8 hours 20 minutes (approximately). I was surprised – it was about an hour slower than last year, with all its mud, and about 3 hours slower than my fastest trail 50K(!). I probably lost 15 minutes walking after banging my knee and 25 minutes in “bonus miles” losing the course. I learned later that the course changes had made the 50k really 32.9 miles, which with the hot weather accounted for my slowness.
This is a great race I would recommend for its excellent organization and support and its beautiful course. The finishers’ medal is a beer opener, which I promptly put to use. As we were coming in to the finish a fellow runner asked me which beer I would have first. "IPA," I replied. He laughed and said “That’s not the question, the question is which IPA?” My kind of crowd! My kind of race!
Later that night I tasted wine later at the Red Newt winery, just around the corner. They have great deals on wine flights, good veggie food for me, and local free range stuff for the meat eaters.
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