Eastern Divide Ultra (Trail 50K)

Eastern Divide Ultra (Trail 50K)

2nd Place

4:29:05

(King of the Mountain/$125)

This past weekend I headed to the highlands of Giles County, VA for the point-to-point race from the Cascades Falls to Mountain Lake Resort (site of where Dirty Dancing was filmed). The drive from Green Bank to Blacksburg where the packet pickup was as well as my hotel was a major highlight. From the moment I left Green Bank until about 10minutes outside of Blacksburg I had no cell service. Making for a very scenic drive through three National Forests and some great farm and mountain views. All of this in just a 2.5 hr drive.

After getting my packet (big thank you to the race director for the comp entry) I headed to the hotel to get rested up and ready for my first ultra the following morning.

I knew going in from the advice I had got from Howard Nippert, that this was going to be a tough Trail 50K. The distance alone is a challenge but the course would be doing no one any favors. The total elevation gain according to the course map called for 6500ft of gain and 4500ft of lost, making for a ridiculous total of 11,000ft of total elevation change.

The majority of my prep heading into this race could be classified as road training with some cross over onto the trails and dirt roads to get the legs at least somewhat ready for 30+ miles of trail running.

I didn't want to go overboard by jumping full-go into too much technical trail training especially after handling my prep trail race (Dirty Dog 15K) so easily for the most part. Already looking back I need more focus on rugged/technical/bad footing trails going forward if I'm going to pick races like this to concentrate on.

Things start off so much more low key for trail races. At the start area everyone is chill and nice. The early miles aren't a sprint off the line like on the road scene.

As for the race, there was a fun King of the Mountain challenge in place for the first person to reach Aid Station 1 on Butt Mountain.  The climb was right around 2000ft gain in just 4 miles which was brutal enough but the middle miles of the climb included tough rocky single track and stone hopping and climbing. But the KOM honor was also awarded with $125 so I went for it and was able to reach the aid station in first place with a nice sized lead.

Miles 5-22 were on rolling up and down forest roads. Some sections were nice and smooth but I would say the majority of miles during this stretch was rutted out and even muddy in spots. Right around mile 5 I actually slipped and lost my left leg, almost calf deep, in a mud hole. I was able to quickly pull it out and running wise not miss a beat although within a mile I felt a nag of pain in my left hip flexor. I thought nothing of it and ripped though mile after mile building a big lead on the field and going after the course record!

What I didn't think was going to be a major issue started to turn for the bad around  mile 17 and 18 which started a roughly 1000ft climb. At this point it became pretty bad forcing me to stop 3-4 times to stretch it. But once at the top I was able to drop down the backside in 5:59  for the 19th mile so I thought I could survive it since my running legs weren't a issue. 20-22 became hilly again and that just kept putting the hip flexor over the top on the pain level. My 22nd mile was extra slow due to stopping for a long time at the aid station right before the final section of the race, which was going to be rocky/technical single track. The RD was pumping me up since I was still under a really legit CR pace but the 23rd mile on the single track ended the race for me as far as running as it was so rocky and technical that the pain went from the hip flexor to extreme pain in the groin. I unfortunately was forced due to injury to hike the final 6+ miles of the course which were the most technical and rocky sections by far.

The amazing thing was I was able to keep moving knowing there was no way I was going to drop out, no matter how much the pain got to me even just hiking. I wasn't passed by the eventual winner until around mile 24 and I figured many more passes would come soon after but they didn't. The longer I hiked without anyone passing me, the quicker I would try to get up and over the tough sections. I even tried to jog at a few different parts which instantly shot pain through the hip and groin forcing me back into my quick hike. Before I knew it I was at the finish and painfully jogged the last .3 to the line to finish off the ultra running. 

Post race although I was bummed to not get the finish I wanted and probably deserved, I was still happy.  No doubt I will look back on this as a huge positive. I know at 22-23 miles I was on pace to go well under the course record of 3:45 but the injury left me with an official result of 4:29:05 and good enough to finish 2nd Place. 

I feel racing on the trails is something I enjoy even more than racing on the roads! My road racing might have plateaued to the point that anything under the marathon distance was going to be hard to PR at again anyways. Now I'm in a whole new sport of running it feels like with lots of potential down the road. 

If the hip flexor calms down (took off 2 days post race, my first days missed of 2014) and I can bounce back into healthy training in the coming weeks I would like to take another crack at a Trail 50K sooner rather than later. I already have my eye on the next test and it would be more of a "speed" based trail 50K to try and get a fast time down on paper. 

We will see how recovery and training go first before deciding but I do feel like you can race hard more often on the trails as my body other than the hip flexor feels great post race. 

One last highlight of the race was the view around mile 10 looking over at the Monroe County, WV mountains! It was awesome and that view was quickly followed with another Black Bear sighting making for #9 that I have already seen in 2014 (all in the last few weeks). 

Race Data:
Strava Profile: LINK
Garmin Connect: LINK
Results: LINK
Race Website: LINK

Podium (Top 3 Finishers)

Dirty Dog Trail 15K

Dirty Dog Trail 15K

1st Place

64:09

The Dirty Dog Trail 15K has quickly become the largest and maybe the best trail race in WV in many ways. It has always been on my list of to-do races, especially being that I logged so many miles in Kanawha State Forest over the years. But most of those miles were on the paved and dirt fire roads and not the technical single track that makes up most of the trail system in KSF.

With my goal of switching to mostly trail and ultra racing, there was no better first test  then to head back to Charleston, WV for the 10th running of the Dirty Dog Trail 15K. My good friend Ken Ballard had sent me an email a few weeks before offering to pass along his wife's entry that she wasn't going to use. With a few emails race director Dan Todd had made the switch and I was officially in the race.

Ken not only gave me an entry into the race, he also sent me a very detailed breakdown of the course that had me ready to attack my first trail race smartly. His advice was to survive some of the early technical running and be ready to roll the last 4+ miles when the race turned onto Middle Ridge Fire Road and Middle Ridge Trail (fast single track). From the course profile below, I tried to hit enough hills in training since DD throws some solid climbs at you early and often.

As for the race, I eased into the race taking the lead about 3/4 of a mile into the race heading up a single track hill climb. Once it opened up to forest road I pushed it down just a bit and quickly opened a good gap but right around 2+ miles in we started down a VERY technical steep downhill. Andrew Rhodes quickly caught me and FLEW past me and put a gap on me by close to minute going down. As soon as I hit the bottom I pushed the forest road to catch him right before White Hollow (very technical STEEP uphill) in which I could have passed him at any point but I just hike/ran up right behind him until it opened up into forest road in which I quickly gaped him again. I tried to hammer Middle Ridge Trail (single track slightly uphill) as much as I could for a single track trail. Once I hit Middle Ridge Road (up and down forest road) I tried to hammer as much of a extended gap as I could just in case I struggled coming down Johnson Hollow (technical, steep downhill last mile). I wasn't able to hammer MR road quite as much as I wanted due to the mud (muddiest section) but still hit 6-flat and effort wise it could have been 20-30 seconds faster without the mud. I figured at that point I had done enough as no one was in sight behind me. Once I did hit Johnson Hollow, I ran down it fairly decent but still nothing blazing. As I came off Johnson Hollow the legs had LOTS left, so the last .11 on my watch was a strong all out sprint with so much more in the tank (maybe the feeling you end trail races with). What a experience! I'm ready to fully convert to the trails as much as possible now with road races just thrown in for training. 

In the end, I just missed Nick Ends Course Record of mid 1:03:22. Nick has a marathon PR of 2:21, so a very strong runner. Even missing the CR I'm still super pumped with the 2nd fastest time in the events history since it has brought out most of the top WV trail runners and many strong out of state runners in some of the early years. 

My hope was to run strong so I could make the switch and I'm really pleased with the race and result. I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can push myself in the trail racing. I know the next test (50K Trail Ultra in June) will be another learning experience but hopefully one that goes as smoothly as this one. 

Race Data:
Strava Profile: LINK
Garmin Connect Profile: LINK
RESULTS: LINK
WVMTR Dirty Dog Page: LINK

I raced in the Nike Wildhorse Trail shoes which worked really well and as usual I had 2x amount of normal coffee the morning of the race (Starbucks this go around). I took in no nutrition during the race but pre-race I had Gatorade and PB/Jelly on muffin with my coffee. 

Post Race with the Honorable Ken and Rusty!