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!