Chatted with Podium teammates for a couple of minutes before the gun went off, then lined up right on the front.

The first 3.5 miles are flat and fast, but I took it fairly conservatively, throttling back my effort to maintain a nice, steady endurance effort. Sam (my coach) eased up beside me for a minute and said, "You know, we never really talked about your plan for this race. Do you have one?" I laughed and told him that it was the same as last year, and he said that sounded like a good idea. Then I suggested to him that he might want to hustle on up the trail as the race might be getting away from him, he said "oh, yeah - you're right!" and of he went like a jack rabbit. The trail was nice and wide at this point, so the initial sort-out happened quickly and we had lots of room to run. Wes eased up on my shoulder and ran right with me step-for-step on the lower loop, and we chatted a bit. "Well, this will be just GREAT if we keep it up," I thought, since I knew there would be no way I would win a footrace with him at the end of the race. At about mile 3.6, the course veers off the trail through the woods, crosses a small stream, and then finally begins to turn upwards away from the flats along the lake edge.

I took the first up very easy, but as soon as the trail plunged downward I pulled out the stops and smoked the descent. I think it kinda surprised Wes, and I got a nice little gap on him and put a couple of other folks between us to boot. I took the next up easy as well (I knew it was a long one) and Wes worked his way back up to me just as we crested the top. I told myself he had just made a mistake, and I hammered the next descent while he was recovering from the effort up the climb, and this time the gap stuck. At this point I counted 26 or so other racers up the trail in front of me, and I started working in earnest to pick them off on the descents, while holding my place in between. I knew an aid station was coming up at about the 5.5 mile mark (just before we started the hardest part of the race) so I downed a gel and grabbing a cup of water on the run. And then the work REALLY began on the next ascent, where I saw my teammate Mike just up the trail. He is a good runner, but it took me a lot longer last year to catch him on this course, so I took that as a good sign and let the effort creep up juuuuust a little more. I caught him in a twisty, rolly bit, we exchanged brief "pleasantries," and then hit the base of the long climb where I had previously decided to open it up for the last 4 miles to the finish. after cresting the top I managed to reel in a handful of folks through the last bit of the upper loop, and as we broke through the clearing by the lodge I could see a small pack of guys running together, including Rob, which was a little surprising, as I am usually nowhere close to him on the run. I slowly worked my way up to to them, but thought to myself that I REALLY wasn't sure I wanted to catch them as it seemed they were settled in for sprint to the finish. I knew there were two more good climbs before the finish though and I eased up behind the guy that would eventually win the grand masters category. He pulled me up to the pack, and on the second-to-last climb the group just kind of splintered apart with me and Rob moving through with one other fella on his heels. At that point my left calf started to twinge just a bit, and I could feel my achilles tightening up as well. I of course just ignored it.

On the last long descent Rob and his shadow got around one last guy putting him between us on the last winding ascent, which bought them a little more space. On the climb the guy heard me coming and he was kind enough to make space and flick me around, so I was able to keep it close without expending too much extra energy passing. In the final rollers before the finish Rob began pulling away from his chaser, and I was doing everything I could to reel him in. I somehow got shoulder-to-shoulder with the other guy, but just shattered myself doing so: I was flat-out blown with about 150 meters to go. I thought "well this sucks, I am going to get smoked at the finish line. Again." but the dude glanced toward me and said "well, go GET him!" and he pulled his chute. It was the last little bit of energy I needed to get across the line just 3 seconds behind Rob.



I *think* I could have gone out at the start a little faster, but who knows how much I would have had left at the end if I had? These early season races are so hard to know how to pace.

Grabbed a water, and made a bee-line for the massage tent where Robin worked on me and helped me stretch out well. Wes came across the line about a minute-and-a-half back, just as I had feared earlier in the race. Very glad I got a gap early, as I don't think I would have been able to get away from him late in the race. We grabbed a bowl of chili and a big hunk of cornbread and a chocolate chip cookie, and cheered as the rest of our friends and teammates came across the line.

Four days later my calf and achilles is still just a little sore, well beyond the time for general race soreness to be done. I didn't want to do anything stupid this close to the start of race season, so I took a precautionary visit to the doctor today, and the prognosis is good: A tweaked soleus (underneath the interior gastrocnemius) with some scarring to boot, an injury seen most frequently in tennis players, and caused by repeated twisting under load. After a nice round of ART that just about left me in tears, I left with some stretching to do and MORE corrective/activation exercises. Dr. Cho seems to think that my right glute gave up on me near the twisty end of the race, and that subsequently through way too much load on my calf muscles on that side.


This was 6 minute PR over last year (and I thought I had raced to my potential then) so I am very happy with this effort.


One of the shorter events put on by the Georgia Ultra-Running and Trail Running Society (GUTS) this is one of my favorite trail races in the region - but you just have to be on your game to get registered as it sells out in less than 10 minutes every year. The course has a little bit of everything: from wide, flat, fast sections, to twisty, climby, single track parts. Lots of volunteers, great aid stations, and super post-race food. Awards only go 10 deep for overall finishers, plus a first place for masters and grandmasters. I kinda like that, although not sure if I could ever sneak in to the top 10. I would need to run a 7:05 pace (25 seconds per mile faster) and at this point that would be a fairly heavy lift without dropping everything else and just focusing on the run.