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 Post race
Warm down: Hosed off the tootsies, changed clothes for the 6th and final time, grabbed a couple beers, ate some taters, and relished in the experience. What limited your ability to perform faster: Well, I would say the fact that you had to climb 1700 feet within a mile would do that. Also, my headlamp wasn't the brightest. Event comments: Dan has an incredible place and clearly loves what he does. I will definitely be back for more events at Outdoors in the Smokies. This was one of the most enjoyable race experiences of my life! I made new friends, kept a positive attitude (like you BT'ers advised) and just had fun with it. I can't believe I raced a cumulative 4 and a half hours. That's like a marathon's worth of running! I am still sore a week later but still on a high from this race too. Last updated: 2012-03-29 12:00 AM
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United States
Outdoors in the Smokies
60F / 16C
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As the day of the event drew closer, I grew more creative with my ideas of how I was going to get out of this mess. What the hell was I THINKING? The morning before (or morning of, depending on how you look at it) I had to work, so sleeping in wasn't an option. Not that I am capable of sleeping past 7 AM anyway. So, I got up, decided that a good strategy would be to forgo the caffeine in hopes that I would remain groggy enough to take a nap after work but before driving the 2 hours to Cosby.
Yeah, um, no. That didn't work out so well. What I ended up with was a totally unproductive day at work and a rapidly waning sense of motivation. Still, at 3 PM, I got home from work, ate a bag of beef jerky and about a pound of grapes, took a shower, and hopped into bed. I think I dozed in and out for about 40 minutes.
At 6 PM, I finally packed up my sleeping bag, 5 pairs of running shorts, 5 shirts, a rain jacket, 8 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of shoes, two sports bras, a fuzzy hat, and long-fingered cycling gloves. Turned out the gloves were the MVP of gear. Well, besides the sports bra (but I actually only used one of those).
I stopped at the shop, got a 20 oz. coffee, and hit the road. It wasn't but a few sips into the coffee that I started feeling nauseous. Turns out it was just nerves, but for a few hours I was wondering if I'd spend more time puking outside the tent than running.
I arrived at the race venue at 8:30 PM, and said hello to my friends who are also running. My teammates were a 40 year-old ex marine, police officer and a 30-something guy I'd never met but who wound up being really cool. I knew I should eat something but I couldn't . Too nervous.
Interesting side note - a failed attempt at a photo-bomb left me with a shard of rock in my knee. It must have hit me just right because I had to lay on a bench for about 20 minutes to keep myself from passing out. This was not very reassuring for my teammates...but I came out of it.
My only real warmup for this race was a 90 minute nap in my friend's tent. "Nap" is a generous term, because I did more trying not to puke and listening to them talk about crazy people on Facebook than sleeping, but the rest certainly helped.
Finally, at 11:30 PM, the RD called us up to touch base about the course. At 12:01AM, my buddy Rob was the first on our team to go.