The race started at a very quick pace. Primarily becuase there were 10K runners mixed in as well. There were a couple short steep hills in the first mile and with the fast pace immediately got the heart rate up. They advertised this as a fairly flat course but there were still quite a few short steep hills (I will talk about the back half later). I tried to stay with the lead group but the pace was just too quick. My legs were not feeling that great with no taper to speak of so just gave what I had.

I settled in behind two other guys who come to find out were in the 10K. The first 2 miles are out on a peninsula with the river on one side and a small inlet lake on the other. It was pretty scenic section. After that we get into the mountain bike trails. These were the most winding trails I have ever been on. It felt like I was making continuous 'S' shapes. Just nonstop winding although they were mostly flat through some nice pine forests. I was just waiting to cut one of the corners too sharp and have my head taken off by one of the branches with all the turns. My average pace continued to drop as it was very difficult to keep pace with all the turns. After about 2-3 miles of that we came to a couple mud pit sections which were unavoidable (I wore crap shoes so I was trudging right through). The mud would stick to your shoes and put on 5 extra pounds. Conveniently it seemed the mud pits were spaced so the next one was right after the mud had come off your shoes from the previous one LOL!

Back into the mountain bike trails and more winding around through the pines for another mile or so. I was still right on the heels of the two guys in front but another racer had come up about 200 yards behind. Finally we come out to a gravel roadway about the 5 mile mark and this is the split for the 10K and 10 mile. The two guys in front head for home and I have 5 miles left. Back on the gravel road the pace turns up a bit but I am not too fresh at this point. The hot pace early on has me surely in the pain cave for the last 5 miles.

We turn into the gravel pit..and oh lord is it a hilly muddy mess. There is absolutely no way to avoid the mud. The mud makes going up the hills a trudge. The mud just stuck to the shoes and felt like a ton of bricks on your feet. I finally got passed by the guy trailing me about mile 6 or 7 and I had no response. I tried to follow his lines through the mud pitted gravel two track as best I could. It was crazy how much mud was out on this gravel road. It was unavoidable and each new step brought more weight.

Finally we get back to some single track trails for the last 1.5 mile stretch. There was nobody on my heels and the guy in front is now stretching out his lead. I still pushed pretty hard to the finish and was satisfied with my effort.

Probably should have gone out a bit easier but did not know the extent of the hills on the back side of the course. I was glad I wore my old shoes as they were completely soaked with mud.

Did a 3 mile warm down run and ate some food and gatorade talking with the other racers.

There were a lot of fast people at this race and the winning time was crazy fast.

Nice low key event and a pretty cool course if you like mud!


No taper.


Fun low key race. Love me some trail running :).

The last 5 miles of this course is quite difficult but fun and challenging at the same time.