Country Road Runner

I am still training and working on an average of ten miles a run. I do not have anything scheduled, but cannot seem to slow down or stop. Maybe I feel like this is a good base to have when I am ready for my next race.

So, several of my friends and members of the Franklin Road Runners completed a half marathon on Saturday. I was not able to run with them due to taekwondo and a soccer game. So ended up running later on in the day.

Well, lunch ended up starting late so finished eating at 3pm and was ready to run at 3:30pm. Not my best decision. Than the GPS was not loading and decided to run anyways, because I needed to get home.

I ran one of my normal routes and added as many cul de sacs as possible. I eventually ran out of gas, which showed in my last three miles, but was it really only 13.1?

Crazy.

Well, I ran the 50k last Saturday. I was not sure what to do next, so I took a couple days off and hit it again.

Thursday is my normal running day. Woke up feeling pretty good so ran 7.5 miles in the morning followed by a lap in the evening with the second oldest.

Debated running later on Saturday, but was convinced to run with the Franklin Road Runners at the Factory in Franklin at 6:30am. Great 10 mile run with Bill and Alison. Great turn out of an addition 15 runners at different paces and distances.

Well, we talked about the 50k being one and done, but I cannot help myself. Started to look at 50k races next fall. Need to find trail races for two of my girls first.

I have been training to run an ultra since January, but was not sure which race I would run. Well, I ended up signing up for the Walking Talk 50k back in April 2020. There are many reason that I chose this race. First, it is only a 3 hour drive from Nashville. Originally, I thought I was the only one going in the family and I wanted to be close to home. The whole family is now going, and will become a camping adventure. Next, was the challenge of the wooden walkway and the fire tower. Finally, following the race on Facebook, the race director and prior participants spoke of the great organization, the scenery, the swag and how 100% of the profits went to Big Hill Pond State Park and the park rangers. Also in October it is not too hot or too cold. The weather is actually looking perfect and the family is excited about sitting by a campfire.

As I noted earlier, I have been training since January and when I signed up, it became serious. I bought a running vest, new lamp for running in the dark, new shoes a few times over, but always Mizuno Wave Rider and learned about running with fuel and hydration. The race is less than 1 week away and I feel like I am ready, and that I can finish before the cutoff.

I took other steps to ensure I was ready for the ultra such as joining the Franklin Road Runners. They meet on Saturdays at various locations and I was always able to find a group going my distance and my pace. Usually there were between 5 and 8 in our group. I also joined The Run Experience. This is a group of trainers from California that has an App with numerous training tools and a community to share progress and ask for advice.

Below are some picture over the last several months.

Here are a few pictures that the race director has provided to us as we get ready for the race.

My last post was Labor Day after my longest run of the year. Since that time I have run 22.75 miles last Saturday and 20 miles yesterday. I was disappointed in the amount of time I walked, but I was happy that I finished. In between those runs I have had some faster 10 mile runs and some slower runs. I am hitting the distances, but sometimes I am walking more than I would like. Well, there are three weeks until race day and I am confident that I can finish the 31 miles, but will it be fast enough.

I will try and post more regular, but sometimes life gets in the way of my hobby.

Well, it worked out due to other family activities that my long run fell on Labor Day. I needed to run 26 miles, so I decided to add a little extra and run a marathon. Maybe hike a marathon as you will see later.

I chose Chickasaw Trace in Columbia, Tennessee for a number of reasons. First, it had an 8 mile loop and I kept telling myself 3 laps that is all, just 3 laps. Second, it is less than 30 minutes from the house. Finally, with the Duck River running alongside some of the trail, I thought the scenery would be great.

Although the trails are geared toward mountain bikers, they have areas for remote controlled cars and remote controlled planes.

Here is a map of the park:

Well, I arrived shortly before the park was supposed to be open and the gate was not locked and several cars had already entered to start their Labor Day holiday. There was even a group with their planes already in the air. Well, I found my parking spot down by the trail head and began to put my running vest together with my hydration and my fanny pack with my fuel. I use Nuun Hydration for my electrolytes and Honey Stinger chews for my fuel. Once I was comfortable with how everything felt, I started my run. Below are some pictures from different sections of the trail.

Did I mention this was meant for Mountain Bikers? Here are some photos from the technical side of the trails.

So what do you do when you come across a technical part of the trail?

There were usually a 1,2 or 3 at the technical skills for easy, hard and expert. I usually ran down the easy.

That was probably the longest run I had completed based on time on my feet. Here are some screen shots from my day.

It is hard to believe I have run 10 times since the last blog post.

This past Saturday was my third twenty mile run of the year. I opted to run with the Franklin Road Runners at the course behind the Brentwood Library. The course took us to Smith Park, about 5 miles and back.

I found a spot behind my normal group and settled in to a slower pace than usual. After finishing the first 10 miles I stopped at the car and dropped off a few items. Headed back out and ran the course again. It was not my fastest time, but I was less out of breathe when I finished.

I followed that with what I was hoping to be a 10 mile run at Preservation Park. I am not sure if it was the heat/humidity or the spicy chicken sandwich, but I was only able to complete 5. Was also surprised by the elevation. Some pictures of the run.

I thought it would be fun to share my finisher medals. I have always enjoyed seeing the different medals and swag from various road and trail races along with the different distances.

I have run in several 5k races, but I only have one medal from finishing. Crazy to think I received awards for two 5k races I have run.

I have also enjoyed running in several half marathons and have a few of the finisher medals below. Two are from the Atlanta Thanksgiving day race. The Country Music Half was my 1st race in Nashville and the Tom King was my fastest half marathon time.

The Bell Ringer was my longest trail race and I enjoyed the medal being carved in wood.

I have only run 2 marathons. The first one was in Florida and the second one was in Atlanta. Maybe in a future blog post I will break some of these races down.

The longest race I have run in a 30 hour period was the Ragnar and I participated as a 6 man team completed 37 of the 200 miles.

The weekend started on Friday morning for me. We were taking our daughter college on Saturday, so I moved some things around so my long run could be on Friday.

I was either going to run at Percy Warner Park in Nashville or Chickasaw Park in Columbia. The weather forecast showed a 70 percent chance of rain in Nashville or 0 percent in Columbia. So, I chose to run Chickasaw.

My run started with overcast skies and 75 degrees. So I was feeling pretty good as I started down the trail leading to the woods. Than I remembered that it was a mountain biking trail and was unsure what to expect. Initially my run consisted of clearing a spider web every 15 to 20 feet. This was not bad except for when the spider was in the middle of their web. Then the zero percent chance of rain became 100% and things on the trail became nasty.

Some sections of the trail are kept up by different individuals and they each can determine the level of difficulty ranging from one to three. When the level is 3 and it says expert, one should not attempt to run it. I tried a few of them and fell down the hills and ended up running the easier route.

I ended up jogging the first lap and walking most of the second lap.

Felt like this guy that I found on the trail.

Although I thought I had enough fuel, I ran out of water and electrolytes around mile 12.

Since Friday’s run did not complete the distance I needed, I felt pretty good about the elevation gain that it showed. I still felt like I needed to get miles in so I went for a run Saturday night after returning from Covenant College in Chattanooga. The run felt pretty fast although my legs felt pretty tired. adding to the elevation as well.

Then, I decided to see what was left in the tank or what the legs could handle for a third day in a row. Well, it almost totaled 26.2 miles over the three days. Brought the water and Nuun drinks with me. Pretty fun.