cradle to the grave 30k, pisgah forest, nc

cradle to the grave 30k trail race

pisgah forest, nc

4:48:00 

i survived the cradle to the grave 30k on saturday! so if you read this post you know that i was waffling about the race BIG TIME. saturday morning i get up and it is POURING the rain. i just laughed to myself, what else can you do?

we got packed up and headed down to brevard. we got a little lost but made it to the cradle of forestry just fine. i've been in pisgah forest before, but never this part. it continued to pour while we checked in and picked up our packets. 

the shirts for the race are super nice, columbia omni freeze, gender specific shirts (they retail for $50!). 

i don't really have any rainy day running gear, so i was just hoping that we'd have tree cover for most of the race. i wore my Earth Fare Athlete Ambassador shirt and capris, and Brooks Cascadias [ps - brooks is my favorite for trails shoes!].

the 30k was supposed to start at 8am and the 5K at 830am. i walked over to the start line and they announced that they were delaying the start by 10 minutes to wait on some people who were still coming in. that's frustrating. 

the race ended up actually starting about 15-20 minutes late. i had no way to let brad know because i had no cell service AND i didn't want to even get it out because i was already afraid i was going to ruin it in the rain.

the race itself? it was HARD. 

notable moments:

• lots of water crossings. some had wooden footbridges, some had logs that you had to balance on single file, and then the granddaddy of them all, one with just a tow rope. it was really funny because it made me think of this picture that i saw when i was reading scott jurek's eat and run of him doing something similar [stream v. river, 30k v. 100 miles of course though!]. i thought it was so cool and i couldn't wait to tell brad all about it!
• going up pilot mountain. holy hell. 
• coming down pilot mountain. i still can't run because it's so muddy and there are too many roots!
• sink holes. 
• beautiful scenery
• great aid stations. there were 3 that was stopped at two times each, so 6 aid stations. i had already been to them all once when i see a different one. apparently i was brain dead and stopped, thinking it was for us. nope, it was for a mountain bike race that was also going on, whoops! 
• strawberry fig newtons taste amazing after about 15 miles. 
• looking up around mile 18 and seeing brad on the trail waiting for me. i thought i was hallucinating. 
• mentally this race was a continuous struggle. i mean, add 10 minutes to my finish time and you have my marathon time. that'll mess with your head!

finishing was a great feeling as always. the post race party was one of the best i've seen, especially for a local race. one of my favorite local restaurants, Hob Nob, gave the all the racers a free meal, and we got a free beer from one of my favorite local breweries, Oskar Blues. not bad!

i was a little muddy :)

and some other great news? brad got first place in his age group in the 5K! so proud of him!

we came home and i made myself take an ice bath. bleh. 

then we laid on the couch for the rest of the day and watched about 10 episodes of breaking bad. great day!

i chose to run

i'm all over the place right now and i'm SO THANKFUL that i've got the next 4 days off at home to attempt to get my life in gear. do you ever just get in a funk and can't exactly put your finger on the problem? in my case i don't think i have enough fingers to put on all the things that i need to get right! *disclaimer - these are all little things that are fixable, so i hope i don't come off all "woe is me" but it really helps me to write this all out, so i'm doing it!*

first of all... i'm over analyzing more than usual, and considering i'm already the queen of over analyzing, color me a mess. case in point...

i have been battling in my mind for two weeks whether or not to run the cradle to grave 30k tomorrow.

this morning when i woke up, i made a big decision... i was going to take a DNS tomorrow. factors in this decision included:  i haven't trained adequately, brad is running the 5k so he's going to be hanging out waiting on me for hours, i haven't trained, i've been in a shit mood, i am worn out, i haven't trained, i'm drowning in a sea of allergies that are making my throat feel like i swallowed a fire ball, my uterus is being a punk, and oh, did i mention... I HAVEN'T TRAINED.

when i finally allowed myself to make the decision i expected to feel relieved. whew, i don't have to run almost 19 miles tomorrow. but i didn't feel like that. i felt bummed. i'm going to miss out on running all those beautiful trails. 

so i did what any rational person would do... i changed my mind :)

as soon as i allowed myself to think that i didn't have to run tomorrow everything became really clear. i don't HAVE to run tomorrow. i GET to run tomorrow.

is there a chance that i might finish dead last? absolutely, but that's not what's bothering me. i think the biggest thing that's had me down is knowing that i should and could have prepared better. but you know what? i didn't. i made that choice (or rather lots of little choices), so now i have to live with it. but either way... i'd rather be running.

and just think of all the time i'll have to over analyze every aspect of my life while i'm doing it! 

Tsali Frosty Foot 30K Recap

disclaimer::: this recap is going to be a change in format from usual... if you're looking for the details of the race without my rambling and personal nonsense, scroll to the bottom and you'll hopefully find exactly what you're looking for. 

on saturday brad, riley, and i loaded up and made the trip out to bryson city for the tsali frosty foot race. i'm so horrible about signing up for these random races that are kind of close to home, but not really close enough to drive the morning of, and i was very grateful that brad came with! i don't like to feel like i take over his whole weekend [pretty much his only time off], but it calmed my nerves to have him there.

we got into bryson city around 7pm and checked into our motel. we stayed at the ridgetop motel at the suggestion of microtel bryson city [the host hotel, but it was booked by the time i called]. they matched the discounted race rate that microtel was offering and it was only 9.99 extra to bring riley. it was an older motel, but it was clean and we appreciated being able to bring riley and also the owner told us not to worry if we needed to stay a little longer than the normal check out because he knew we were racing.

after we checked in we headed out the the nantahala brewing company. we watched the football games on their big screen and brad tried a bunch of their beers. he was really impressed with the flavors and i just loved the whole feel of the place. it was super outdoorsy/natural and you can even bring your dog [always a huge selling point for me if you haven't already noticed!].

i can't wait to come back here in the summertime! it would the perfect hangout after a day on the river!

sunday we got up around 7 and brad drove me out to tsali [about 15 minutes from the hotel]. he dropped me off and i picked up my packet then gave him all the extra stuff i didn't need. he headed back to the hotel to lay around and i got ready to run!

this is a picture of the start line and you can see the race director, aaron up front (in the black facing us) giving directions. aaron owns foot rx in asheville, which is a great local running store. they are the ones that put on the black jack 5K that i did in december [which resulted in me running this race in the first place].

after a short run up that paved street you can see in the pic, we hit the trails. words can not even do justice to describing how wonderful these trails were! they were a little muddy from all the rain we've had, but they were totally manageable. and the views!! i only stopped to take one picture, but i thought it was a pretty good one, just to give you an idea.

we ran all around fontana lake, it was hard to keep my eyes on the trail instead of all the beautiful scenery. as far as the trail went, it was mostly technical, single track... but it was very runner friendly for  the most part. some climbs, and some rutted out biking grooves, but very rolling for the most part.

here's the elevation chart [which can i just mention how PROUD i am that after having my garmin for almost 2 years i figured out how to upload my data]:

there were 3 aid stations along the course [i think] and the volunteers were amazing. they refilled our handhelds and offered to help in any way they could. i chose to use the nathan quickdraw handheld and it worked really well. i filled it with water and refilled it at every aid station. i also drank 2 cups of whatever sport drink was available at each station.

in addition, i had 3 gu's along the course, at miles 6, 11, and 15. that seemed to work pretty well for me, although i noticed a couple of times that i felt 'empty hungry' like i needed some solid food.

this race was a mental one for me, but any time i started to feel down or think negatively i just reminded myself that i GET to do this. God ALLOWS me to do this. and it was just what i needed. in the past month 2 past classmates of mine have passed away in car accidents. such terrible tragedies that are hard to wrap your head around. it's a somber reminder that nothing is promised to us in this life and we need to soak up every minute, so i tried to do that.

i mostly ran alone during this race, however i followed a group of 4 women for much of the middle. we ended up talking at one of the aid stations and two of them were actually in the pace group i ran with for my first half! such a small world! one of them is trying to get accepted to pace the biltmore marathon in march, how great would that be!?

it was a long race and it hurt. i had to stop several times to attempt to stretch out my hips, they were what gave me the most trouble. as with any new race distance, my goal is just to finish with a smile on my face. so when i rolled in and saw my boys there waiting on me, i did just that. one of the volunteers even made a comment to me when she was giving me a water about still smiling and that's one of the best compliments she could have given me!

there was a lot of great food after the race, a local cafe, The Green Sage, even had chili for all the runners. i was really excited about that because i love their food, but after the race i just couldn't stomach the thought of eating it. do you ever get like that post race? i've been doing it more and more lately. nothing sounds good and sometimes just the thought of eating upsets my stomach. it usually goes away after about an hour or two, but it's weird.

this was right before we loaded up the car to head back to asheville. i'm pretty dang proud of myself for running this race and really like that i can always look back on my 30th birthday and know that i accomplished something to remember!

when we got home i MADE myself take an ice bath. i didn't even wash the mud off before getting in.

then i showered and got ready so we could go eat and see zero dark thirty [it was great, and jessica chastain was wonderful]. check out our sweet shirts from the race:

.:race details:.

date: january 12th and 13th (50K on saturday, 30K and 8K on sunday)
race organizer:  foot rx asheville
race day pick up? yes or you could pick up the night before at the host hotel
start time:  8:30 (30K)
did race start on time? yes
adequate restrooms?  yes, i think there were 3-4 port-o-potties
aid stations:  3, stocked with water, sports drink, GU chomps and roctane, bonk breaker bars
course spectator support: i actually saw more people than i thought i would considering it was a trail race
course terrain:  technical, single track. several tough inclines but mostly rolling
shirts:  30K runners received Mountain Hard Wear half zip technical shirts (each distance got something different)
medals:  none
would i race again?  absolutely
any complaints?  my only complaint is that the finish line is right in the middle of the post race area. i literally was dodging children and adults to finish. it would have helped to have it roped off. i know that most everyone was finished already, but it sucked a little.
what you need to know:  you'll definitely need a hydration plan for this race, most runners carried their own (handhelds, belts or backpacks), parking is a little difficult so get there in time to park and take care of whatever you need). sign up early!!! the 8K and 30K sell out, i was only allowed to sign up because someone else dropped out!

30k for my 30th birthday!

i have issues. i love to run races.

earlier this week when i realized i technically had saturday morning free [brad's parents were going to be here, but brad was working saturday morning and i figured i'd be done by the time they got up] i immediately started googling for local races.

i found just what i was looking for... one of our local running stores [foot rx] was having a blackjack 5k. have you all ever done one of these? it was my first, but it definitely won't be my last! here's how it worked:::

• race day registration only (yay, since i waited so late to sign up i was really thankful that i didn't get charged an arm and a leg!)
• $10 to sign up (double yay) which goes into a pot
• when you sign up you get to draw your first card
• you get a second card at the halfway point
• when you cross the finish line you can hit and take one more card if you like. 
• the pot is divided between however many people get 21, or if no one gets it whoever has the highest total without going over.

there were 20 of us running and it was a great time. my first card was a 10 so i was hoping for an ace at the halfway point. i drew a king. when i crossed the finish line (30:07) no one had hit 21 so i stayed. one of the last few people hit 21 so i hit and got another face card. oh well. 

it was a great time and a great way to get my total mileage for the day up to 12 miles (i did 7 on the treadmill before the race, then another 2 outside after the race). 

another good thing that came from me doing the race::::

i had been looking for races that line up with my marathon training plan [aka 'if i'm going to do long runs id rather do some of those miles with the encouragement that the racing environment brings'] and i found the Frosty Foot 30k [also put on by Foot Rx]. unfortunately the 30k was already sold out when i found it. but aaron [owner of Foot Rx] mentioned on saturday that if anyone still wanted in to let him know. i spoke to him after the race and i'm in!!! 

i'm supposed to run 16 that day, so a little more than what i'm scheduled to run. that should be okay, right? my larger concern is that it's a trail race and the elevation profile isn't posted... how do i end up in these situations? funny thing is, i couldn't be more excited!