So, this is only, I don't know, two months late, but better late than never, right? Let me start by saying, Terri Hayes puts on one hell of a race. The course was challenging, the post race barbecue was fantastic, enthusiastic aid station volunteers (thanks for the encouragement Viktor!) and the finisher awards were great. The race was held on June 26th, and if there's one thing the south has at this time of year, it's heat. The race was not as hot as some of my training runs had been, but those training runs had also not been full 50Ks either. The run started off in front of Terri's camping spot, went a short while on the campground road and then veered left into the woods. This was the beginning of a 3.5 mile out and 3.5 mile back segment. It was mostly downhill on the way out, which meant mostly uphill on the way back. Not even 20 minutes in, the stomach was churning and I had to make a pit stop in the woods. This didn't set me back to terribly far though, as I was able to let gravity help me catch back up to Dave and the rest of the group I was running with. We hit the turn around point at the first forest service road and then chugged back up the hill. Shortly before getting back to the campground road that we started on, we made a hard left onto a new trail, and quickly arrived at the first aid station: mile 7. We made this checkpoint slightly faster than anticipated, and we were both feeling really good.
We moved on as quickly as possible to get going on the next segment, a 10-mile jaunt with no aid except for what you could carry. The first part of this segment is mostly steeply downhill as you work your way into the gorge and down along the Chattooga River. As you get to the bottom, the trail divides. You have to go straight (left), onto the Foothills Trail. I'm not sure where right takes you, but two other runners, Mike and Kelly, ended up going right here, I think, and spent a long, miserable day in the heat with no aid. I imagine they've recuperated by this point, but they were looking pretty rough when we met them on the way back in at the end of the race.
Anyway, we continued onto the Foothills Trail and got to run by some of the most beautiful scenery you will find in the area along the banks of the Chattooga. The trail is technical, but really runnable for the most part. Unfortunately for me, I caught a root at what I guessed was mile 12 or 13 and twisted my ankle really bad. I limped forward for a ways, but really thought my race was done. The only thing I could think to do was to bend down and cinch my shoes up as tight as I could to brace the ankle. It killed my mobility, but it allowed me to kind of jog, but I was still in pain and slowed down quite a bit. I told Dave to go on without me because I didn't want to ruin his day because of my misfortune. As fate would have it, he was starting to hit a bit of a wall because of the heat. I would push myself every so often and briefly catch back up to him, only to have to ease off and watch him disappear ahead, but we finally made it into the aid station at mile 17, Dave a bit in front of me. He was just gearing up to head out of the aid station as I pulled in. I was really hitting a low mental spot because of my ankle, and the heat wasn't helping. I told myself that I would do the next segment, two miles out and two miles back to this same aid station, and I would see if I had a 10 mile unaided run left in me.
The two miles out of this aid station start with a small bit of uphill, and then a good long downhill, I was having a hard time even running the downhills. I don't recall ever being in such a negative head space. I passed Dave heading back up to the aid station a few hundred meters from the turnaround at the first bridge. It's very important to remember to turn around at that first bridge or you run all the way to Oconee State Park, another five or so miles on. I sat down on the bridge and took stock of where I was at. I was at mile 19, with a sore ankle in rough heat, and not feeling any better than when I left the aid station, maybe worse. And now I had a two mile murderous uphill in front of me. I started power hiking back up. I had all but given up in my mind. I told myself that if Dave had kept pushing on, I was dropping from the race. I didn't think I could do 10 miles on my ankle in the mental space I was in without aid. Much to my chagrin, Dave was standing there at the aid station waiting for me. I sat down trying to get some relief to my lower half. By this point, the ankle wasn't evening hurting that badly, but everything else was because it was compensating for the ankle. Viktor and Dave talked me into getting up and keep trucking.
So off we went. Dave had hit the wall hard coming up that last hill, and we decided to walk it in. We were both in rough shape, but there was no dropping now. We had left the aid station and the finish line was a 10 mile death march in front of us. The heat was really starting to get to us and there was no relief in sight. We (I) were reduced to taking sit down breaks after and during some of the uphill segments, but we kept trudging. We finally got close to the Chattooga again, and we immediately made a beeline for the cool water. It felt so good to completely cool the body down. The cold water also relieved some of the leg pain that had been building. It gave us a much needed morale boost. Of course, that boost didn't last long, but another opportunity to get into the water came along a mile or two down the trail and we again took advantage of it. We finally reached the point where the trail originally split and met Mike and Kelly. We were on a mission now, only two or three miles from the finish line. We power hiked the best we could up and out of the gorge and trudged out of the woods. Once we got back into the campground, we managed a jog to the finish line. Even though we crossed at the same time, I somehow got recorded a second faster than Dave. But I wouldn't have crossed that finish line at all of he hadn't waited for me, so in my mind, he beat me by a second.
