Race Report: Wicked Revival 50k

Yeah, I randomly ran a 50k this past weekend with basically no training. 

I signed up for this free "fatass" 50k a while back when I saw it posted on facebook and thought "sure, free race, why not... no big deal if I don't show up." (Note: a "fatass" race is the term for races that have minimal organization, no awards, no aid stations, basically all self-supported but there will be people there to loosely keep track of finishers and report results. Don't come at me, it's just the colloquial term used.🙃)

Spoiler alert: I didn't train for it, but I went and did the event anyway. 

I spent most of the week prior debating back and forth with myself, convincing myself whether it was a good idea or a bad idea (I swung both ways throughout the week). I finally decided I'd show up and do what I could, knowing I could DNF and I would have still gotten a good run for the day.

The event was at a mountain bike park in Gastonia, NC so I left Greenville early on Saturday morning, arrived in time to get my bib (which at first they couldn't locate but eventually found), get my chair and cooler and gear set up, then head to the start line. 

Started off conservatively, and also forced to be so because of the crowd of folks at the beginning. There were people doing the 50k (10 laps) and the 10-miler (3 laps) and all started at the same time. It was enjoyable to be around folks for a bit, make light chatter here and there as you went by, get into a grove behind someone for a while on the single-track where you couldn't pass. 

The second and third laps sped up a little bit without the crowds in front. Paused at the chair for a few gummies here and there but no major food. Started to get hungry on lap 4 and then regretted not stopping to get real food before lap 5. Finished 5 and paused for a bit, sat down, grabbed lunch food (sandwich, chips, maybe part of a beer), and then kept going. 

Path through field of daisies

the lake in the middle of the trail loop

Despite feeling better after taking in a good amount of food, the speed never really came back to the legs in the second half. The crowd had also thinned significantly so there were many times when I never passed another runner during a whole lap. I started listening to music on Lap 8, and that definitely lifted my spirits and resulted in probably a faster pace than I should have been running because after that lap I was completely toast. I did run into a friend on the trail (more like LEAPED over it because I saw it at the very last second).

Ended up grabbing a (very long) stick and shoving him off to the side of the trail so he didn't surprise any other runners. 

Finished the race in under 7h 30m total (somewhere around 7:23) and felt tired but not in terrible shape. Was definitely happy to sit down for a good while and enjoy post-race beverages with the small group that was still there watching the final finishers. 

Splitsssssss

Overall, really pleased with how this went given the serious lack of training/preparation, and it gives me confidence going into the summer with a few other races coming up on the schedule!

10 Weeks til Utah

Monday

2.7 mi run with pup

Early miles after dropping off D at school. Went for a section a bit farther north just to change things up a bit. Ivy did so great!

There was another dog wayyyyyy across the park.

2.5 mi 20# ruck with pup

Lunchtime ruck in the neighborhood, took the pup out again. Gotta get her (and myself) accustomed to the summer heat, but trying to do it gently! She gets tired quickly when it's warm out. 

Love this patch 😁

Tuesday

6.47 mi @ 8:21/mi #10kTuesday

Ran with the early downtown crew and did a few speedy pushes on a loop around Unity Park towards the end. More of a fartlek style, just faster than normal pace for some arbitrary distance. Felt great!

1 mi Wellness Walk

Event at work with the Wellness Network group, walked about a mile around the ponds on campus. Temperatures starting to climb!

25 min strength

Hit the gym at the end of the day, not as long as I'd hoped to work out but better than nothing.

Wednesday

4.3 mi with 10x River Bend hill repeats

Intentionally waited until the late afternoon hottest part of the day to suffer through these. Trying to force myself to adapt to the heat AND get some elevation. Trotted easy out to the back of the neighborhood then did 10 repeats of the hill up River Bend Rd. 

Each repeat was about 0.15 miles and climbed 60ft. 

I managed to do them all at about 65 seconds +/- 2-3 seconds, pushed hard for the 9th repeat and got it at 58 seconds, then kinda phoned it in on the very last one and ended at 72 seconds.

Overall felt really good about this one, and man it was tough!

6.6 mi bike ride to ice cream

To celebrate the last day of school, we took a family bike ride up the swamp rabbit trail after dinner to get ice cream. Fun way to spend the long evening daylight hours!

Thursday

7.14 mi @ 8:24/mi 

Steady 7-miler with the downtown crew this morning. Definitely getting to where the early hours aren't even comfortable temps anymore! Whew. Good start to the day though. 

Friday

2.1 mi @ 8:44/mi run 

While finishing up a workday and packing for the weekend camping trip, got in a couple miles for heat adaptation training.

1 mi ruck (20#) hike on the AT with pup

En route to camping, stopped where the AT crosses Hwy 74 at Dick's Creek Gap to do a quick 30 minutes with the pup on trail. It was quite a little climb from the highway, so the return trip was nicely downhill. 

Saturday

6.04 mi trail run

Ran the Purple Trail at Jackrabbit campground (the hard trail!). Was hoping for a lot longer & doing more trails than this, but rapidly-approaching thunderstorms pushed me off the trail after about an hour. Only got sprinkled on a bit right as I made it back to the campsite, then the bottom let out and boy was it a wild storm for quite some time!

3 mi hike

Once the rain finally cleared, we took a big group hike on the Jackrabbit Mountain trail. Had 3 kids, 5 dogs, and 2 adults along for the trek. A relaxing afternoon in the woods!

Sunday

3.5 mi trail run

Ran the same loop that we hiked the day before, but with a small additional side trail. 

Trillium! :)

11.4 mi mountain bike ride

At last, got to get out on the bikes! Took a big group ride with kiddos and had a great time. 

Jason giving the youngsters some life lessons

"Grown-ups" ?

Thistles!

Overall a pretty great and active week!

11 Weeks til Utah

Monday

2 mi recovery run with pup

Morning miles in TR with Ivy, lots of starts & stops for sniffing and peeing (her, not me) but it helped the legs loosen up a bit. Sore quads, calves, and particularly left heel/Achilles after yesterday's miles on trail. 

60 min Vinyasa hot yoga

Been a while since I'd gotten to a yoga session, this was a nice easy Vinyasa flow and had lots of good stretchy moves for hips which was good for the lingering soreness.

Tuesday

7.03 mi @ 8:21/mi run

Ran in the rain downtown and managed a pretty decent run! Added distance to the route and ended up with right at 7 miles total, so some bonus miles beyond #10kTuesday. 

Wednesday

3.1 mi @ 9:46/mi pup run 🐾

Took Ivy out for some miles on the trail and got our longest distance together - full 5k! She did great, a little bit of pulling but not too many stops for sniffing. 

Thursday

7.0 mi @ 8:36/mi avg with 6x hill repeats

Met the early downtown crew for a nice downtown loop, finished with 6 hill repeats on the Governor's School hill. Felt good and strong!

2.5 mi 20# ruck

Got out at lunch for a little ruck loop, haven't done much rucking in a while but was a nice day to get out for a couple miles. 

Friday

4.4 mi @ 9:21/mi XC run

Got in some miles on the XC course at work with the Hot Fish Run Club (inside joke 😂). 

Saturday

3.5 mi @ 8:39/mi

Volunteered in the morning with the Upstate Run Club at one of the water stops on the Mountains to Mainstreet half & 5k. Afterwards took a small loop run before heading home. Thought I'd do more but ran short on time and also got hungry lol.

Volunteers!

Sunday

10.13 mi @ 9:02/mi

Was still drizzling a bit in the morning so took the opportunity to get some long miles in the hilly Green Valley loop. Mostly ran the race course with a few edits, climbed over 800 ft. Need to be pursuing those hills on purpose for the next couple of months!

Feeling pretty solid after a nearly 40-mile week! Didn't get trail miles like last week but overall some good runs. 

Looking ahead: Summer of Trail

Been a while since I had any big races on the calendar, so here's how the summer event season is shaping up... 

6/8 - Cottonmouth Beerlay 8-mile (this is a fun one... 4x2 laps, 1 beer per lap)

7/13 - Carolina Reaper 50k (solo version... same course/format as Snowbird)

7/27 - Tushars Mountain Half Marathon 

8/3 - Park City Trail Half Marathon

9/7-9/8 - Blue Ridge Relay

9/14 - Jones Gap Trail Half Marathon

Basically lots of long, slow, off-road stuff!

Two of the races are in Utah and are scheduled around our planned family vacation in Salt Lake City & Park City, Utah at the end of July. I'm most nervous about the Tushars Mountain half, because it starts above 10,000 ft altitude, climbs to a peak above 12,000 ft, and the elevation gain of the half marathon is about 4,000ft of climbing! 😱 That one is going to be a doozy. I'm not anticipating any kind of speed, just doing it for the challenge and the experience!

So yeah, going to be a summer of trail and elevation for me. 🌄

Kicked off the training with a long run (little over 11 miles) at Paris Mountain on Sunday (yesterday) afternoon. I had a route in mind and knew the approximate distance but didn't really worry about it... was quite freeing to just take off on a run and not really know the exact time or distance. Just ran what I felt like running, walked when I needed to, stopped for breaks and lots of pretty photos. Felt great, although the legs felt the 5k race effort from the day before and the calves took a while to loosen up.

New trail shoes!

Only 1,400 feet of climbing though... gonna  have to find some bigger hills around here somewhere. 😁

Race Report: ZF Get In Gear 5k

This past Saturday was the 3rd race (of 8) in the Corporate Shield series, the ZF (pronounced "Zed Eff" like a proper European) Get In Gear 5k, hosted by ZF Transmissions in Gray Court, SC. This is the newest race in the Corporate Shield series, and only my second time running it (last year was the first). 

I volunteered to help with race setup, so got there quite early (6:15am). It was actually chilly (mid-50s) while setting up before the sun was up! After getting the tables and tents and post-race food/water set up, I was able to get in about a mile of a warm-up jog around the parking lot. This helped with feeling chilly so I could shed my sleeves before the race. 

Pre-race team pic!

We had a small group signed up for the Milliken team this year, but 8 of the 10 registrants showed up and showed out with strong performances all around!

This lollipop course is sneaky... the first mile is basically flat/slightly downhill straightaway, then at mile 1 you turn, find some small hills, go to gravel, then off-road into grass, over curbs in a parking lot, back through grass/trail, and pop back onto a road with a little climb back to the initial straightaway for the third mile but you realize it's slightly uphill for just about all but the last 10th of a mile to the finish. It feels like forever!

Splits reflect perception

Finish time was solidly under 22 mins, which I was really surprised/pleased with!

22nd of 271 finishers
3rd overall female (of 105)

Managed to snag 1st female team with the corporate shield points as well - woohoo!

Ville-to-Ville Relay

The triumphant return to the Ville-to-Ville Relay occurred last weekend (4/13) as I participated for my 6th year running this event. I've participated every year since the inaugural event in 2018, including pandemically-altered event years, except for 2023 when I had this little conflicting race. This year I was excited to rejoin Team Quest in Peace (formerly the Quest Brewing team until they closed a couple of years ago). The team members have changed over the years, but a solid 3-4 of us have been at each one and we were excited to all be back together running again.

Event Basics:

Similar to other relays, this one is shorter (74 miles total) and involves 12 legs run by teams of up to 6 people (so everyone runs twice). The race starts in Asheville and runs to Greenville.

Less exciting for this year was our assigned start time of 5:00 a.m. which I'm pretty sure is the earliest we have ever started. We always drive up the morning of the event, so this meant meeting for a 3:15 a.m. departure to drive in Dave's minivan up to Asheville. We met up with no issues, piled into the van, chatted and napped on the drive up, and arrived with sufficient but not overly excessive time at the start. 

Me, Isabel, Meg, Abbi, Dave, Alaina

First Run: Leg #1 - Recreation Pool Park to AC Reynolds Middle School - 5.14 Miles - Rating = Hard

Starting out in the early morning darkness was one thing, but since it was the start of the race there were plenty of others nearby so I wasn't worried about getting lost. I had the RaceJoy app navigating in my pocket and the trails were well-marked. After a brief mile on the road, we dipped onto the Mountains to Sea trail for a couple of miles. This was tons of fun - off-road running in the darkness, just trucking along through the woods. Really great! After we exited the trail, there were some hilly roads through residential areas on our way to the exchange zone at the school. 

Overall was 5.19 mi @ 8:52/mi average, which varied widely from the 10:30-ish pace on the trail stairs to 7:30-ish pace on the roads. 

After that, my favorite part of the day was a few legs later...

Beer and breakfast burrito 😍

The morning was full of running into other teams that I knew, chatting and enjoying the beautiful sunshine, and making our way across the state line. My next leg was the final run in North Carolina, running from Tuxedo Park up to Talisman Camp on the NC/SC border. 

Second Run: Leg #7 - 3.53 miles

This run was a straight shot on a single road, mostly uphill (gaining ~100ft/mile, total 370ft). Managed to maintain an 8:00/mi pace which I was pretty happy about considering it was also getting warm. Not much interesting about this one, just a steady climb and knowing I was going to be done for the day once it was finished!

Got this one done then had time to hang out at Hotel Domestique in the sunshine while we waited for our runner to come through. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent soaking up sun (probably too much) and enjoying beers and chatting with other race participants as we went from exchange to exchange. 

We finished a little after 4pm and all ran as a team the final 50 feet to the finish line. So much fun to run with this team for yet another year!

Running to the finish line

Team!

The O.G. ladies (or at least have run 3+ years together)

And yes, we're already signed up for next year! 

Welp, that got away from me. Whoopsie.

OK, so since mid-January it's been quite a busy month and a half few months. I had 4 straight weekends of events which really took a lot of energy. I loveeeee doing events and races but consecutive weekends definitely takes a lot. Then it was followed by... I don't even know, life??

Below is a list of the events from the past many several weeks and links to their blog posts that I've finally caught up on...

Saturday Jan. 20th - GTC Run Downtown 5k

Saturday Jan. 27th - Snowbird Challenge 50k

Friday-Sunday Feb. 2-4 - GORUCK Savannah Weekend

Saturday Feb. 10 - GTC Green Valley 10-Miler

Saturday Mar. 9th - Earth Run 5k

I'll start fresh with next week's blog and might go back and enter a few others from interesting things but gotta do something!