Race Report: Frogtown Challenge 10 Miler

I had this race on my radar early this year thanks to a woman at my CrossFit affiliate.  She said it was a crazy fun trail race and to sign up early because it was likely to sell out.  Nothing more needed to be said to get me add it to my race calendar after that!  The race did indeed sell out a month prior to race day so I’m glad I took her advice.

I drove up to North Georgia the morning of the race.  The race was being held on private property.  The course details promised a real off-road experience and (gulp) creek-running.  The Lookout Mountain 50 miler has several creek crossings so I was curious about how my shoes/socks would hold up in the water.  So in spite of being nervous about a double-race weekend, I had good reason to stop whining and go ahead and run this race.

I had another long drive to get to this race.  Once again, I probably drank way too much way too close to race time.  I made it a point to wait in the POP line twice.  I did not want a repeat of my experience during the Harbins Park trail race.  How can one (non-pregnant) person have to use the bathroom twice in 20 minutes?  Is it nerves?  Did I really drink that much water?  Do I have a tiny bladder?  I don’t know but I’m glad I took care of everything before the gun went off.

Trail races are usually low-key affairs so I adjust my expectations.  However, I thought the race start was a bit unorganized.  There was a 4-mile course and a 10-mile course and the website said that 10-milers would start first at 8AM.  That plan got flipped for some reason and the 4-milers were to start first.  All of this info was relayed over a megaphone that wasn’t very…mega.  I had followed the initial directions for slower runners and walkers to head to the back of the pack.  I wanted to make sure I didn’t get caught up in any hype to “race” this run.  In the back of the crowd, I couldn’t hear a single thing the race director was saying.  Considering that what he was saying was very important, that kind of sucked.

It all got sorted out eventually but the 4-mile race still started a bit late around 8:03 with only a few runners realizing a little too late that their race had already started.  I guess they couldn’t hear either!  In order to ease trail congestion, the 10-milers had to wait until all of the 4-milers hit a certain point on the trail to get started.  We were then told that we would start in two waves to further ease bunching up.  There were about 300 10-milers and that is a lot of people for a trail race.  This was a smart call.

I deliberately started in the second wave to run smart.  With a hard trail marathon on schedule the next day, I had no goals for this race other than to have fun and not twist an ankle.  I kept my coach’s directive to keep it at a very low effort in the front of my mind.  I was wearing my running watch but not the shoe chip because of the creek running part.  This worked out well because I would have no idea of what my average pace was at any given moment.  I don’t need a chip to tell me how hard I’m working and I didn’t need to worry about pace.

The race started with a quick run around a field before heading into the woods.  In the woods, I immediately ran into a bottleneck.  It seemed like people were just standing around.  Actually, they were standing over the lip of a deep ravine waiting for ropes to free up so they could sort of rappel their way down.  A few brave souls ran down a steep woody path and a few people slid on their butts.  I just waited for the rope and climbed down.  This was fun already!

More running followed with lots of tree jumping.  This was real backwoods running.  The trail was not a groomed, well-worn path trodden upon by 1000s of footfalls.  It was sort of like running in someone’s backyard if their backyard was the woods.  Since this was private property, I guess this really was the case!

We re-crossed the field where we started the race and entered some more woods.  It was time for some creek crossing already!  We had to drop down into the water (ankle to knee deep) and walk the creek under a dam.  It was a nice 2-3 minute trek with me being extra cautious because the creek was full of slippery rocks and the bottom was not visible.  I had no interest in taking a header into that dirty water.  A girl I met in the POP line at the beginning mentioned that she had done just that last year and ruined her Ipod.

The start of the "tame" water crossing.

Shortly after creek #1, we met big old hill #1.  The sign saying “Fear The Hill” and the bottleneck of racers at the base were clear indicators of the difficulty ahead.  No nice ropes on this one – we just had to gut it out.  The elevation profile indicates that the hill goes straight up nearly 200ft.  I started out walking but eventually resorted to a bear crawl which seemed easier on my legs.  People were going up so slowly and who wants to stand around waiting on a 15% incline hill?

I did a good bit of running post-hill.  I always kept it slow and steady.  I think I hit mile 3 at around 38 minutes and didn’t hit Mile 4 until 55 minutes in.  I had a mini-internal freak out since I was feeling so slow but I remembered why I was here and it wasn’t to race.  Plus, the bottlenecks at the obstacles did my pace no favors.  If you run this race and care about your time, get started with the first wave of runners.  Then you’ll be running with people who are trying to kill it and are probably a little less timid in approaching obstacles.

There was another short creek cross and then a lot of running on “trail” through a field.  This part of the trail looked like someone simply mowed through a field of grass 4-feet high to create a path about 4 feet wide.  Running on the grass was nice and easy and I started passing people in spite of my goal to keep it easy.  I blame the Beyonce that came up on my Ipod.  I figured doing some fun running for 3 minutes wouldn’t hurt anyway.  Call it a fartlek if you will.

At around Mile 7, a course volunteer let us know that we were heading towards the best part of the race.  If by best he meant wettest then he was right.  We had to run through a creek for about a mile.  Again the water was ankle to knee deep with random deep holes scattered about.  A lot of people passed me as they threw caution to the wind and just blazed through the water.  I was more interested in staying upright so I followed behind two girls who were approaching the water as cautiously as I was.  Following people in this type of situation is good because you get forewarning of deep holes and such and can react appropriately.

I almost hesitate to mention this part of the creek run but the incident weighed on my mind during the run.  The creek was all flat so there were no ravines or anything that required any tricky maneuvers.  I had my head down and my vision focused on slippery rocks so I nearly ran into something that looked like a noose.  WTF is that?!? That was my first honest reaction when I saw the newish white rope hanging all randomly in the middle of a creek.  On second glance, I realized that it wasn’t a traditional noose with the tight coils at the top.  It was more of a coil of rope wound into a circle hanging down.  I don’t know what you would call that but my brain screamed “Noose!”  The guy behind me cheerfully says “Oh a rope swing!”  I didn’t see the need for any swing on the terrain and if it were a rope swing it was not in a very helpful position.

It is funny how the reactions differed isn’t it?  Cumming, GA in Forsyth County where the race was held has a really checkered background as far a racism is concerned and a lot of this history is recent as in the last twenty years.  It was probably nothing and maybe I was just being sensitive.  I don’t know.  I do know that with all the recent talk of potential presidential candidate Rick Perry’s family retreat in Texas, seeing a random “rope swing” in the middle of the creek of a county that I know to have a recent racially charged past shook me up a bit.

Moving on!  The creek mess went on and on and I was so over it after only 1/2 mile.  That was the longest mile I’ve ever “run” in my life and I don’t care to do that again anytime soon.  The water was very cold and there was all this grit in my shoes.  My feet felt like ice blocks when I finally escaped.

The race organizer’s thoughtfully planned a foot washing station after the creek.  There was a nice little kiddie pool full of (now dirty) water for rinsing and carpet covered logs for you to sit on.  I dumped a ton of crap out of my shoes and socks and was awfully embarrassed that the last time I painted my toenails was a month ago.  I watched the guy next to me change into a fresh dry pair of socks and felt like a real dummy for not bringing a fresh pair.  But, I’ve got to say that my shoes (Salomon CrossMax) and socks (SmartWools) held up admirably under the conditions.  The water drained very quickly from my shoes and my socks dried up nicely in a short time.  Two thumbs up to both.

I left the foot station and headed back onto the course.  We went through a bit of a wooded area and almost immediately hit another very short creek crossing.  I didn’t feel so bad about not having dry socks then.

After the creek, there was a deep ravine with no rope to get back up.  This setup was almost as cruel as having people put on dry socks and then making them run through water again!  This ravine was steep on the way back up and it was all muddy because everyone’s shoes were wet.  I nearly slid back down when I got halfway up so I had to pause and re-evaluate the situation.  A bit of slow careful bear-crawling and some good luck did the trick.

The trail run turned pretty standard after the muddy ravine.  I’m not sure what kind of terrain this was but it was very dusty.  GA is famous for having red clay instead of dirt but the terrain we ran on reminded me of the standard tan dirt/clay we had in VA where I grew up.  There was a tire crossing that was easy to navigate.  There were lots of downed trees to jump over.  I don’t know if they put them there on purpose of if the trees were simple casualties of nature but there were a ton of them.  I thought this was more fun running.

I was about 8 miles into a 10 mile race and I felt pretty incredible.  I guess I was pacing it just right this time around.  The last two miles were pretty straight-forward trail running with the exception one more creek crossing.  This time there was a carpeted log setup to span the creek.  There was also an arm-high rope running across the creek to grab onto for balance.  As a female child of the 80′s, you have to know that the scene from Dirty Dancing where Baby and Johnny dance on the log was in my head!

The last few miles went by very quickly.  The trail got a little hilly at a few points and I walked but I did a lot of running and passed a few more people.  Am I wrong for being a little happy whenever I passed a CrossFitter?  This race was part of the Garage Games series so there were a lot of CrossFitters out wearing their affiliate T-Shirts.  I get so much (good-natured) flack for my running that I had to smile when I chicked some CrossFit dudes when I wasn’t even racing.

Speaking of chicking people, I think all the hill training I’ve been doing has been really helping.  I’m not a fast runner but I’m a decent power/hill walker.  I pass a lot of other walkers on the hills.  I’m no expert, but I see so many people walking hills stooped over with their hands pressing on their thighs.  I don’t think that helps…why put more pressure on your quads and knees?  If you are that tired, stop a take a break, then start moving again.  I walk upright with a slight forward lean.  I take shorter steps and I walk with purpose pumping my arms.  Maybe having big legs is an asset in the case of hillwalking?

A few more hills, a little more dusty running, some sweet downhill and the race headed into the home stretch.  I approached a cargo net wall obstacle and tackled it without fear.  I’ve done this before at Warrior Dash and Tough Mudder and without mudpits this was a cakewalk.  I loved the volunteer stationed there to insult us military-style while we tackled the nets.  Hilarious.

This type of thing is fun to me

The race ended about 1/2 a mile after the cargo net.  I didn’t sprint to the finish for once.  I just kept my steady pace and crossed with a smile.  I didn’t twist an ankle and I kept my effort low.  Mission accomplished!

My finish time ended up being 2:16 and some change.  My official time was 2:20:27 which was good for 12/19th in my age group and 230/334 overall.  Ouch!  I was way out of the midpack again, but I wasn’t racing.  Those standings are a bit sketchy though.  First of all, we had a wave start for the 10-miler but no chip time which is kind of lame.  That’s why my watch time is more accurate.  I had to wait about 4 minutes to start after the first wave.

Also, according to chatter on the Facebook page, a large group of people in the first wave were redirected incorrectly by volunteers and missed a mile of the course.  This makes sense because there is a subset of people in the results that finished way way way faster than everyone else.  There are always folks that will be faster but the spread between the Top 2 or 3 and the next runners is like 8-10 minutes.  That’s not a typical result when there are a whole lot of runners.  It makes sense that some folks accidentally skipped a mile.

The Frogtown Trail Challenge has got a lot of good stuff going for them.  The course is excellent, the obstacles are fun, and the price is right ($35 early registration).  Parking was handled very well and it was absolutely free.  I tweeted post-race that Frogtown was like “Tough Mudder lite” and it’s true.  There is a little less mud and the obstacles aren’t as numerous or hard but the fun factor is there and the trail running portion is excellent.  The race shirt is a nice one that I will actually wear in the near future.  My goody bag included some really cute tech socks with a little frogman on them too.  Stuff-its were being randomly given out but I missed those.  A shame because I really like the pair that I purchased and would have loved another.

There are a few organizational kinks that I hope the race directors work out though.  I think the course should be marked with tape rather than relying on volunteers for direction.  Having people directed incorrectly and shorting the course for a mile throws all the race results into question.  I’d be pissed if I were in the top few and there was money on the line or something!  I also think they need to use chip times if they are casually enforcing a wave start – especially one that puts you 4 minutes behind.  However, the wave start was very necessary.  There were backlogs at a few of the initial obstacles – a more official organized wave start would probably be a good idea.

At race start, they had donuts which was great.  But when I finished the race, I couldn’t find anything to eat or drink and I was hardly the last finisher.  I did score a nice post-race massage though with little waiting.  I would have loved some PowerAde or something to go along with that massage!

Lastly, a little volunteer education goes a long way.  I totally appreciate volunteers because they don’t have to be out there.  But, it falls on race organizers to help volunteers be useful.  At two of the mid-course water stations, there were no cups of water ready for hand off or even stacked on the table.  I carried my own water bottle,  but several times a bunch of racers approached the tables and people were scrambling to pour water.  Not sure what was up with that because there were always 3 or 4 people standing around.  They just didn’t have any water ready.

Kinks aside, I’ll be doing this race again next year if possible.  I need to bring some recruits with me too because this is the type of race that begs to be run with friends.  If you want to try something harder than the Warrior Dash but not quite as hard as Tough Mudder – this is your race.  Sign up early though or you will miss out!