Race Report: Red Top Rumble 2012

This is the trail race that started it all!  I had so much fun at this, my first “real” trail race, in 2011 that I started doing other shorter trail races.  Then things started to snowball and I found myself thinking that I should actually run an ultramarathon.  I managed to pull that off in December of 2011 and now I just keep aiming higher.  Pinhoti 100 in November or baby if that’s what happens or bust!

I came into this race off of a few weekends of heavy training.  Two marathons actually – one training run on the Double Top course and one road marathon.  Neither was a done at a racing effort but I probably ran harder than I should have for both runs.  I came away from the Callaway Gardens marathon feeling like I had put in 6+ hours on the trails.  My feet hurt for three days.

Recovery is a funny thing because your legs can feel fine but you can not be fine.  They estimate that you should spend about 26 days in recovery for a marathon, but who has time for that?  I came into this race wanting to do better than I did the year before, but not really trained for it.  I was curious to see if more trail running experience might trump other things like weighing more, not being well-rested, etc.  But, I was also not going to put too much pressure on myself if my body couldn’t handle it.

This is one of the most popular GUTS events, probably because it is one of the few that is not an ultra or a crazy hard trail marathon.  400 race slots sold out in 2 hours.  Even though 400 racers is a small field by most road race standards, it felt so crowded for a trail race.  It was cool though because the energy was great.  Once again, I was pleased to be able to greet so many people.  Coach Sean was there and a host of other people I’ve met on the trails.  I even saw one of my CrossFit Addiction friends who is a wicked fast road runner.

The weather report called for warm temps with a high chance of rain.  I hate that because then I feel forced to wear a hat.  I *hate* wearing hats.  I hate it.  My head sweats like crazy and having it covered up just makes the issue worse.  I feel uncomfortable and that’s no fun.  But a hot head is much better than rain in the face so I chose to deal with it.  I was also back in my green Salomon CrossMax shoes.  I hadn’t worn this pair of shoes in a while because I left them in Chattanooga after Lookout Mountain.  Many thanks to Randy at Wild Trails who mailed them back to me!

I started in the back of the crowd because I didn’t care about jockeying for position.  I remembered from last year that the course starts on the Iron Hill trail which is wide and fairly flat.  There was little need to worry about single-track bottlenecks.  In fact, pretty much all of the trails at Red Top Mountain because 85% of the trails are nice and wide.

I felt good at the start so I decided to push myself while the course was flat.  All bets were going to be off when we hit the rolling hills of Homestead or Sweet Gum so I wanted to make up some time while I still could.  I ran hard and it was tough.  The Iron Hill trail section is about 5K length and after a few miles, I was more than ready to get to the tough stuff so that I could slow down!  I began to think I might have made a mistake in pushing hard from the start but I was committed to keeping up the pace at least to the first aid station.

I covered the 3.6 miles in about 34 minutes.  Considering that the trail was fairly easy here and I was really pushing, this wasn’t too great.  I think I finished this portion last year in less than 30 minutes.  I guess I was more tired from the previous weeks’ training runs than I thought.

On my way from the campground trail to the second aid station, I started to encounter the problem that would plague me during the whole race.  My beloved Balega’s started creeping up my foot.  I hadn’t worn these shoes in a while but when I wore them at Lookout, I had no issues.  I was wearing a black pair Balega’s then, maybe they fit differently?  I have another pair of the same shoes but they are a half size bigger and they presented no issues with these socks.  The combination I wore during this race was not working at all.  After 3 miles, my socks were sliding off my foot and bunching up to my toes.  I had no choice but to stop and take both shoes off to readjust.  Five minutes after removing my shoes, they were sliding up again.  I suppose this is why you do dry runs of your race day outfit!

Completely removing both of your shoes takes a good bit of time when you are up against the clock.  The next aid station was only 1.1 miles away but it took me more than 12 minutes to get there.  I mentally added time to my 1:50 finish from last year and started setting myself up for a 2 hour finish.

I backed off the pace in the portion of the course between the second and third aid stations.  Slowing down was very necessary because I was already feeling draggy from the first 5K of the race.  I ran well on the early mile of the Homestead trail because it starts of deceptively easy.  But, I was slowed down even further because I had to stop and remove my shoes again.  Stupid socks!

Aid station 3 was just a short 1.1 miles from the second station.  This station marked the beginning of the Homestead Loop which I know is about 3 miles long.  I’ve run this this loop many times in training – backwards and forwards.  It is all rolling hills and can be quite exhausting.  I fueled up well during at the aid station and took off for the long (relatively) haul.

The loop killed me on this day!  I regretted going out so fast for the first three miles because I was just whupped.  There was lots of walking going on and I didn’t even care about my time anymore.  I found myself wishing that this race could be over.  Red Top is a tricky little place to run.  The trails aren’t hard in the technical sense because there are not a lot of rocks and roots to trip over.  The hills aren’t hard because there really isn’t anything I would refer to as a climb.  The rolling hills  just nickle and dime you to death energy-wise.  It is sort of like Pine Mountain but for the opposite reason.  Pine Mountain kills you with technicality because you have to constantly pick your feet up to avoid rocks.  Red Top just keeps throwing these mostly runnable hills at you.  It’s fun when you pace it right, but I didn’t pace it right and I suffered.

It took me nearly 52 minutes to cover 4.2 miles.  I had to stop 3 more times to remove my shoes during those miles.  I was beyond annoyed and getting very discouraged.  How did I go from completing the whole race in 1:50 to hoping for 2:15?  I was fine with not making a PR but I didn’t feel like I should add 30 minutes to my previous time.

When we completed the loop and circled back to the fourth aid station, a girl I was running close to complemented me on my shirt.  I was wearing my Ink-N-Burn Peacock shirt (love their gear!).  That girl unknowingly shook me out of my funk a bit because I remembered what the peacock feather print represents – immortality and endurance.  I have no control over the immortality part, but I could suck it up and run 2.5 more miles.

My pace didn’t pick up very much, but my attitude was a lot better for the rest of the race.  I covered the next 1.4 miles in 18 minutes including another shoe removal stop.  I figured that I was good for a 2:10 finish if I pushed myself.  That was at least better than the 2:15 I had started to anticipate.

At the last aid station, we were informed that we only had a mile to go and I started to go all in.  Mind you, my “all in” wasn’t very fast at this point but it was better than before.  I put enough pep in my step to pass a few people ultimately ending up behind a little boy.  I was on his heels and was in good enough spirits again to lightly tease him as I passed.  I said something like “Come on, don’t let this old lady pass you at the end!”  I didn’t want him to pass me back so I managed to hang on to a halfway decent pace until the end.  1.2 miles in 13:25 or 11:10 min/miles.  Quite slow for the terrain, but compared to my previous paces during the race, this mile was a freaking sprint.

Overall results were 2:09:20 which was good for 278/348 overall – far from my beloved midpack.  My results were nothing to really cheer about and a whole 25 minutes slower than my 2011 race.  Considering that I ran marathons the two weekends before and that I overplayed my hand with the pace at the beginning, I’m good with this.  There is always next year!

The post-race festivities were great as always.  There was a full-on breakfast buffet with homemade eggs, biscuits, and sausage available for consumption.  Free Chobani’s were being given out so I jumped all over that.  I also grabbed two FRS energy drinks.  They taste good but don’t kick it nearly as hard as my Sugar-Free Red Bull.

I bought a GUTS car magnet for $1 to add to my 13.1 and 26.2 magnets.  I don’t have an “ultra.” or “50M” magnet because I don’t feel quite ultrarunner-ish enough to own one yet for some reason.  The GUTS magnet works for now because it lets you know what I’m into and one can draw their own conclusions from that.

So while it wasn’t my day to knock out a course PR, this is still a great race with top-notch organization and lots of swag and post-race goodies.  Red Top is a great place to try your hand at trail running because the trails are nice and groomed.  You don’t even really need trail shoes!  Just remember, save some gas for the middle miles because the first 5K is deceptively easy.