3 Mountains 3 Days 60 Miles

Thursday afternoon after packing the truck I quickly jumped on 24 East heading down to Chattanooga for Rock/Creek 2011 Chattanooga Mountain Stage Race. Driving there I had a lot on my mind such as: I need to use this as a training opportunity as racing this close to TRT100 may not be in my best interest as Tahoe 100 is just weeks away and it is an “A” race this season; I MUST stay healthy and not get hurt; I’m sure there will be competitors there who are far more fit at the ~20ish mile range than I as I’m really, at this point, geared towards the 50 to 100 mile distance. The set up for this stage race was 18 miles on Raccoon Mountain, 22 miles on Lookout Mountain, and last, 20 miles on Signal Mountain in so many days.

When I arrived in Chatt I had reserved a bunk at a newly opened hostel appropriately named The Crash Pad which also acted as the official race headquarters. I’ve got to say staying at The Crash Pad really made my weekend experience one that I will not forget. Co-owners Max Poppel and Dan Rose were so cool and friendly that I can’t imagine ever staying anywhere else when visiting the area. The hostel was clean, with a full kitchen available to all occupants along with offering free wifi. Really it doesn’t get any better than that for me fo sho! So, if it’s not clear, WHEN YOU VISIT CHATTANOOGA STAY AT THE CRASH PAD!

Raccoon Mountain Stage 18 Miles

Everyone knew stage 1 would be the easiest lifting of the three in terms of mileage, terrain, and elevation change. At the starting line there was the typical strong stench of uncertainty, male ego, nervousness, apprehensiveness, and out rite “sizing up” between the athletes! As I look around I knew there was a hand full of strong and well established trail veterans, however it’s the “young bucks” who you don’t know that, in the shorter distance races, can often leave one at the end of the day wondering “where the hell did he come from?” However, I typically don’t see that in longer distance races. As Randy Whorten stood at the starting with the mega phone uttering out race instructions, jokes, and finally: three, two, one, GO it was on! I seated myself somewhere around 10 or so competitors back in what would eventually become the chase group to four athletes who took off like rabbits. At the time it was my intention to lie back using as little effort as possible but still maintaining positioning for a top 10 finish. Other than some rock literally reaching up and grabbing my right toe causing me to take a very hard fall (I swear it wasn’t my fault), the day was uneventful. I will say that my legs never really woke up during the 18 mile stage so it’s my thought that that’s actually a good thing as I mentioned earlier I’m really in 50 and 100 mile shape, not half marathon shape. At the end of the day, I came down the finishing shoot in 7th place. I was expecting to be abit further back to tell the truth.

Gear and Food:
Swiftwick Aspire 2's
Inov-8 Roclite 285
Gu Roactane Blueberry-Pomegranate
Infinit Nutrition
saltstick


Stage 1: 2:11:44 / 7th overall

Lookout Mountain Stage 22 Miles

After having a great night at The Crash Pad with some of the other athletes including eventual overall winner Daniel Mueller, soon to be 3rd place overall finisher Daniel Hamilton, and womens overall winner and Montrel Team member Annette Bednosky to name a few, I woke early having a much needed Starbucks Via coffee with my usual bagel peanut butter and honey race breakfast.  I was then ready to get to the mountain. My since of “things” that morning was much different than the prior stage. Everyone seemed to be much more settled and laid back. I think we all new today would be measurably more difficult not just in terms of miles, but topography. No doubt Lookout Mountain has the reputation of have some nasty climbs and some very technical areas that if one is not carful their day will be soon over or their race will be MUCH longer than planned. For me personally I was abit psyched as during 2010 Lookout Mountain 50 Mile Trail Race I injured my right Achilles eventually DNF’n mid way only to be set back several months rehabbing. It was my time to re-claim what I lost out there in 2010! As the stage kicked off, I settled in again around 12 to 15 back behind the main chase group. I found myself running with Rock/Creek Team member John Wiygul for the first five miles or so, then decided I needed to hasten my pace as I really didn’t want to lose total contact with the main chase group. Things were uneventful for the first 10 miles as I was just clicking them off making sure to run a solid and consistent pace with as little energy and strength as possible. It became very apparent to me that for whatever reason on this day I was running very well. As a competitor, you sometimes have those days where it’s just all good! When I hit the 10.7mi feed station I asked how far the chase group was and one of the volunteers yelled with much excitement “man their only about 5 minutes up and they all look tired!” At that point I said to myself; self, screw training, lets race this one out! I dropped the hammer and went. Like my training partner J-Dog and I say; sometimes you got to take what the race gives you. From that point I started hunting, and one by one I picked off what I guess to be around 10 competitors give or take. Eventually I knew I was running in 5th expecting to end the day with what I guessed was 2 miles out from finish. When I got to the top of the mountain I rolled up on Brandon Mader who is a Cliff Bar Team member and a monster of a runner. At some point late in the race Brandon tweaked his right knee and was held up on the side of the trail. From there I knew he was a strong athlete and if I wanted to maintain 4th that day I had to again drop another gear as he was fully capable of catching back up to me at any point. I crossed the knee-high stream and booked it down the finishing shoot for a 4th place stage finish. As I look back, that may be the strongest 11 miles I’ve ran in any race. After that finish I moved from 7th overall for the race to 6th overall.  What a great stage!

Gear and Food:
Swiftwick Aspire 2's
Inov-8 Roclite 295
Gu Roctane Vanilla Orange
Infinit Nutrition
saltstick

Stage 2: 2:40:54 / 4th overall

Signal Mountain Stage 20 Miles

Another uneventful night at The Crash Pad, which is how I like it! Just hanging with the athletes enjoying a beer along with a post race gathering to watch a photo slideshow of the first two stages. By then I had become known as the guy with all the “intense” faces. I swear the photographers edited all my pics… I prefer to think the intensity of my facial expressions was purely pain driven… or something like that. Let’s just face it… the hand held image machine is no friend of mine! The final stage although 2 miles shorter than the previous stage was without doubt significantly more technical and dangerous. As all the athletes gathered at the start line we, by then, knew exactly what was going on along with who was to be watched. There was no doubt with those athletes there to race which guys we needed to be in front of at the end of the day and by how many minutes or seconds to improve in final standings. As I mentioned before my original intentions were to train these three days, but at mile 11 on Lookout Mountain my intentions changed. For me to move into fourth overall for the race I need at least one minute on Brandon Mader and around two minutes on Feb Boswell. Both athletes were very talented. No doubt that Brandon is a faster and much younger athlete than I and Feb is a well known and extremely experienced athlete. Both guys were sponsored by numerous companies. Once the race started I again fell into a small group of four runners probably eight to ten back. My plan was to take the first six miles easy and at that point, it was all or nothing. At about mile 7ish, I spoke loud to the three athletes in front of me and told them I was moving ahead of them. After finally pulling in front of the last of four at the well know “Scenic Feed Station” on top of the mountain it was time to get to the business. This trail was about as nasty as they come. The trail was extremely exposed, with multiple “rock garden” areas. Really it became more of a fast hiking stage than anything as much of the course was unrunable. Not to drag on, but after getting lost twice and taking another fall I finally popped out of the woods onto the gravel path that lead for around two miles but felt like 22;  I could hear people, which in a race, is the best sound in the world because you know the finish line is close. I hit the finishing shoot and looked at my time. At that point it was a matter of waiting to see if Feb or Brandon would finish in the next three minutes. While on the massage table I watched the time tick away. It would be 4th overall for me in the 2011 Rock/Creek Chattanooga Stage Race.  Congrads to all the podium winners this year!

Gear and Food:
Swiftwick Aspire 2's
Inov-8 Roclite 295
Gu Roctane Blueberry-Pomegranate
Infinit Nutrition
saltstick

Stage 3: 3:06:57 / 4th overall

total time for all stages:  7:59:35 / 4th overall

I would like to thank Rock/Creek, Wild Trails, The Crash Pad, Randy and Kris Whorten, all vollunteers, and all my sponsores (Swiftwick, Endurance Sports and Rec, Fitness Wave TN) along with all the competators for such a fun event.

dirtbag is the only way to ultra...