The day before this race I decided to go for a short run in the same area as the race, but further into the park called Land Between the Lakes where we were going to run. There had been a lot of flooding in this part of Kentucky and all week I had been getting emails about what the race organisers were doing to ensure we could run the race despite many of the trails still being waterlogged. Soon enough I saw what the problem was. I was intending to run the Honker Trail around a small lake. When I parked the car it was raining so I coated up and set off; there was nobody else around. I ran down an access trail and found my Honker Trail. Within twenty metres the trail disappeared under water and I could not see it emerging ahead. So I ended up running on 4WD roads and wound a nice, muddy, out and back route in forest to a further away point on the lake shore.
Afterwards I had to go to Waffle House to get warm. In the afternoon they were forecasting heavy rain and strong 40 mph winds with the possibility of a tornado for race day. I was also worried about which time zone I was on because Kentucky is one of those states on two time zones and I didn’t want to get to the race an hour early.
In the end we didn’t get the tornado but we got a lot of rain, a big thunderstorm with plenty of lightning and the muddiest run I have ever done by a long shot. Yesterday’s mud was nothing on this. This mud was yellow or brown and slippery. Very slippery. I saw runners falling all over the place and I was amazed that I never fell once. The thick leaf litter compounded the slickness of the trail and made the myriad obstacles (roots, sticks, hollows) hard to spot.
I found the race mentally demanding since I had to pay attention the entire time, no zoning out was possible or I might trip. It was like skiing in this respect. But for eight hours straight.
The trail was a single track and passing was impossible unless the person being passed stood aside. I found everyone was so kind about this irritation. I had deliberately started near the back and in the later stages I had to pass people.
It rained lightly at the start but nothing serious enough for a rain jacket. We had a brief run on the road from Grand Rivers (where I had managed to stay even nearer the start line than last weekend) then turned into the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area and commenced three laps of the Canal Trail.
The mud was an issue from the very start and we all hoped that this early part was just a muddy stretch, but it never went away. On the first lap it was possible, occasionally, to avoid some of the mud by stepping off the trail but later this just made the mud patches expand. The worst was when there was grass beside the trail because the grass became impossibly slippery too and there was nowhere to go. Many of the hairpin bends in the trail were tricky too, especially on downhills, because of the camber combined with mud. I’m not making excuses here, it was a difficult day.
I was immediately concerned that this race was going to be rather monotonous, winding through the leafless forest on a grey day. But soon I realised we were going to have lots of lake views - we were on a peninsula with a lake on either side which meant we had water to our left the whole way around the loop - and the route wended its way around many inlets. There were little grassy clearings too. I believe there’s interesting wildlife on a nice summer day. Unfortunately the receding flood waters had left a lot of rubbish among the trees which was very unsightly. The trail was undulating with some more marked hills in the latter part; all runnable although I allowed myself to walk a little.
There were four aid stations around the eleven mile loop. This was unusually frequent for a trail race and very welcome. All had cheering marshals for whom the bad weather day must have been most unpleasant. I ate cookies, pb&j sandwiches, and - just once - a bean and cheese tortilla segment. After all these races I still think you can’t beat a homemade pb&j.
The first real rain came very suddenly at 9.30, three hours in. It was torrential and I was soaked by the time I got my jacket on. But it stopped equally suddenly and I was left wondering if that was it. I kept my jacket on and got far too warm, so eventually I took it off, hoping not to bring on the rain. There was no noticeable effect on the mud, except that it clearly wasn’t going to be able to dry out. Looking out at the lakes there was a lot of mist and I could no longer see the far shores.
Two hours later the real rain started. Not quite as heavy but this time it wasn’t going to stop. Then as I started my third lap there were major sheets of lightning followed alarmingly soon by thunder claps. I was glad I was still down low rather than on the ridge. This lasted for maybe half an hour and then we were back to just moderately heavy rain.
This heavier rain had the effect of turning the single track into a rivulet, yellowish flowing water marking our route. It was actually easier to run through the water rather than try to avoid it as the footing was firmer underneath, but the water was too cold for comfort, and it was only in the last half of the loop that I ran through the water with abandon as I knew I would soon be done. However, parts of the second half of the loop which had been marginally less muddy than the rest of the trail had become very slippery so the moments of respite were gone. Running through the water had the strange effect of cleaning my shoes. They had been totally mud covered, unsurprisingly, and I had been looking forward to photographing them, but now they were clean.
Coming back onto the paved road for the final two miles was a relief but I was so tired I had to walk some bits. There were two long bridges and then a brief climb back into the town. I wanted to break eight hours, in fact I had never doubted being able to do this, but I missed by a minute. Who cares? It was enough to be able to look forward to an imminent hot shower.
I had hot chilli and coffee (and more pb&j's) in the community centre, and then I walked a short distance to my room. It was amazingly windy, almost scary. After I had my shower I looked out the window and the sky was largely blue with the sun shining. Unbelievable!
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