Tread Nightly Race Recap

I was just heading out for a couple of shake miles before WWC Tread Nightly Trail ½ marathon. For the last hour the dark storm clouds had been gathering in the distance. I wasn’t more than ½ mile in to my warm up when the clouds opened up, and the lightening lite up the sky followed shortly by the rumble of thunder through the trees. I dragged my rain soaked body back to my car to wait out the storm.

I crossed my fingers that at best the race would be delayed and hoped that the worst didn’t happen. That it would be canceled.

The rain slowed to steady pour, and the worst of the storm moved off in to the distance. All of us were on edge as we were about get dropped in to a super dark trail with nothing more than tiny head lamp to illuminate our way.

I pulled on my Hoka Evos which have some nice lugs on the bottom. I so hoped that they gripped the trail well.

From the start to the point where we enter the trail is only about 100 yards, but it was like going in to a room with the lights out. I could only see the small piece of real estate covered by my head lamp.

We moved to North Main, to Figure 8. Here we ran a small parking lot section over to Academy. I saw one guy go down just after entered Academy. Incidentally, I met 3 runners before the race that this was their first night and first trail race. I wondered later if they will ever come back.

The weather had settled in to a steady drizzle, and the runners were starting to string out now.

With each step, I was feeling better and better about my Evos grabbing the earth rather than slipping and sending me to the ground.

We crossed over the power line section and entered the recently reopened Thread trails. Now, they have connector under bridge to the trails on the other side of the road.

This was all a new course from last year. For the first time, we were racing on the Bandit and Panda trails.

I was now about an hour into this race. Between the drizzle and the heavy humidity, I was pretty much running through a fog.

Panda was nice change as it is all flat.

Water was running through the trails in sections, and mud was sticking to my shoes.

Climbing up the hills of North Main, I was feeling the fatigue. Probably the best moment was popping out along the channel for the final quarter mile to the finish. I could finally put the worry of falling behind me for the night.

I finished in 2:11:27 for 6 overall, and first in my age group.

This was probably the one the toughest race that I have done in a while. From the rain to the darkness to the slippery trails, to the heat and humidity, all of the runners faced some real challenges.

Kudos again to the WWC race staff. The rain didn’t make things easy on them either but they still put on a great race. Even bigger Kudos to the race volunteers that were enduring the late night conditions on the weather. They made this race possible so “Thank You”

Tail Dust Trails

The Cool Down Runner