Tuckfest - a weekend of racing on the trails

Tuckfest weekend at the WWC is one of my favorites. All training gets pushed to the side, and I just race non-stop race for 3 straight days. That's the upside of it. The downside is my legs ache from the high intensity efforts begin stacked back to back with only a few hours downtime between them. 

Early Friday morning, I was off for 10 miles. This race took in Academy, Figure 8, North Main, part of South Main, and part of the service road. Everyone was fresh and hungry so the pace was fast. 

I do my best and settle in and just start working the miles. This was going to be a long 3 day stretch. I needed to pace myself. 

That night, I am back for a 4.5 miles on North and part of South Main. I am carrying two head lamps. In last fall's Tuckfest, my single head lamp dimmed to nearly nothing. 

Saturday morning feels cool as we start the quarter marathon race. I settle with about 6 other runners as we head for a loop of East Main. There are two guys up front. Then, there are young ladies. I am guessing from a local cross country team. They had on matching outfits. One more young guy was following them. 

I tagged along at the end of this line until when the pace finally ease just enough that I could work my way through them. I wanted to be on frontside of this group once we got in to the back side of East Main. I knew better than get in to a sprinting contest with runners a 1/3 of my age. I could use that section to open a gap, and I did. 

Saturday night, I was back running Twilight 5k. Dusk was just falling. I turned on the head lamp once under in the trees. There was a small group of runners, and they were soon gone up the trail. 

Sunday morning, I pushed myself out of bed, and I headed for the WWC. This would be the hardest day with 1/2 marathon followed by 5k roughly 2ish hours later. 

I was holding my own through the front side of East Main and Tributary. Once I hit the back side of East Main, my legs were toast. I really just nursed this one home. 

I was caked in trail dust. 

I then pulled out my chair and put up my feet, and I rested for the next couple of hours. 

I was preserving all of the mental and physical energy that I had for one last effort. 

By 12:30, I was pretty warm standing at the starting line. Sweat was already bubbling up on my forehead. 

With one final count down, we were off. At this point, I had only 3 miles run and no reason to hold anything back. 

Yet, my legs were not happy with me. 

I pushed hard and entered the trails in 3rd place. No matter how much it hurt, I wasn't giving up easily. 

I had about an 10 yard gap once we dropped along the river. This is favorite section to run. The cool breeze was blowing inward. I took advantage of it, and pushed a little harder. 

We took the service road to the top of hill. The service road section is about a quarter mile long, steep at the start, but gradually lessons. I pumped my arms hard. I knew where every root and rock was located. 

By the time I passed under the power lines, I can no longer hear any foot steeps behind me. I cannot see anyone on the switch backs which gave me a second to regroup for the push to the finish. 

I couldn't feel my legs. All I know is that they were turning over and carrying me to the finish. 

I crossed the finish line, and I looked back. No one was insight. I had captured the last podium place in the last race. Pretty much, this was the same as last year. 

Someone asked me how I did it. The answer was that I just out lasted everyone else. 

I love doing these races, but the realization is starting to set that I cannot have my cake and eat it too. I cannot have both the quantity and quality. My legs just have too many miles in them. That bounce goes away pretty fast these days. 

Maybe next year I will only do one race per day. Nay, pain is temporary but memories are forever. Bring it on. 

The Cool Down Runner