Virginia Creeper Trail - Recon
In three and half months, I will be back on the Virginia Creeper Trail running. But this time, I will be running 100 miles instead of 50 miles.
So during my Yeti 50 miler, I was taking down notes about the trail. I do this because I am a huge believer that successful stems from where preparation meets opportunity. If I prepare well, I position myself to have my best effort on race day.
And, as with any potential trail race, having carnal knowledge of course supersedes Youtube videos,race recaps, and/or conversations with other runners. Meaning, personal hands-on knowledge is always best.
I wanted to share some of my notes here because as I read and watched much about the Virginia Creeper Trail, I didn't see these called out.
Elevation: Jason tells everyone that the opening miles are easy and effortless. He is absolutely right. From Green Cove to Alvarado, I felt like I had a hand pushing me down the mountain. I had to make a concerted effort to resist the urge to run faster. As I get closer to Damascus and then on to Alvarado, the course flatten out. But as is illustrated by my Garmin elevation chart, I was still running slightly down hill.
Roughly after the first set of upward spikes is Taylors Valley aid station. Shortly after the 2nd set of spikes is the Damascus aid station. Around 2:46ish is the Alvarado aid station. The top of first climb is the turn around at bridge one in Abington. The middle of 2nd flat section is where I turned around again at Alvarado. Then, I had repeated the last climb back to Abington.
Trail: The Virginia Creeper trail is pretty typical of most rails to trails. Starting a Green Cove, the trail is this black dirt. There are few rock outcropping and divets in the trail where the water has washed across the trail. The divets in the trail looked to be to divert water off the trail. I noted them because I will likely be running this section at night. After being use to the smooth trail miles, I don't want to stumble over one of these. As I neared Damascus, the trail turns to almost an entirely cinder path and is pretty much the same all the way through Abington. I wore my road shoes. Only a couple of times did I feel any rocks through the soles.
I noticed a number of people wore gaiters. I didn't and didn't have any issues with getting the cinders in my shoes.
Bathrooms. Jason told us that they couldn't put port-a-jons along the course with the exception of the Damascus. Those port-a-jons were on private property. There are few restrooms along the course. I cannot speak to the details about the restrooms. What I can say that there is only two restrooms at Green Cove, and there was a huge line waiting to use them before our race. I don't think everyone got a chance to use them before the race started. I believe the next possible restrooms are 13 miles down the trail at Straight Branch parking lot.
Best option here is to plan accordingly and don't plan on restrooms being available at the start.
Shade along the course: I started the race wearing my hat and sunglasses. Thinking, I would need them. However, I found other than a couple of spots, I wasn't using them. I really didn't need them until Damascus. Between Damascus and Alvarado, I used them more. I used them in sections between Alvarado and Abington. Maybe it was my eyes or maybe I just have a dark part of shades but once under the coverage of the trees, I pushed them on top of my head. They were too dark.
Bridges: There are 47 bridges on the trail. Most are short and crossing takes a only a few sections. Others are quite long, and they can take several minutes to cross. Most were flat, but a few had a slight camber to them. A few were built in a curve. Only one had a snake crawling on it. I found myself counting them. Knowing, one was the last bridge on the trail.
Gates: I believe that there were 6 gates on the course. They are counterbalanced so I just had to pull them open, and they would close behind me. From what I have read, these sections have cattle in them. I didn't encounter any cattle but from what I understood, they can be standing in the trail. So proceed with caution.
Horses: Riding of horse on the trail is permitted, and yes, I did encounter one rider. I passed slowly and to the far side of the trail so as to not spoke his horse.
Cyclist, Runners, Hikers: Between Green Cove and Damascus, I only encountered a few cyclist, runners, and hikers. The trail was pretty quiet. Now, this could be have been because of the time. Between Damascus and Alvarado, I encountered a lot more bikers and a few runners. From Alvarado to Watauga, it was mostly cyclist. Past Watauga, a lot more of all 3 were present. I found myself having to weave between. While the trail is quite wide in this section, everyone tends to walk beside each other. There were also a lot of families. Most everyone saw the bibs and were plenty nice about making room. I called this out because of the entire trail, the busiest section is the 3.75 mile section between Watauga and Abington.
Aid Station parking: There was no parking at Green Cove. My daughter dropped me at the parking lot, and headed down the trail to Taylors Valley. Here, there was ample parking. Damascus, the parking was a bit more difficult. The aid station is at next to the cabins so there is no designated parking area, and we were told not to park at the cabins. She parked across the street.
Alvarado has sample parking as does Abington. However, you have to drive through the city to get to lots.
Driving time between the aid stations averaged between 15 and 20 minutes. The long drive time was from Alvarado and Abington. All of the aid station is easily reachable by a crew long before a runner is expected to arrive.
Cell service. Don't expect. Around Green Cove, I got nothing. I could get a few bars in Damascus. If I stood with my hand high in the air, I could get a bar in Alvarado. Abington, I did have plenty of bars. I noted this because if you are being crewed, they need directions. The last thing that you want is your crew lost on a country road.
For my daughter, I printed directions, and I saved directions on my phone. Siris could guide her along the roads based on GPS with the saved map. This was a good move on my part because she would have no way of getting directions while onsite.
In addition, we drove the course the day before. This allowed her to see the roads and turns and get familiar with them.
These are some of my notes that I will be taking forward and using later for my 100 miler. I wanted to share these to help with the collective knowledge. Maybe I shared something that others will find useful.
Cool Down Runner Adventures
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