Tuckfest @ WWC

If it is late April on the trails, I must be back doing the trail races at the WWC's Tuckfest. This year due to some Sunday plans, I was only able to do events on Friday and Saturday. Still, I had good time and left tired by Saturday evening.

The weekend kicked off with an 8:30 PM Friday night-time race.  There were two races in fact: a 5K and a 10K. I went for the 10k as I wanted to get the Tuckfest marathon medal. This meant that I needed to accumulate 26 miles of racing during the Tuckfest event.  

Nighttime trail racing is both exciting and dangerous at the same time. Danager comes in the form of a me running through the trails and over rocks and roots with nothing more than a tiny headlamp to light my way. At any time, my light could dwindle away to nothing and leave me in total darkness. Yet, for many of the same reasons it is quite exciting. The entire world shrinks down to just what my little headlamp can illuminate. Outside of this nothing is visible so in theory doesn't exist. 

Things get a little tricky entering the trails as there are always a few people that are really fast running around the channel, but then realize that running on a trail is much different and even harder running at night. 

We headed down to North Main. Then, we followed this up by doing South Main with the Wedge Trail added in for good measure. Most everything was going as expected until I came out of the woods over by "Unleashed". Here, the fog had rolled in so I couldn't see much of anything. All I could do was just look down at the ground and hope for the best. I finished 22nd overall in 52:12. 

Soon after, I headed back home since I needed to be back at the WWC for a 1/2 marathon at 8 AM. 

Back home, I inhaled some food and closed my eyes in hopes that I could sleep fast. 

My eyes seemed to have barely closed when my alarm sounded. Had it really been 7 hours. I guess so. 

Back to the WWC, I went. 

My legs were tried even before the start. I settled in with a group. We worked the trails. Lots of conversation went back and forth. I ran with these guys until we passed the exit of Wedge on the South Main trail. There was about 4 miles left. I picked up the pace and ran by myself to the finish. I finished in 2:10:27 for the 46th overall. 

Now, I had a about 6 and 1/2 hours until 12k afternoon race. I took my chair down near the upper pond, put my feet up to hopefully get some rest. This was one of the few times that I ever took a nap during the day. I woke up looked at my Garmin and headed for my car. The 12k start was just under an hour away. 

30 minutes before the race, I headed up to the pavilion, found a chair, waited, and rested. Drizzle started but lightly. Then, the THOR system went off for lightening which delayed. start by about 15 minutes. But this gave the trails enough time to get good and muddy or so I thought. 

Indeed, the trails were muddy. But little did I know but the clouds opened up while we were on the North Main trail. I have never seen so much water running down the trail. I was slipping and sliding. I was holding on to trees and bushes.  People with trail shoes were going by me on both sides. I didn't even try to keep up. I just wanted to stay up. 

Like any summer storm, the front passed quickly but flooded trails were left in its wake. I pounded along doing my best to splash as much water out of the trail as possible. 

I finished 52nd overall with a time of 1:22:39. 

I just happy to have all 26 miles in the bank, and I was ready to head home. 

I think that I fell into bed about 8 PM. Either that or I would have fallen asleep on my couch. 

Tuckfest didn't disappoint. They did an awesome job at the WWC and the really challenged us going for the marathon medal by making us do the North Main trail as many times as possible. 

The Cool Down Runner