Race: PFH50k (Pisgah Fish Hatchery 50k)
Date: Sept 2, 2018
Finish Time: 10:32 hours
Distance: 50k
Elevation change: 16,000 ish ft
This was a group run starting at the Pisgah Fish Hatchery. The course started and finished in the hatchery parking lot, the race directors jeep was our finish line! We got to pass by at least a dozen waterfalls in the first 16 miles, then summit 4 mountains including Pilot Mountain at 5,072' with a panoramic view of the surrounding Pisgah Forest. In total, it was around 33 miles with over 16,000' of climbing and descent.
These were our major climbs:
Sassafras Knob. 4,938’
Pilot Mtn. 5,072’
Chestnut Mtn 3,688’
Cedar Rock Mtn. 4,055’
John Rock. 3,209’
Funny story, I haven't ran more than 10-15 miles a week since March, my longest run was 2 weeks prior to this race and it was 9 miles. I signed up for this race 5 weeks before it after hearing from Andy the RD. Sure, it'll be fun I decided. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish, my husband was manning the water stations so I figured at some point I would stop and just hangout with him and the other volunteers. It's hard to say no to such an amazing trail run!
Pre-group run we were sent these maps of the course. I'm not the greatest with directions or navigation, but these defintley didn't put me at ease! haha! Good thing the trail was very well marked!
The first 15 miles were beautiful as promised. Winding single track trails along the water with a few descent climbs along the way. I had a lot of fun on different sections of this part of the trail. We past several waterfalls, had a few water crossings and lots of bridges to help keep us out of the water.
Our mile 12 water station was the last one before our climb up Pilot Mountain. We had about 9 miles before our next water refill area.
I left mile 12 and was directed back across the bridge and "up". We had gradual climbs with some ups and downs until around mile 15 where we went up.1 ish mile into the climb as I was coming up hill I heard a rattle snake. I couldn't see it, but it was loud! When I came around the corner- BOOM! Right in the middle of the trail coiled up and ready to strike. It was terrifying. It took me and 3 others 10-15 minutes to get it off the trail and out of our way so we could race past it. I'm guessing it was around 6 ft. MASSIVE.
We continued going up hill until mile 20! It was so steep, and rooted and there were so many stairs! It was crazy! Around mile 19 I put my hands on my knees and decided I couldn't go any farther. I was so done, my legs were tired, my lungs were tired. I gave myself a couple minutes. Then continued going up. Mile 21 the up was FINALLY done. We hit the summit and it was beautiful.
After the Pilot Mountain summit we came down to another aid station. I had ran out of water around mile 7-8 so by the time I reached the aid station... I was so excited to get some water in my pack! My first question was "what does the next section look like?" Because if it was anything like what we just did, I was SO done. They told me it was nothing like what we just came off, but there were a couple little "pushes" uphill. I decided that sounded do-able, grabbed a few more things from the aid station and carried on.
The next section was definitely more than a little push of uphill. Darn aid station! Haha. We went up a couple more good climbs, had an awful 1-2 mile out (round trip) and back to get to an aid station/check point. It was downhill to the aid station, then uphill back to the trail. All large sharp gravel so it was basically un-runable to me. It was awful!
One of the last summits we hit around mile 29-30 ish, and to get to it was through super dense brush while going uphill. I mean, you couldn't see the trail through areas! I was scared I was going to see a snake so I wasn't doing a lot of running, and the branches were scratching my arms and legs. It was like a mini-GA death race. Some of the areas I think were added just for "fun" by the RD. This was one of those areas! The lookout was really neat on this one, we could see the Fish Hatchery AKA the Finish line! It really made it feel like we were getting close.
I played leap frog a group of 3 guys throughout the entire run. They would pass me, then I would pass them, pass me, pass them ect ect. By the end of the race when we were all doing a lot of walking on our dead legs, we ended up all finishing pretty close together. I ran the last 6 ish miles or so with one of the guys which provided great conversation to break up those tough last miles. I was so excited to finish, grab a beer and jump in the river, what a long and amazing day!
We came winding down the last mountain and finally found the finish line, which was the Fish Hatchery parking lot at the race directors Jeep! We finished around 10 1/2 hours which was faster than I would have ever anticipated considering my lack of training. The one and only "race sponsor" was an amazing local brewery that had awesome beer! Thank you to Ecusta Brewery for hosting our post race dinner! Thank you to RD Andys for an amazing super fun and challenging race, to his beautiful wife Sandra for making tasty Lasagna (options for meat, vegetarian and vegan!) and helping out at the aid stations, to the volunteers Christian, Andy Croom, Sunny and Justin Yaple (so nice to see my handsome husband while out on the trail).
Last but not least, some amazing pictures to show some of the fun technical parts and beautiful parts of the trail!
These were our major climbs:
Pilot Mtn. 5,072’
Chestnut Mtn 3,688’
Cedar Rock Mtn. 4,055’
John Rock. 3,209’
Funny story, I haven't ran more than 10-15 miles a week since March, my longest run was 2 weeks prior to this race and it was 9 miles. I signed up for this race 5 weeks before it after hearing from Andy the RD. Sure, it'll be fun I decided. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish, my husband was manning the water stations so I figured at some point I would stop and just hangout with him and the other volunteers. It's hard to say no to such an amazing trail run!
Pre-group run we were sent these maps of the course. I'm not the greatest with directions or navigation, but these defintley didn't put me at ease! haha! Good thing the trail was very well marked!
The first 15 miles were beautiful as promised. Winding single track trails along the water with a few descent climbs along the way. I had a lot of fun on different sections of this part of the trail. We past several waterfalls, had a few water crossings and lots of bridges to help keep us out of the water.
Our mile 12 water station was the last one before our climb up Pilot Mountain. We had about 9 miles before our next water refill area.
I left mile 12 and was directed back across the bridge and "up". We had gradual climbs with some ups and downs until around mile 15 where we went up.1 ish mile into the climb as I was coming up hill I heard a rattle snake. I couldn't see it, but it was loud! When I came around the corner- BOOM! Right in the middle of the trail coiled up and ready to strike. It was terrifying. It took me and 3 others 10-15 minutes to get it off the trail and out of our way so we could race past it. I'm guessing it was around 6 ft. MASSIVE.
We continued going up hill until mile 20! It was so steep, and rooted and there were so many stairs! It was crazy! Around mile 19 I put my hands on my knees and decided I couldn't go any farther. I was so done, my legs were tired, my lungs were tired. I gave myself a couple minutes. Then continued going up. Mile 21 the up was FINALLY done. We hit the summit and it was beautiful.
After the Pilot Mountain summit we came down to another aid station. I had ran out of water around mile 7-8 so by the time I reached the aid station... I was so excited to get some water in my pack! My first question was "what does the next section look like?" Because if it was anything like what we just did, I was SO done. They told me it was nothing like what we just came off, but there were a couple little "pushes" uphill. I decided that sounded do-able, grabbed a few more things from the aid station and carried on.
The next section was definitely more than a little push of uphill. Darn aid station! Haha. We went up a couple more good climbs, had an awful 1-2 mile out (round trip) and back to get to an aid station/check point. It was downhill to the aid station, then uphill back to the trail. All large sharp gravel so it was basically un-runable to me. It was awful!
One of the last summits we hit around mile 29-30 ish, and to get to it was through super dense brush while going uphill. I mean, you couldn't see the trail through areas! I was scared I was going to see a snake so I wasn't doing a lot of running, and the branches were scratching my arms and legs. It was like a mini-GA death race. Some of the areas I think were added just for "fun" by the RD. This was one of those areas! The lookout was really neat on this one, we could see the Fish Hatchery AKA the Finish line! It really made it feel like we were getting close.
I played leap frog a group of 3 guys throughout the entire run. They would pass me, then I would pass them, pass me, pass them ect ect. By the end of the race when we were all doing a lot of walking on our dead legs, we ended up all finishing pretty close together. I ran the last 6 ish miles or so with one of the guys which provided great conversation to break up those tough last miles. I was so excited to finish, grab a beer and jump in the river, what a long and amazing day!
We came winding down the last mountain and finally found the finish line, which was the Fish Hatchery parking lot at the race directors Jeep! We finished around 10 1/2 hours which was faster than I would have ever anticipated considering my lack of training. The one and only "race sponsor" was an amazing local brewery that had awesome beer! Thank you to Ecusta Brewery for hosting our post race dinner! Thank you to RD Andys for an amazing super fun and challenging race, to his beautiful wife Sandra for making tasty Lasagna (options for meat, vegetarian and vegan!) and helping out at the aid stations, to the volunteers Christian, Andy Croom, Sunny and Justin Yaple (so nice to see my handsome husband while out on the trail).
Last but not least, some amazing pictures to show some of the fun technical parts and beautiful parts of the trail!
