Farm Daze 24 hour Endurance Run

Race: Farm Daze 24 hr
Date: February 17th, 2018

Finish Time: 24 hours
Distance: 66 miles
Elevation gain: 22.2 ft

"Bring your friends and come hang out country backwoods style at the second annual FarmDaze ultra! This race is a labor of love from local ultrarunners who want to share a weekend with friends and family on a beautiful property while enjoying some good brews, BBQ, and live local musicians... oh and some RUNNING ! Located on a pristine and private 350 acre grassfed beef family farm in Brooklet, Georgia, Farm Daze is an ultra event inspired by the best races that combine the LOVE of ultrarunning with the LOVE of our community. "

We setup camp Friday evening and the kids had an amazing time. Farm Daze provided hot dogs, veggie dogs and S'mores around the camp fire for everyone. "Quiet time" began at 10 pm so we could get some rest before the race start. Saturday morning the race started at 9 am. They had Duncan Donuts, bagels, fruit and coffee available for breakfast pre-race. 

Course!The course was a 2-ish mile loop. Started out on a wide trail for about 1/4 mile, then we went up around "space mountain" and continued into a narrow single track trail for half mile or so. We passed through a muddy area, which from my understanding can be pretty "swampy" if there has been rain prior to the race. This narrowed more as we wound through the trees.

The ground here felt almost spongy, it was interesting! From there we came out into an open area (around the 1 mile mark) and made a U-Turn back into the woods. This was the most technical part of the trail. It was very rooted, winding and had quite a bit of ups and downs. This section was about 1/4 mile long.

 

It opened up into an open field. This area was tough most of the day because there was no shade, and no clouds the first 6 hours or so. Around 3 pm we started getting some cloud coverage which was amazing! I loved this field section, not sure why because it seams like it would be the most miserable part... but I enjoyed it!

The last 1/4 mile or so was back into a wide trail, around a cute pond and through the animals where we ended up back in the middle of camp! The animal section was really cool to run during the day... but the noises that came out of this area at night time were CREEPY! haha!.

Once we were through the animals we were back into camp where the timing mat was, bathrooms, aid station and stage area. They had music playing and a campfire going. The Race Directors were there the entire time cheering for us, helping at the aid stations ect. They met everyone and cheered us on by name every time we came through. It felt very personalized!

Night time surprises - the race director went through the course and setup some pretty great lights and music for us. It was awesome, we had a mini party in the middle of the night, in the middle of the woods! It was such a pick me up each time we looped around it, reminded us we were out there doing something we love and to have some fun with it!

 

  

My goal was to hit my 100 miles in 24 hours. My training has been non-existent since running Long Haul last month due to some tendinitis in my knees that I had been trying to "rest". It was a very warm day, I think temps hit around 82 for the high with blue skies! Beautiful day for the kiddos to be outside playing, not so great for running. The heat definitely zapped a lot of our energy, but I powered through trying to stay as close to my goal times as possible. My knees really started hurting around mile 40 but I kept on going. Justin (my husband) told me around mile 50 I would have to maintain a 15 minute average or faster to hit 100 miles for the last 50 miles. 15 minute miles seams so easy peasy, but factoring in I was still going to need to change into my pants and warmer clothes for the night hours, bathroom stops, eating ect, PLUS the knee pain I knew it wasn't going to happen. I had to make a decision, keep pushing as hard as I can even though I know I am not going to hit 100 miles, or, eat some pizza and have some fun for the remainder of the race. I opted for the latter.

Daniel and I enjoying some night miles

Beer loop!

I drank a beer, had some pizza and walked a few miles while it settled. I listened to the music by the fire for a few at one point, I ran some miles, I walked some miles, I very much enjoyed the race! Not sure that I would have done anything differently, I have no regrets. With my knee issues, the heat of the day, I feel like I made the right decision!

On my way up "Space Mountain" on my
"fun loop" with Daniel

Overall this was such a fun race. I really cannot wait to run it again next year. I thought a 2 mile course could be daunting, or monotonous but it was really fun, there were people around pretty constantly either passing me or that I was passing so you never had long stretches of time "alone". The live music was fun at the aid station, the food was awesome and again major props to the RD and Volunteers. It was an organized, well put together race! I ended up getting 3rd place female with 66 ish miles. Can't wait to run it again next year and hopefully tackle more miles... while still having fun!

I got to run past camp every 2 miles and see sites like this, my son
and husband playing catch just enjoying their Saturday. Such
a boost this would give me every time!

My 8 year old joined me for a few miles. Love love loved this!