Masters of All Terrain Trail 1/2 Marathon

Masters of All Terrain

We are on the left behind the lady in blue. The guys are in grey, Justin with
a hat on... My head is popping up behind their shoulders!

The course was crazy!

The 1/2 marathon started at 7 am, it was 75 degrees at the start of the race but warmed up pretty quickly. We left the house at 4:45 am to meet up with Jason, Jessica and Terry; and headed out!

Race: Masters of All Terrain
Date: September 11th, 2016
Location: Little Big Econ State Forest
Finish Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Distance: 13.1 miles
Gain: 64 ft

Start line!

Many bridges!

I decided to run this race with my husband, I needed the "time on my feet" for training and I knew I wasn't in "race condition"... it's also been quite a while since we got to run a race together so this was a great opportunity! The course was great. The first 4 miles or so were wide and pretty boring/flat. It was wide so made for a little less bottle necking at the beginning.

More beautiful trails

Wide tracks were nice for
passing and getting passed! 

Nothing really eventful happened during this time. We hit the first aid station (and skipped it because we had our handheld bottles) around mile 2 (ish?). The next one was around mile 4 and we stopped here to refill. Justin tripped leaving this aid station: Face Plant #1. He was ok and able to shake it off and continue.

So gorgeous!

 We then hit a narrow, single track section of trail that was beautiful. It ran along the water weaving in and out of the woods.

It was fairly technical with a lot of roots and stumps. We really had to watch our footing through here so we didn't trip! We ran through sections like this until 7.5 miles where we hit aid station #4 (which we hit 3 times #3, #4 and #5 due to the loops) and went into another wide section of trail. We ran this next out and back hitting some narrow single track trail on the "loop" part of the out and back where racers were coming and going opposite directions. This area is where Justin had Face Plant #2! He used a lot of energy trying not to fall, and having to catch himself when he did fall but managed to not get hurt - thank God! We had one section of about 30 feet (that we hit twice) that was really muddy and wet. There was no avoiding it! 

Some parts had a lot of roots to navigate

We crossed 4-5 bridges throughout the course each way

So much MUD!

Pretty trails!

We got back to the aid station #5 around mile 10 and had mostly wide track back to the finish line. This was the only stretch we hit some sun on, the rest was all shaded. The course was cut short due to some flooding so surprisingly we crossed the finish line at 11.44 miles (I then kept running to make the full 13.1). Yes, I'm that guy.

Justin, Me, Terry and Jason all completed the 1/2 marathon.
All 3 guys PR'd for a trial half and did amazing.

Justin had a HUGE PR at this race, we calculated his average pace the last few miles and totaled it up, he would have finished around 2:55, the last Masters of All Terrain Trail 1/2 Marathon he ran 3:15. I'm so proud of him!  Everyone had a great race, this course was awesome. It was a bit technical in parts, all shaded, had well stocked aid stations with great volunteers, and the course was very well marked. Only downside or negative I have was having to share the single track with runners going both directions. Although most trail runners are very courteous and aware, some are oblivious to other people on the course, or have music playing far too loud which was dangerous when coming both directions. Also that the course was cut short. I know it happens - but it was still such a bummer!

Dirty legs!

I love trail running

This was my first real test with training for my next big challenge - 100 miles! I ran the most miles ever this week capping out at 71.4. These runs included back to back miles days of 11/15/13.1 (trail half). I ended the week feeling great. My fueling has been spot on, my Achilles Tendon is a bit inflamed a little bit so I am icing extra and doing more of my PT exercises. All and all I feel great. I'm not real sore but do feel the fatigue in my legs and body. Excited for the day off tomorrow (Monday). I need to work on getting a little more protein post run, and just ordered Tailwind so I am anxious to try that out on my next long run. 100 miles with a smile! That is going to be my goal... along with finishing of course :)

Masters of All Terrain Trail Marathon 2016

Masters of All Terrain

The marathon started at 7am, which was a pretty late start for a June marathon in Florida. The temperature reached 92 over the course of the day, and when we started it was 100% humidity. Blue skies for days which I normally love, today... not so much.


Race: Masters of All Terrain
Date: June 11th, 2016
Finish Time: 5 hours, 09 minutes
Distance: 26.2 miles
Gain: 279 ft

The Start

Jessica was running the 5 mile course, Justin ran the 1/2 marathon, and Jason and I ran the full marathon. We all started out together at the back of the pack, Jason and I quickly weaved through people making our way through the pack. The trail started out on a gravel/sand road, we stayed on this for the first 3 miles. We ran over a bridge past a beautiful waterfront and continued down the gravel road. We passed 2 aid stations during that time! 

The Jungle

We turned onto a trail here and ran a jungle trail for around 2 miles. It reminded me of a deer trail being very narrow and lush. I loved this section, it was my favorite. Very thick coverage of trail, with potential for water crossings if it had been rainy. There were hills through here and a lot of thick brush and a stream where we could hear an alligator. I liked to sing "In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle the Lion Sleeps Tonight..." through this area. It was so fitting. We came out of here about mile 5 crossing another aid station, then... ran right into the sugar sand.

Going up the deer trail

So hot... keep smiling!

Tip-toeing around the mud

Small patch of mud

The Sugar Sand

So they warn you before running this race, you will encounter roughly .25 miles of sugar sand along this course. Not worth training for right? WRONG. It must have been a typo because we ran roughly 2.5 miles of sugar sand, mostly UPHILL with no trees providing shade. It was horrible! Such a rough section to run. We powered through, continually passing people and moving forward

The Woods and Knee High Grass
We turned down a trail and hit knee high grass. We ran in this for awhile into the woods! We hit a few patches of soft sand here, lots of tall grass and this woods. It was an area we kept our eyes out for bear (the same place that 2 bear cubs were spotted climbing a tree later in the day)! We were only here for a few miles.

 The Burned Woods
The last 2-3 mile stretch of trail had been recently burned so it was very dry, sunny and even felt hotter than it probably was. The trail part was pretty cool but the burned area messed with you mentally! LOL. It was a cool section if it wasn't so hot out. Just a trail through the woods, seemed like it went forever (see the panorama picture at the bottom). Both times that we ran through this section were equally difficult for different reasons. The first time we both had to use the porta-potty SO BAD and there were no bathrooms on course, we were hot, tired, thirsty and had to pee! Jason ended up losing me on this trail by passing several people, and I ended up moving aside to let faster people pass me as I powered through. When we came off this section we ran through a wood gate where people were cheering and you could here the finish line music playing. We literally had to RUN THROUGH THE FINISH LINE and then continue on to run the loop again. I was done. Jason was long gone as I ran through the finish line, Jessica was there waiting... and I was done. But I wasn't. I found out Jason beam-lined straight to the porta-potty so I headed that direction where we met back up. 

I was tired, and hot, and had been pushing myself to run faster on that difficult terrain that I would have if I had been running by myself. Jason convinced me to keep going, telling me exactly what I needed to hear. "You are going to kick yourself in the butt if you stop now, you need to keep going, you committed to running this." Yes, yes I did. All those things were true. We started off to run our second loop. By mile 15 I got my second wind and felt amazing. The second loop was soo much easier than the first loop. I am definitely a distance runner not a fast runner. We took the second loop a little slower and I felt so strong. The humidity went down but the heat went up for our second loop. We also got a little breeze for that second loop which was so nice! Jason pushed me through the first half, and I was able to return the favor pushing him through the second. We are a good team! #runningbuddiesrock

Coming into the finish line for real, 26.27 miles-being the most accurate marathon course I have run to date!

Ya that's right, those are some BIG cheesy happy smiles.

 We finally crossed the finish line with the official time of 5:09:57. I know it was a very slow time, but I am so proud of it for how tough the course was and how hot the day was!

We ran a strong race, on very difficult terrain, on a very hot day. This has been one of the hardest races I have ever ran! Gosh I feel amazing having completed it! 

On a side note, Jessica ran an awesome 5 miles and completed her first trail run. Justin paced himself and finished his first trail run half marathon strong. We all had a great race day with a lot of ups and downs! Now, we head off to World of Beer to re-hydrate and have lunch!