Firewater Ultra 50k 2019

This is my second year doing the Firewater Ultra races.  Last year I did the 100k which you can read about in this blog post and this year I am doing the 50k.  This race took place on October 19, 2019 in Greenback, TN and the race strings along Tellico Lake for some beautiful trails and views through the entire trail system.   The 50k is a point to point race.  Also important to note this trail is in my hometown so I know this course extremely well.  The race directors Tony Owens and Kathy Smith are top notch and some of the best people you can meet in East TN and some of the best aid stations you will see.

 Race start is at 8am so we meet at the finishing point of the race and everyone jumps on the bus and we are taken to the start of the trail head.  I do my usual routine and take a shot of Fireball before I step

onto the bus.  Some of the runners are doing the 50k relay while others like myself are running the entire 50k.  Mike and his daughter Bella are doing the relay so Bella is on the bus riding with me to the start line.  Mike will meet her at the first aid station.  7:55am we are all gathered at the starting line of the race ready run and warm up.  It freezing and trying to stay warm at this point is not happening so we are all ready to start running and get the legs turning.  Kathy the race director starts the countdown and I look at Bella wish her luck and tell her to run her own race and her own pace and just follow flags and she will see her dad in about 4 miles.  3, 2, 1, headphones in and we all take off.

I start the race in the top 5 position running at around 9 minutes per mile pace and weaving through the woods following everyone in front of me.  The front is running in a small pack and as we come up to the Mizzell bluff trail head 3 runners take a wrong turn so I start yelling at them to turn around and they finally notice me and start coming back on to the trail. At this point I am leading the race and still maintaining a 9 minute mile pace.  Around mile 5 we make it to the first aid station at Jackson Bend trail head and I check in real quick and find Mike.  I take my sleeves and headband off and toss them to Mike and keep pushing through as I am still leading the race and maintaining a 10-11minute pace now.  Around mile 7 or 8 I was passed by 3 runners as we were heading to the Glendale trail head.  My strategy so far was working really well and I was trying to maintain 1 Gu per hour along with electrolytes so that I did not crash.  I was struggling really hard with my heart rate however.  Normally my heart rate at this pace is 140’s-150’s but I was in the 170-180 range and I could feel the drain it was having.  As I entered the Glendale aid station and checked in I was feeling drained but kept pushing.

From Glendale trail head my next stop is going to be Coytee trail head and that marks the halfway point of the race.  On my way to Coytee trail head I roll my ankle on a rock covered in leaves and it takes my breathe and gives me the feeling of nausea.  I walk for just a second and recover quickly and return to running within a few seconds.  I maintain this pace up to Coytee and check in.  At this point I fill up my water bottle.  Down another Gu and start looking for avocados at the aid station before taking off.  Next stop, Sinking Creek trail head aid station.  I breeze through the next few miles with no issues but can tell that my legs are starting to get heavy.  I think I burned to much energy earlier with my high heart rate and it was still around the 160 range but at this point I was not going To slow down if I could help it.  For Ultra running its almost always mind over body.  Don’t talk yourself out of running.  It’s easy to do and once you stop running and start walking you have to snap out of it.  Don’t fall victim to the pain cave.  I cross a few barb wired fences that have steps built  over them and come out at Sinking Creek where I see the aid station and Kevin Beeshaw is there working the aid station.  A guy I use to work with and have ran a few races with and we are both running the Georgia Death Race in March 2020.  I talk to Beeshaw for a few minutes and take off again.



I have ran almost 20 miles and between 9-12 minutes per mile pace including stopping at aid stations so I was pretty happy for the most part with my race so far.  Leaving Sinking Creek I am now heading towards Loterdale Branch trail head and the unmanned aid station. At mile 22 I roll my ankle again.  This time it stopped me.  I had to walk for several minutes to get my mind right and the nauseous feeling to go away.  This is also where I started to realize a mistake I made before the race.  That was deciding to run this race in the Merrell Trail Glove 4 barefoot running shoe.  The rocks were wearing my feet down and it felt like I had a bruise on the bottom of my foot.  I walked and ran the next few miles as I fell victim to the pain cave.  Yes.  It happens to us all at some point. I snapped out of it around 25 as I realized I was almost to the last aid station which is Peterson trail head. My neighbors were working this aid station so I knew they would take good care of me.  Russ always has great food and drinks at his aid stations.  Also, my boy Chad Fairless was meeting me at this aid station to pace me for the last 5 miles as we were heading to the finish at Wildcat Pointe trailhead.



After I refueled and grabbed a beer Chad and I took off and I told him just keep going and keep me moving.  We made our way down Morganton rd and back on the trail.  My feet were aching a bit but not unbearable to we kept pushing.  We made our way up the back side of Wildcat Pointe and I told Chad he was in for a surprise with this climb.  As I told him...It sucks. LOL.  At the top of Wildcat Pointe is an extra special out and back extension of the trail that must be done to get the 31 miles for the 50.  At the back of the trail there is a wrist band that you must grab so that they can see you ran the extension.  As we grabbed the wrist band I remember telling Chad we don’t stop at this point.  Push and go and lets get this race finished.  So for the last two miles of the race we ran 12 minute miles through that hill terrain and and came down the mountain and crossing the finish line in 7th place finishing in 5 hours and 59 minutes.