Cloudland Canyon Fat Ass 04.23.11

At the top looking down into Cloudland Canyon.

I received an email from Randy Whorton a couple of months ago forwarded by my friend, Roxanne, that described a Fat Ass-style race that was planned for April in Chattanooga. Many of the people addressed in the email are the who's who of ultra running in this area, so it immediately peaked my interest. Randy's the mastermind behind many of the Rock Creek races in Chattanooga and after having personally enjoyed Rock Creek events like the Stump Jump 50K and the Lookout Mountain 50-Miler, I figured I had to check this out. Of course, it didn't hurt when my usual running buddies, Woody and Doug, were also thinking of participating. So we all contacted Randy through Rox and got our names on the list. It's been in ink on my calendar since then.

I love the low-key nature of Fat Ass races and knowing that there were only going to be a handful of runners participating in this run, I was really excited about it. The course was set to start in Cloudland Canyon, a beautiful bluff area in Northwest Georgia, and was to end on the East side of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga at Randy's house.

Bus ride to start.

Woody picked me up at 4:30am that morning and we headed up to Chattanooga, picking up another friend, Kirk, along the way. Unfortunately, Doug had to pull out almost last minute and couldn't come along. We arrived around 7:00am just in time to get on the school bus that Randy and his wife, Kris had rented to transport us all to the start. I met some great people on the bus, a few runners from Huntsville, AL, one guy who also drove up from the Atlanta area and the rest were all from Chattanooga. There were about sixteen of us total. We didn't see Randy because he went ahead an hour earlier to start marking the course. After stopping at Covenant College near the top of Lookout Mountain to pick up a few more runners, it was a short ride to Cloudland Canyon. Driving in, it was hard to see down into the valley due to the fog, but we would get to enjoy the view a little later on our way back on foot.

Cloudland Canyon

If you ever get a chance to visit Cloudland Canyon near Trenton, Georgia, you should take advantage of it. This gorge area is cut out by the Sitton Gulch Creek and it is spectacular. The state park covers a huge area and the Waterfalls Trail that we would hit to start the race, takes you from the bottom of the gorge along Daniels Creek and by two major waterfalls up to the top.

Great group of runners at start.

The bus dropped us off at the trailhead and after some brief announcements by Kris and a couple of quick photos, we headed out with a very discreet, "OK, you guys can go now.", by Kris. Right away, we were on single track surrounded by newly green forest (it is Spring time) and following the creek upwards. About a mile and a half into the run, we climbed the long 600-step stairway to the top. Nothing like steps to warm up your calves! It reminded me of Amicalola Falls in North Georgia and the long stairway there. On the way up, we took in the waterfalls and once at the top, we enjoyed amazing views into the valley below. You can clearly see the layers of limestone and sandstone along the bluff. It must be amazing in the Fall. So far so good.

Getting ready for creek crossing.

At the top, we took a short overlook trail by some cabins and campers and then made our way out of the park and onto a much more rugged trail, the Backcountry Trail. Now the Backcountry Trail is well blazed with orange markings, but it is obviously not well traveled. The further along this trail we got, the more it was covered in dropped leaves, fallen trees and branches, and overgrown with briars and saplings. We made our way down the opposite side from the overlook and eventually came to a creek crossing. It took a few minutes to find a good spot to cross as the current was pretty strong and the water was about knee deep. I'll always praise my Smartwool socks, no matter how soaked they get they never fail. Anyway, once across, we started slowly climbing back up, but still searching out the orange blaze marks on the trees. The trio of Huntsville runners caught up with us at this point and we would stick together for much of the way from this point forward.

A little blood.

The going was slow because of the lack of an obvious trail on the ground. We would run a few paces, hesitate, look around for the next orange blaze and continue, then repeat. Meanwhile the briars were doing a number on everyone's ankles and shins. We followed the pattern for about four or five miles until we came onto another bluff. We started following blue ribbons and would soon learn that we made a wrong turn somewhere along the line. We hadn't seen any of Randy's flour markings for a while, but we didn't realize it until we ran out of blue ribbons to follow and realized that we were literally in the middle of nowhere with no clear trail or markings to follow. Thankfully, I brought my cell phone and dialed Randy. He came on the line and when I explained what we had done, he was puzzled until I told him that we had kept the bluff to our right and he said that we should have kept it on our left instead. Also, we should have never followed the blue ribbons. Oops! So we gathered up the six of us and headed back to try to find where we turned off and hopefully, pick up Randy's flour markings again. On the way back, we picked up to other runners who had made the same mistake we did. Eventually, we came back to the point where we should have gone in the opposite direction. We probably added about two miles to our day and lost about 40-45 minutes taking the detour. Shit happens!

More killer views.

We came upon another great overlook with wonderful views into the valley below. The scenery is simply beautiful and we were all glad to be rewarded for our efforts with it. From there, we came off the trail and onto an asphalt driveway of sorts. We then turned off of that onto a forest road and through some open fields and eventually dumping out onto a highway. We saw a flour marking on the edge of the road and for some reason we turned left onto the road and began to follow it for a while.

Lookout Scenic Highway

We figured out that we were on Highway 189 and it didn't dawn on any of us that Kris and Randy had made no mention of following a road. We ran on the side of the road facing oncoming traffic and did it out in the open sun. Needless to say, this was my least favorite part of the day, but it didn't occur to any of us to check where we were until we had gone about two miles or so down the road. We kept expecting to see some marker telling us to turn into the woods at any moment. Another phone call to Randy, this time he told us that we should have gone straight across the road and that there were five flour markings showing the way. Somehow we had missed it and it was our bad. I didn't really want to run back the two miles and I was sharing the bad news with Woody when one of the Huntsville runners suggested that we stay on the road because it was going to eventually hit Covenant College and we could hop on the Lookout Mountain Trail  and pick up Randy's course from there. All good, but the college was another five or six miles further up the road. Our day of trail running immediately had gained a few miles of asphalt running. Not such a bad thing, but it was clear skies, the sun was out and we were going to miss any water that had been put out for us on the original course. Plus, I was looking forward to revisiting parts of the course from the Lookout Mountain 50-Miler I had done a few months ago which included Nickajack and Lula Lake. Bummer!

View from hangglider launch pad.

There was one highlight running on the road and that was coming upon a handglider launching station from the side of the road. Everything to our left was looking down into Look Valley and there's a drop off a several hundred feet. Handglider newbies and veterans use this launching station to hop off the top and start sailing along the open skies. I tell ya, standing on that launch pad and looking into the valley makes you appreciate that sport. Those guys have some cojones!

Other than that, there's not much to write about for this road running section. We started stringing apart. I ended up running most of the road section with my buddy, Kirk. The girl runner we had picked up earlier at the last detour was picked up by two other runners that had called it a day and hitch hiked back to the college where they had parked there cars and met the bus earlier that morning. Woody and the three Huntsville guys were up ahead and arrived at the college before me and Kirk. We came into the main parking lot at the college, topped off our water bottles and anxiously headed out to find the trailhead for the Lookout Mountain trail.

Lookout Mountain

Woody on Lookout Mtn Trail

I was familiar with this part from the 50-miler race, but even then, we appreciated the help of Mark, a local runner that had started with us that morning but who had also called it a day. He got us on the right trail and it was nice to be off the road. Almost immediately, I felt better now that we had a tree canopy over us again and the trail below our feet. From here to Randy and Kris' house was about ten miles and almost all of it would be downhill. Even though we missed a large section of trail by taking the road, we figured out that we were going to end up with about 31 miles after all. Which made us think that maybe today's course was longer than a 50K and we would later learn this was the case, but more on that later.

Woody and I pulled ahead from Kirk and the Huntsville guys a little bit. The trail along the side of Lookout Mountain is a well traveled single track but it can be a little technical in some spots with plenty of rocks and sharp, sheer drop offs to the left at a couple of spots. We kept running by these huge rock formations and big cliffs with limestone layers on our right. It wasn't long before we started seeing ropes and rock climbing equipment at spots and all we had to do was look up to see climbers enjoying their sport.

Coming down the mountain!

We came to a split in the trail and while we paused to figure out which way to go, the Huntsville guys caught up to us and decided to wait for Kirk who was trailing a little behind. They were debating which way to go but Woody and I decided to take the right trail that continued around the point of Lookout Mountain. They ended up taking the left trail once Kirk caught up to then and they would beat us back to Randy's house that way. Meanwhile, Woody and I made it around the point of Lookout Mountain and started heading down off the mountain ourselves but on the other side. We hit a couple of switchbacks, crossed under a rail line that goes straight up the mountain taking tourists to the top, climbed briefly back up and then descended for good down to a road. We found a stash of water gallon jugs Randy had left the night before and topped off our bottles. I got us to this point from my memory of the Lookout Mountain 50-miler, but from here on we had to check with Randy by phone a few times since we were now ahead of him due to our road detour. With no flour markings to follow, we weren't sure how to finish up the last remaining miles back to his house.

We crossed the road per Randy's instructions and this is where it finally dawned on me that when he says, "It's fairly straight forward from there." What he actually means is, "You are going to bush whack like crazy or make your way through some heavy duty briars or poison ivy." Ha, ha! Man, I think he has a little Dave Horton or Laz in him. Anyway, we ran down what you could barely consider a trail through a bunch of poison ivy until we came upon a slightly more obvious single track, the Glen Falls trail. Once on here, progress was steady again and we came across a really cool waterfall and pool. Woody and I decided to take a break and we took off our shoes and dipped our feet into the greatly alleviating cool water. After a few minutes, we got our shoes back on and continued down the trail. We came out onto a gasline cut out, picked up another trail and finished up the last couple of miles of trail before coming out onto a street that would turn out to be the one that their house was on. Somewhere in that last mile, Woody's Garmin finally died showing 30.6 miles. We figured by the time we got back to the house, we had our 50K in the bag. It took us over seven hours to get it done.

Kris and some of the other runners welcomed us back. We were surprised to see Kirk showered and relaxed, but that's when we found out that the route they took from where we had last seen them was slightly shorter and easier than the way Woody and I had taken. We cracked open some celebratory beers and exchanged some stories with everyone there. We learned that Randy and another runner were still out on the original course and that just about everyone had either taken the road detour by mistake or had cut it short at the college. Kris was super nice to let us use their shower and we hung out for some time on their porch. We were hoping to see Randy return, but we had to get back to Atlanta and had to leave.

All in all, it was a great day of running even though we had that road segment and missed out on a big chunk of trail. We later received an email from Randy explaining that he recalculated the distance and realized that it would have actually been more like a 60K than a 50K, if we had all run the intended route. Oh well, Woody and I were happy with our 31 miles.  We'll be back next year to get it done right.

My most sincere gratitude to our wonderful hosts, Randy and Kris. Randy's "straight forward" trail marking and race course were anything, but boring. I also have to put in a nod to our Huntsville running friends, Eric, Rob and Blake, and of course, my running mates, Woody and Kirk. I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Randy Whorton is also the Executive Director of Wild Trails, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to promote the use, protection and expansion of trails in greater Chattanooga. If you'd like to learn more about Wild Trails and how you can support this great cause, check out: www.wildtrails.org.

GUTS Fat Ass 50K 01.09.11

Sean Oh captured this great photo of me. Thanks Sean!

A race that's not a race...that's what a "fat ass" race is supposed to be. But you and I both know that's hardly the case. There's always going to be some level of competitiveness, even if friendly. This year's GUTS Fat Ass 50K was going to be a little different. Turns out that after many years of hosting this race from the GUTS club president's house, it was going to a new location for 2011. This year's race was held at Sweetwater Creek State Park.

This would change the race from a four 8-mile loop course to a six 5-mile loop course. The new course would follow the Blue and White blazed trails at Sweetwater and would give us runners a little of everything along the way from winding, single track to technical rocky stuff to sandy, washed out creek beds to gravely, jeep roads. All while running through dense forest and by a beautiful rushing creek.

There is a 50K at Sweetwater Creek State Park every year called the SweetH20 50K and it usually takes place in May. But the Fat Ass doesn't take the participants on much of that race's course including the dreaded Top of the World. I ran that race in 2009 and if you want to catch up on that adventure, click here.

Runners gathering pre-race (Photo by Susan Donnelly)

I rode out to the race with my buddy Woody and we would run much of the race together. We all gathered inside a picnic pavillion at the park that had a nice roaring fire. You see, it was pretty darn cold outside and we were all huddled waiting to get out in it. Suddenly we heard, "OK runners, seven minutes to start. Get ready!"  We stumbled on out and bunched up waiting for further instructions. It went something like this, "bla, bla, bla...OK now go!" It took us all a second, but finally someone stepped out and the rest of us followed.

It's funny how quickly everyone fell into the proper pecking order. For most of the race, I did little passing and few passed me. Here's kind of how each loop went:

Loop one: We ran down a road for a short distance and were soon on the Blue blazed trail at the park which is mostly single track going through the woods. I was running with Woody, Ryan and about three other guys from GUTS. We all kind of stuck together on this loop. We passed the mill ruins by the water then headed down towards the creek after climbing down some steep trail and a set of stairs. Then we ran along side the creek on some technical stuff, climbed over a couple of large boulders, passed another creek and a little lake and then started climbing. Now normally this climb is not too bad, but it deserves honorable mention here as this little climb would get tougher and tougher on every loop. It's called Jack's Hill. It's only about a three quarters of a mile, but the grade is just hard enough to sneak up on you. I was able to run up it this time, but it would it take me by the end. We were all still more or less together at this point as we wound our way back on some single track for the last mile to the aid station or start/finish area. We strolled into the aid station, grabbed a couple of PBJ sandwich quarters and Coke and headed back out.

Portion of the trail by the creek. (Photo by Susan Donnelly)

Loop two: Started this loop still with Woody, Ryan and a few others from the first loop but we would break up on the second time up Jack's Hill. Woody dropped me and I some how got separated from Ryan and his buddy. I came into the aid station still feeling pretty good. My friend Spurgeon came in and after quickly refueling, he headed out like a bat out of hell and I somehow knew I wanted to stay on his ass. Woody, who had come in to the station before me, stayed behind changing into some different gear.

Loop three: I got on Spurgeon's heels for the first part of this loop and ultra/triathlete badass Jen Vogel was also with us for the first couple of miles. Jen and I were chatting while Spurgeon was busy putting the hammer down and we were just trying to keep up. We lost Jen some where by the creek and Spurgeon was on a mission. As he put it, "I'm running four loops hard. It's not my fault they made them shorter!" He was referring to the old Fat Ass, of course. On Jack's Hill, I managed to catch up with Spurgeon and pass him. I stayed ahead of him until the aid station. I never saw Woody on this loop.

Loop four: Once again chased Spurgeon out of the station for this loop. We hit the blue trail pretty hard and soon Spurgeon started putting some distance on me. By the time I was by the creek again, Spurgeon was long gone. I was also wondering where Woody was since he's faster than me and I was thinking he would have caught me. Sure enough, right before I started the climb at Jack's Hill, here he came looking fresh as a daisy even after the effort of trying to catch me. He tried to stay with me but it wasn't long before he was putting distance on me too. he got to the aid station before me and waited up to run the fifth loop with me. Spurgeon was just coming out of the station when we cam ein and we would soon catch him again on the fifth loop.

Loop five: Starting to hurt a little at this point. Woody kept saying this would be the worse loop because the sixth loop would be the last one and we would be excited to get it done. It wouldn't be the worst one for me, that would definitely be the sixth loop, but it was good thinking. We ran together for most of the loop except for the last mile or so where Woody went on ahead and I some how had caught up to Spurgeon again. We came in to the aid station together. I was really happy to see my wife and my son who had made it out to watch me finish. I kissed them both and headed out for the last loop.

Me and my family at the finish.

Loop six: By this loop, I was definitely feeling it. I tried to run with Woody but he soon was gone and I ended up doing this loop mostly by myself. Spurgeon had left the aid station before me and I would never see him again. The inclines that were no big deal on the first few loops were taking it out of me on this loop. I was averaging some where around 50 minutes per loop until I hit this one which took me over an hour. I struggled up Jack's Hill and did my best to finish up. I turned off the last bit of trail, up the road and into the finish. There smiling and waiting for me were my wife, my son and Woody. High fives all around!

I later found out that I squeaked into the top ten in tenth place by finishing in 5:41. Not a PR, but definitely one of my better 50K times. A lot of faster GUTS runners either only ran a few loops (a Half Ass) or they were taking it easy in training for something bigger down the road. It was fun to run with friends and especially Woody and Spurgeon.

Kudos to the GUTS gang and volunteers for sticking it out in the cold to host yet another fantastic event! My family and I left the park after changing into some dry clothes and I replaced some calories at Cracker Barrel. Yum, chicken and dumplings! Turns out that's pretty tasty recovery food.

Next race: Black Warrior 50K in February!

twenty.ten Fat Ass 50K

I can't think of a better way to start the year than doing it on trails with dozens of friends enjoying what we love to do most, trail running! The epitome of low-key "races", this year's GUTS Fat Ass 50K will go down in history for four specific things: the cold, the company, the shirt and the Moon Pie.

The Cold: Holy shnikies was it cold! Even though I had just spent two weeks over the Holidays in frigid temps, waiting for the race to start when it was in the teens, sure made me think twice. I know all you people up North are thinking, "What's the big deal?" But we're just not used to it down here in the ATL. Average highs in early January tend to be in the forties or even low fifties here. So it was in the teens before the race and I don't think it warmed up much during or after.

The first bone chilling experience was the "shuttle" service from the off-site parking. It was a pick-up truck! You've never seen anything until you've seen 8 or 9 trailrunners freezing their asses off in the back of a pick-up truck in 18 degrees weather. Brrr! Once at the race start, everyone huddled around each other until it was time to get going. Things did warm up during the race, some where into the mid-20's. Someone say "heat wave"?

Luckily, I do better in cooler temps than warmer ones. I was one of the few, the proud, wearing shorts during the race. I think the blood capillaries in my knees are just now coming back. My compression sleeves on my calves were more for protection on my skin versus any compression benefit. Gloves, hat and proper layering up top kept me comfortable for the race.

The Company: At the starting line, we were all kind of staring at each other when someone happened to say "go!" It took a few seconds to register, so we heard a second "Go!" It was such a discreet way to start the race, that all of us almost missed it, but we finally got it going and took off. My first couple of miles, I ran with Spurgeon. Spurgeon was also in shorts, so we shared in that initial agony until our legs got numb. We maintained a pretty good pace and we were keeping the lead pack within a few dozen yards. I soon realized that I wasn't going to be able to keep this up. I told Spurgeon I was going to let up on the pace and he dropped me without any trouble.

I ran by myself for a while until somewhere towards the end of that first loop, John Dove and another runner caught up to me and we all ran together for a while. Eventually, it was just me and John as the other runner also moved on ahead. I would end up running with John for the next two and a half loops of the race. I was honored to run with John, as he is a longtime ultra-runner and fellow Ironman, and we had plenty to talk about. John kept me laughing with his jokes and we shared stories about his past adventures at ultra classics like Western States, Hard Rock, Vermont and Massanuten. We also talked about our dogs, families, cycling and triathlons. Running with John made a good chunk of my race just fly by. I lost him when he stopped to talked to Rob Apple and Susan Donnelly, while I ran on down the trail. I finished the last loop by myself, but I really enjoyed the miles shared. Good company!

The Shirt: So you run 31 miles and you'd think there would be some kind of special moment at the finish, right? Nope. I came in from my last loop, checked in with the time keeper and proceeded to take advantage of the mac n cheese some one brought, opened a can of PBR and caught up with some of the other runners that had finished before me. No fanfare, but that's OK. I was enjoying the food and even the PBR when someone handed me my race shirt. Yep, they had race shirts this year at the Fat Ass. Who would of thought? And you know what? It's easily one of my favorite race shirts I have ever gotten. Simple, discreet, but with a "phat" ass design. Check it out on the right. Pretty cool, huh?

The Moon Pie: Remember Moon Pies? Those chocolate covered, gooey marshmallow-filled cookie sandwiches that most people associate with RC Cola? Well, turns out they are pretty popular amongst several off the GUTS runners. Some of which have just been named to a new sponsored ultra team, Team Moon Pie. The folks at the Chattanooga Bakery, that make Moon Pies, sent a giant Moon Pie for all to enjoy.

This thing was the size of a pizza. Spurgeon delivered it and he placed it on the table that morning with a big, wicked grin on his face. That thing was just about wiped out several hours later as each finisher took a good chunk of the Moon Pie.

There you have it. The twenty.ten Fat Ass 50K. I didn't really mind the cold, I enjoyed the company, loved the shirt and took part of the giant Moon Pie. Happy Trails!

Photo credit: I stole the photos above from Janice Anderson's Facebook page and Beth Blackwell.