Elkmont Rails to Trails 10k

What a great day for a race! The weather was perfect! And a big thanks to Whitney Hollingsworth for putting on this race. It was GREAT FUN! There are so many nice people who run! I met several people today, and that's always nice. I'll see you at the next race!

The course starts with a short but noticeable uphill climb on Veto Road. Then, the next 1.5 miles or so are seriously downhill. I should have taken more advantage of that than I did. It flattens for a short time around mile 3, then it turns to the trail and the next 3 miles are steady uphill. There is no flat or downhill portion of the last 3 miles. It's not steep at all, but it's uphill.

I finished in 44:24 and took second in my age group behind Scott Michael who beat me by about a minute. I didn't get all the splits, but I'll list what I have.

1. 6:56
2. 14:22 (for miles 2 and 3)
3. 7:26 (mile 4)
   
4. 6:59 (mile 5)
   
5. 8:40 for the last 1.2 miles

I wish I had every split. Oh well. Mile 4 killed me. It was the first uphill mile, and I should have kicked it in sooner. I did NOT get passed in the last 3.2 miles, which was good. I passed at least 6 people in the last 3.2. I had too much gas at the end which tells me that I didn't try hard enough early enough. I wanted to go sub 45 and I did. When I saw the clock, I knew that I could go sub 44:30 if I kicked it in, and I kicked it in and had way too much in the tank.

Of course, Tyrone Harris was the overall winner. I'll post a link to the results as soon as I have a link.