A Passage through Enoree - Ver2

Only in trail racing can positions change without you even seeing the people passing you - or you passing them! One of the biggest challenges along this (actually 41 mile) course was staying on course. This passage of the Palmetto Trail is not very heavily travelled, so the course is not really distinctive. Add to this the RD's taste for orange marker flags and my red-green colour blindness and you have a frightfully easy recipe for a night alone in the boondocks!

I managed a pretty decent pace from the start over the surprisingly hilly course, passing 5 miles in 45 minutes in the second group (places 4-7) and 10miles in under 1:30 with what became the third group on the trail (places 6 and 7). My partner turned out to be David from Aiken, SC. Around 12 miles we both ran seriously off course. Fortunately I was carrying a map, we worked out where we had gone wrong and joined the race route again in about position 11 or 12 maybe losing 5 to 10 minutes in the process. By the time we got to the 15 mile aid station, manned by Jenny, my wife, we had clawed our way back to about 8th and 9th.

We would not be the only ones to get lost! I arrived at the turn (after a few false trails) at about 20.5 miles just a few minutes over 3 hours to find myself in second place! David and I fuelled up and set off back down the now more familiar trail. We were caught by one of the previous (now re-found) front runners after about 5 minutes and then passed by the eventual winner, Sean, through the 25 mile aid station (despite Jenny's best delaying tactics :), putting us in 4th and 5th crossing back over the Enoree River. The wheels started falling off climbing out of this valley, as the mileage and rough terrain took it's toll, although we did manage to reel in one more place before the 30mile mark.

I could no longer keep up with David on the steady climbs after the 35mile mark and had another little unplanned scenic diversion 3 miles from the finish, taking almost an hour to finish the last 5 course miles but eventually finished in 4th place overall, in 7hrs 2mins 12s - about 25 minutes behind the winner. Race Results here: ultrasontrails

Roxanne (remember Robin and Roxanne from Atlanta ?) would finish first lady in 7:15:32; Robin won the 30Mile race in 5:53:10.

Course turned out to have over 2100ft climbing over the official 40.11 miles - more tech info for you Garmin peeps kindly provided by Scott Brannam here: Garmin
Another probably more honest race report here: Psyche's_report
The usual crap that will eventually get updated one day here: http://www.swaz.net/