Rockin' K Trail Marathon(ish) Race Recap
April 2nd, 2016
"As Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another" Proverbs 27:17
After making some pretty damn clever dam jokes; we found a camp spot just south of the dam at Kanopolis Lake in central KS Friday afternoon. We had some friends from KS come up and join us along with Mike & his family. Community type camping is always such a blast, we had big meals, lots of laughs, battleship battles & campfire chills. We kept warm in the pop-up camper that night and it was quickly 5 am and time to start getting up and getting ready to hit the trails.
I ate pretty good before the race because I didn't want to get hungry or bonk later in the race. I had a banana, some peanut butter trail mix & a granola bar. The race start was buzzing with around 150 people anxious to get this party started. The time moved by quickly and soon we were at the start line. The temp was right around 30 degrees but moving up to 40's by late in the race. I elected on just shorts, a t-shirt and a beanie. I knew it wouldn't be long and I'd be warming up. It was 7:00 AM & we headed down the road for about 3/4 a mile to the trail head. It was only about a quarter mile into this I found myself in the lead, not necessarily what I wanted to do but I checked my watch and I wasn't running too fast by any means, especially for the road. Soon I hit the trail and hit that nice feeling when the first mile of stiffness passes and you feel in the zone. I instantly remembered how much I loved these trails. It's always a nice feeling when you've done a race before but haven't been on the trails for a year and the things start coming back to you.
Mile 3 looked like this
Mile 3 felt like this:
It was around mile 3 when my hands started to get pretty cold too. I had a buff from the Hitchcock 50 in my pocket so I took that out and wrapped it around like a glove and alternated each hand for the next mile or so. Soon though I was warmed up and running good; I held the lead until around mile 5 when 2 guys from Wichita came behind me and we chatted for a bit. This was nice to have someone to run with and chat. Turns out Zach is the other 3:15 marathon pacer at Garmin that I was suppose to do on April 17th but then I got into Boston. He forgave me for bailing on that duty to do Boston.
Around mile 6 or 7 Zach was still looking very strong though the ups and downs and moved quickly out of site in the lead. I ran with the other guy for a while and then we separated and he wished me a good race. Miles 10-13 here are some of my favorite, they are nice dirt run-able single track trails. I talked with a 50 mile runner Adam here and had learned of some epic stuff he's done including Western States & Leadville. Envious!! We hit the aid station at mile 13 around the same time and I didn't even slow down here. I just called my number out and headed right on down the trail.
I had my Orange Mud Gear pack on with a 1L bladder of water. I had 5 packets of Honey Stinger honey in 1 shoulder pocket and my phone in the other. It was around 2 miles into this loop that I grabbed my phone and cranked up some Lacrae as I needed some extra pep to tackle these hills. This 5 mile loop between 13 & 18 was the hilliest part of the course. We would hit that same aid station again after completing it. There was 1 little creek crossing here that I felt like I took way to long to cross. Other than that I felt like I ran these 5 pretty good and just let the down hills take me and didn't hold back any and kept my HR pretty steady on the climbs up.
Working my way up the hills at 15.
I came into the aid station at mile 18 and saw Zach as he was making his way back out. This gave me some motivation as I had plenty of water & didn't need to stop for anything here. I just rolled through and shouted out my number. The next few miles were on a nice gravel road and I was able to start dipping under that 7:30 pace again for a few miles as they were relativity flat. I really enjoyed quite a few of these miles. There was an unmanned aid station at 21 with just water jugs, I was still good on water and rolled through this stop as well. I caught up with the lead shortly after that water station and we gave each other some encouraging words. The last few miles of this race are always pretty challenging. Their is quite a bit of sand and the 2 big water crossing. maybe 30 yards across and over waste deep. I wanted to be smart and just continue to run to what my body was telling me and I was still feeling great. The water was so cold but it felt so nice, that was one of my favorite parts of the whole race. If this was a training run I would of stayed in that 2nd water crossing for a minute or two and let it really cool down my legs, but it was race and I wanted to get it done. I had just over a mile after that crossing, just enough time to dry off. I came out of the trails and bolted up the road towards the finish.
I finished the 27.3 miles in 3 hours 45 minutes, good enough for 1st place. This was my 1st overall win in a marathon so I think that will hold a place in my memory. These trails were wonderful to run on. This place was one of my first introductions to trail running and where I really started to fall in love with this sport. A big thank you to the RD's who put on a wonderful event & all the volunteers who make it happen.
After the race I grabbed a Mtn Dew and waited for Mike who blazed through the trails to finish an impressive 5th place out of 99 runners. Then after him Aaron came in to complete his first trail marathon like a pro. It was a great day with great friends chilling and exploring after the race. Then to top off Saturday night we backed the truck up at the Drive-In theater and watched Kung-Fu Panda 3 & God's Not Dead 2
I think Rockin K has just became an annual race/camp trip for me & hopefully many more friends.
Strava route: https://www.strava.com/activities/533626928
Splits:
| Mile | Pace | GAP | Elev | HR | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7:21 /mi | 7:05 /mi | 3 ft | 156 bpm | 174 spm |
| 2 | 7:35 /mi | 7:22 /mi | -30 ft | 163 bpm | 176 spm |
| 3 | 7:53 /mi | 7:15 /mi | 39 ft | 163 bpm | 176 spm |
| 4 | 8:17 /mi | 8:06 /mi | -59 ft | 158 bpm | 176 spm |
| 5 | 8:36 /mi | 7:50 /mi | 3 ft | 157 bpm | 174 spm |
| 6 | 8:07 /mi | 7:15 /mi | 104 ft | 160 bpm | 174 spm |
| 7 | 7:38 /mi | 7:08 /mi | -54 ft | 161 bpm | 178 spm |
| 8 | 7:23 /mi | 7:14 /mi | -20 ft | 159 bpm | 176 spm |
| 9 | 8:25 /mi | 7:38 /mi | 7 ft | 160 bpm | 174 spm |
| 10 | 7:41 /mi | 7:16 /mi | -33 ft | 160 bpm | 176 spm |
| 11 | 7:59 /mi | 7:01 /mi | 16 ft | 162 bpm | 174 spm |
| 12 | 8:21 /mi | 7:49 /mi | -3 ft | 160 bpm | 174 spm |
| 13 | 7:53 /mi | 7:34 /mi | -13 ft | 155 bpm | 172 spm |
| 14 | 8:12 /mi | 7:32 /mi | -16 ft | 157 bpm | 172 spm |
| 15 | 9:35 /mi | 7:52 /mi | 138 ft | 161 bpm | 166 spm |
| 16 | 9:46 /mi | 8:32 /mi | -62 ft | 158 bpm | 168 spm |
| 17 | 9:33 /mi | 9:07 /mi | -79 ft | 158 bpm | 164 spm |
| 18 | 8:07 /mi | 7:48 /mi | 16 ft | 161 bpm | 168 spm |
| 19 | 8:12 /mi | 7:49 /mi | -3 ft | 163 bpm | 172 spm |
| 20 | 7:51 /mi | 7:21 /mi | 26 ft | 163 bpm | 170 spm |
| 21 | 7:32 /mi | 7:20 /mi | -23 ft | 167 bpm | 174 spm |
| 22 | 7:31 /mi | 7:11 /mi | 16 ft | 169 bpm | 174 spm |
| 23 | 8:31 /mi | 7:40 /mi | 7 ft | 166 bpm | 170 spm |
| 24 | 9:08 /mi | 7:58 /mi | 69 ft | 166 bpm | 170 spm |
| 25 | 9:18 /mi | 9:16 /mi | -115 ft | 163 bpm | 166 spm |
| 26 | 9:54 /mi | 8:35 /mi | 98 ft | 163 bpm | 168 spm |
| 27 | 9:14 /mi | 8:48 /mi | -30 ft | 163 bpm | 166 spm |
| 0.2 | 7:15 /mi | 7:07 /mi | -10 ft | 166 bpm | 172 spm |
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