Race 20 Twisted Ankle Half Marathon

At 6:00 AM my daughter Jen and I headed out for I-75 heading north to the Chattahoochee National Forest.  Our destination was Sloppy Floyd State Park to do the Twisted Ankle Trail Half Marathon.  This was Jen's first trail half marathon and it was a tough first one to do!  We arrived with plenty of time, got race bibs, goody bags and hung out for awhile.  The race was capped at 350 but I do not think that many had signed up.  It didn't take too long for Jen to mention to me that she had already noticed that this was a totally different atmosphere compared to a road race.  She liked it already.

Jen & Marsha pre-race

We had read on the website a week or so ago that some issue had come up and they were not going to be able to use the same course that they had been using for the last few years.  This was no big deal for us neither of us had done this particular course before.  As we approached the starting time the RD called us all together to explain the new course lay out - one for the half and one for the full.

She told us we'd be running

...on an interesting one mile long fire break complete with steep climbs and descents. There will be more climbing than usual due to this.

But don't fret...You still get to experience Becky's Bluff! 

Okay, I've read about Becky's Bluff but it sounded like we might be getting a bit more with this new route.  More on this in a bit...

And we were off.  Spent some time on pavement, thinned out a bit and started heading around one of the lakes.  Being a slow guy, walker/jogger, I have no problems stopping and taking pictures during a race - and I stopped and got a shot of the runners across the lake (Jen was one of them):

As I was putting my camera back in the pouch, turned around and noticed Marsha (bookladywalker - check out her blog listed on the right) behind  me, although she has done 100+ marathons/ultra marathons, today she was just doing the half:

Not long after that on an out & back section, I saw Andrew (friend from work, gray shirt), he was doing the full:

That meant he had to do Becky's Bluff twice!!!  Oh man - better him than me, once is more than enough!

It wasn't too long before we hit the new section, the mile long fire break with ups, downs, ups,... 

At the time, I really did think this was hard.  I had not done Becky's Bluff yet.  Finally completed the new section and it was hard.  Next came just 'normal' trail and it was good.  

Trail races are different.  Trail runners are different.  When given a choice I will always select a trail race over a road race.  I had also told Jen earlier that aid stations in trail races are really different compared to road races and that she would know exactly what I meant as soon as she saw the first aid station.  

They had plenty of aid stations in this race - with gummi bears, pretzels, water, gatorade, gels, trail mix, peanut butter & jelly sandwich sections -  they fed us well and with a smile - Thank You!

Alas, the only thing left on the course was Becky's Bluff.  The original course had us doing it in the first few miles.  However, the revised course had us doing it towards the end.  There was no good way (that I could find) to capture Becky's Bluff in pictures, but I can put it into perspective with this - my normal half marathon race pace is in the 12-13 minutes per mile range, the mile where I did Becky's Bluff, took 32 minutes to do!  IT WAS HARD!!!  

source:  http://www.rungeorgiatrails.com/maps.html  

At one point, as I stopped to catch my breath and get my heart rate down to a reasonable number, I looked around and noticed an incredible vista:

The other cool thing as I approached the top of Becky's Bluff, they had a 4 foot blow-up monkey next to the trail.  There was a sign on top of it that said "Eat Bananas" and they had bananas there for us down by its feet!  : )

I was so glad I did not sign up to do the full marathon as they had to do this twice!  I felt sorry for those who had to do it two times.

Going down from Becky's Bluff was a different path and with the help of gravity and more of a winding path, I jogged for the most part. 

Fnished with a time around 3:31.  This is my slowest half marathon, ever.  It is also the hardest.  Jen also thought this was crazy hard - but loved it.  I think she is a trail convert now!

Jen & me after Twisted Ankle Half Marathon