12th Annual Jacks 12k/24k/50k Trail Race

 

So those of you who have  been around the past 3 years know that this is my love to hate race. It has defeated me in some shape or form every year, and this year was no different. There was a small difference, though, it hit me before I arrived at the race, so I was able to plan for it. I initially signed up for the 50k, but lack of training early on so I downgraded to the 24k. I thought that would be much more manageable and the pressure of 30 miles would be off.... well I thought wrong and the training continued to be miniscule and unmotivated. I decided to be smart about it and downgrade to the 12k. And since I was no longer doing my goal distance, I decided to just take it easy, have fun and enjoy the beautiful trail. 

I made sure to prep myself with my awesome My Soxy Feet catitude attitude socks. I knew that I might have to dig deep to finish due to the lack of training, and these socks gave me the perfect attitude to go with :) 

The morning started out wonderfully as I arrived to greet old friends that I hadn't seen since last year. I absolutely love seeing my race peeps from Dawn's races. She has the best racers and volunteers involved in her races. I did miss seeing one smiling face.... Michael Dale Davis. He volunteers at every race she holds, so he was definitely missed today. 

Katy and me

Melissa and me

The best race director ever, Dawn

And as always, Jack's did not disappoint with it's beautiful scenery and challenging course.  We started out just before the sunrise, and it was gorgeous weather. Cool but a little muggy.  It ended up sunny, warm and still muggy but luckily 90% of the trail is shaded so it kept us a little cooler. As always, the course really can be identified in three sections. You start out going over 2 wood bridges and then you twist and turn with a nice flat couple of miles, then you hit the black diamond part of the trail which is about a mile of ups and downs, and turns on a very narrow portion trail as you pass even harder bike obstacles, and lastly you leave the black diamond to more of flat trail and you finish exactly how you started. 

 

 

I decided to start slow and not push myself too much, so I did 1min run/1 min walk intervals, knowing when I got to the black diamond section there would be more walking than running up those hills. That plan worked perfectly and I was able to keep my plan for most of the race. Towards the very end, I did switch up to a couple 1 min run/3 min walk intervals, but was able to finish strong and with a time that I was proud of...... 2:07:13  Oh, I forgot to mention, clumsy me did take a tumble about mile 5, but it didn't affect my psyche or my physical health and I was able to continue on like planned. 

So I guess I could decide that Jack's  defeated me again because everything didn't go as planned, but I'd rather think that I defeated Jack's this year and really enjoyed it. There's always next year for the 50k... or maybe not, but that 50K will be mine at some point!!