War Eagle 25k

Last year Ty and I had a little weekend getaway together to run the War Eagle Trail Running Festival at Hobbs State Park Conservation Area in Arkansas. We had an absolute blast and decided to make it an annual tradition. Read about last year's race here. I signed up right when registration opened and Ty was unsure and wanted to wait to sign up (he signed up a a few months later). I signed up and then I got the flu and then Covid shortly thereafter. My training cycle for the race was shorter than I hoped. I had planned to run a spring marathon and tack this on at the end. I dropped the marathon plan after Covid and figured I'd take it easy for a month and then start slowly ramping it up for War Eagle. I wasn't too sick with Covid, but the exhaustion lingered and I struggled with running for a solid 2 months afterward. I didn't have much time to add in speed work and hills like I had planned. It took me so long to get my heart rate back to normal on runs. Last year I was training for a 50k and ran a 24/14 weekend the week before the race, so I was hoping even without the training block I had last year, I could still come close to my time from last year with a taper. Still, I just couldn't get excited for the race, I kept trying, but just didn't have it in me. The week of the race my allergies ramped up and I felt terrible all week on my runs. That did not help. It was a really weird feeling. Normally I get really excited for races and especially so during a taper. This time I actually started dreading the race and really didn't want to do it. I loved the training, but had no interest in running the race. Finally on our drive to Arkansas on Friday, I started to get excited. My mindset totally shifted when I started thinking of the race as going for an adventure in the woods instead of running a race. I also focused on how much fun Ty and I were going to have with it being just the 2 of us.

Friday evening we left around 3:30 and made if for packet pick up at 5:30, it ended at 6. The race director told us that parking was moved so we needed to arrive at the race at 5:30 for a 6:30 start to make sure we got parked in time. I wasn't sure that was necessary, but we were afraid not to and then miss the race start. We ate dinner at Pickleman's, a sandwich shop we'd never heard of before, and then went to Lake Keith to take a hike. It was absolutely beautiful. We even got to see a couple of groundhogs. Since it was a short hike and my bag was at the hotel, I walked in flip flops. My toes itched really badly afterward and I figured it would be just the kind of luck I've been having if I got poison ivy on my toes. Luckily that was not the case. We forgot to pack bug spray so we stopped off at Wal-Mart to pick some up and got Ty a breakfast bar because he forgot to pack one and some bottled water because the hotel water tasted terrible. Ty almost got hit in the parking lot by an older woman who couldn't see with the sun in her face. It was an eventful evening! 

We decided to set our alarms for 4:45 so we could leave around 5 and make it to the race by 5:30. I made overnight oats and planned to eat them again before this race, like I attempted at Greater Roadrunner, but I forgot them at home. Luckily I packed a Zbar just in case I had trouble eating the oats, so I ate the Zbar and drank some Nuun that morning. I debated whether to wear my water vest or carry my 2 water bottles in the pockets of my spandex shorts. Since it was going to be cooler, I went with the water bottles. They ended up being perfect. I didn't refill at all during the race and drank the last bit of my 2nd water bottle after I crossed the finish line. As I was finishing up getting ready, Ty saw he had an email from Strava with his stats for the month of May. He told me he ran 5 times in May to train for the race. I asked him why in the world he would have looked at that before the race. I checked mine in the car for fun and told him I'd trained 27 times in May for this race. Just a bit of a difference. We parked right at 5:30 and had no problem parking. We definitely didn't need to get there so early. Since it was chilly, we just hung out in the car for a while. We got out a bit before the pre-race briefing and found some of our friends. My friend, April, has always run the 10k and was running the 25k for the first time this year. We planned to run together for as long as possible so I wanted to start with her. Last year I took out conservatively on the road. The first mile of the race is uphill on a paved road. By the time we got to the trail, I was still too far back, and got stuck behind slower runners and had trouble passing. My plan this year was to start a bit closer to the front and go out a bit faster to be in better position by the time we made it to the trail which is all single track.

Can you tell it was chilly at the start?

Tulsa group before the race!

April and I took off together at the start. We passed a decent number of people. There was really no way to know who was in the 10k, 25k, or 50k because we all started together. I was focused on getting in good position so I didn't really pay attention to how many women were ahead of us. April looked ahead and saw her friend Lael. She decided to pick it up to catch up with him. I didn't want to all the sudden put in a burst of speed so I just kept trucking along where I was. I slowly narrowed the gap as we neared the the trail. There were 2 guys right ahead of me so I picked it up a little to pass them before we reached the trail and I entered the trail right behind Lael. April was a few people up from him. The trail was a lot rockier than I remembered from last year. At one point Lael passed the guy in front of him and the next thing I knew he had gapped April, it was amazing! I closed the gap with the guys ahead of me so I would have someone to run with. It was April and then 2 guys and then me. The guys were talking about NASCAR. It didn't really interest me but it was chatter to distract me as I ran along. We went through the first 3 miles together with splits of 8:45, 10:01, and 8:59.   

I didn't realize that guy was back there because he didn't talk to us.

Somewhere around in there April realized I was 2 people back from her and started yelling at me to get up with her. As much as I would have loved to run right behind her, I didn't think it was worth going off trail to go out and around the 2 guys because I felt good about the pace we were running. We all started chatting more after April and I started yelling around the guys at each other. They were both super friendly and one had a British accent which made him seem even friendlier. During mile 5 I ate a Gu and had some technical difficulties. I took my water bottle out to get the Gu that was underneath it. When I ripped the top off, I was still holding my water bottle and squeezed Gu all over it and my fingers. I tried to lick it all off the best I could, but it was a mess. Through that I lost contact with the group a bit and it took me a few hills to catch back up. They were excited when I reeled them back in and cheered, telling April I was back. We came up on the first aid station (I think it was around mile 5) and it brought us out onto a gravel road for a bit before going back down onto the trails. April topped off her water bottle and grabbed a slice of watermelon. I slowed down to stay with her. Then she came blasting past me. When we went back onto the trail, our order changed just a bit with April in front, one of the guys next, then me, and the British guy behind me. He was asking where Rob was and didn't realize Rob was ahead of him because he didn't know what Rob looked like as he had been running in front of him the whole time. It was quite entertaining. Splits for miles 4-7 were 10:13, 10:05, 10:23, and 9:42. I was feeling really good and relaxed. It was nice having a group to run with.

We kept trucking along chatting and enjoying ourselves. We came up on the next aid station at about mile 9. The 50k went up through the aid station and onto their extra loop. We were to go down to the right away from the aid station. April got confused and started to follow the 50k so I yelled at her to come back and she tucked in right behind me. I was feeling good and once I got in the lead of our pack, I was ready to go. I was talking to April and then she yelled that she couldn't hear me. I realized I had quickly gapped her. After the race she said she was getting tired so she wasn't able to go with me. The back half of this race has fewer hills and there's a nice long section for about a mile and a half that's mostly downhill. I really trucked along for that section and went through miles 9-11 in 9:49, 9:00, and 8:25. I couldn't see anyone ahead of me and could no longer hear anyone behind me so I was feeling a little lonely, especially after the great crew I'd gotten to run with for the first 9 miles. I came across hikers with their dogs coming toward us and I asked them if they'd come across any racers. They said they had which made me feel better because I had started to worry I took a wrong turn. Then I saw some more race flags a while after that. I could hear someone coming up behind me around mile 11 and it was the British guy. I told him I was so excited to have him to run with again and he said he'd been trying to catch up to me for the last 2 miles.

Our crew!

We ran the rest of the way together. We started passing 10k runners who were all really kind and listened for us and moved to the side to let us pass. I didn't pass nearly as many 10k runners as last year since we all started at the same time. Last year the 10k started 15 minutes later. We came up on a sign that said 1 mile to go and he told me it was more like a mile and a half at that point, he'd run the race quite a few times. I really didn't know because last year my Garmin lost satellites for a couple miles around 10-11 miles so I was running blind for the end of the race. He mentioned we'd come up on a gnarly hill soon and I thought he was talking of the finishing hill. Then we hit the hill he was talking about and I couldn't believe I had forgotten it! Outside of the first mile hill, it was the longest hill of the race and it was steep! It was one of those hills I hate where you think you've made it to the top, only to turn the corner and continue running uphill. It was brutal. We passed a 10k runner who stopped in the middle of the trail to take a break. My quads were burning when it finally leveled out. I gave them a moment to regroup and then picked up the pace again. We pushed up the final hill and this year I knew the finish was just across a short bit of pavement from there. A shuttle bus was coming as I ran through and people were yelling at it to stop. I cracked up later when I thought about my mental state at that point. Instead of thinking, "I may have to stop for this bus," I was thinking, "I may die today." There was no part of my brain that thought about stopping for the bus. I felt great and got super excited when I heard my friend, Kirsten, screaming for me. I took off even faster at that point. 

I saw the clock was at 1:07 and I was a bit bummed to be quite a bit over my time from last year, but I had enjoyed the race and felt great. I saw Ty to my left and he told me he yelled that I was the first female finisher, but I couldn't hear him over the other people cheering. I crossed the finish line and the race director told me I was the first female finisher. I had absolutely no idea. I was so pumped and my first thought was, "April will be thrilled!" She really wanted to be in the top 3, but it just all depends on who is there. Every year before last year 1:16 would have been 1st or 2nd place. Then last year I ran 1:14 and placed 4th. Ty said it was great to see me looking so good and have such a great race after how down on myself I've been for so long. It was definitely a tough training cycle after the long recovery from Covid that I had. I got some watermelon and went to cheer April on. She finished in 2:24 and was 2nd overall female!

This race was exactly what I needed. I had such a blast running 9 miles with April and then feeling good enough to let it rip at the end. I finished the race feeling tired but also exhilarated. I rode that runners high for quite a while, even after a 4:45 alarm! I finished in 2:17:09 which really considering I ran a high 2:14 last year, wasn't that much slower. I had a faster last 5 miles this year than I did last year. Those 2 minutes all came in the miles I stayed with April this year when last year I started dropping the pace at the halfway point. To me it was worth it to run with her for 2 more miles and not run quite as fast as last year, so I don't regret that at all. It was just the most exciting and coolest feeling to have no idea I was winning the race until after I crossed the finish line. It was such a fun surprise. I was 1st female and 16th out of 269 overall. I'm already excited about running this race again next year and am toying with the idea of running the 50k here at some point in the future. It's a beast of a course with almost 2,000 feet of elevation gain in the 25k alone, so I know it would be a challenge! Ty finished the 10k way faster than last year in 1:28:59 which put him 62nd out of 169 overall.