Uwharrie Rumble 8K - May 16, 2010 - Race Recap

This past Sunday I ran the Uwharrie Rumble 8K located in the Uwharrie National Forest - about an hour drive east of Charlotte, NC.  The race started just after 8am on a pleasant Sunday morning.  The temperature was perfect for a trail run - somewhere in the low 70s. 

I had never run the trails out at Uwharrie.  Two weeks ago I was supposed to check out the area with my friends but I had badly messed up my feet running a 5K here in Waxhaw (see previous post) and could hardly walk so I opted out.  There are two main loops at Uwharrie - Keyauwee and Supertree.  My friends, Terry and Morgan, checked out Keyauwee which appears to be a technical single track with lots of uphills.  The FAQ on the Uwharrie Rumble website led us to believe Keyauwee would be the loop we would run but as it turned out, we ran Supertree which is mostly dirt and LOTS of gravel and also lots of hills.  My friend Terry briefed me about the hills so I was prepared to be doing quite a bit of hill running.  Terry learned that we were going to run Supertree just moments before the race so his advantage of having some familiarity with the course was instantly erased.

Supertree is completely different from the trails I run at Renaissance Park and the Whitewater Center.  There are no switchbacks and the trails are mostly wide with plenty of room to pass with only a small segment of singletrack which was somewhat winding but no harrowing twists, turns, dips or big drops.  I don't recall many roots either.  I only recall lots and lots of gravel.  Most of the trails can be described as a typical hilly dirt road.  One nice aspect of Supertree is that you can see your competition that is well out in front of you.  At Renaissance if you are behind someone by twenty seconds you usually cannot see that person or if you can see them it is hard to gauge how far you are from them because of all the turns and switchbacks.  On Supertree you can see way out in front of you.  This aspect made the race fun for me and made me more competitive.  More on that when I get into the race.

We lined up at the starting line, the usual runners were up there with me - my friend Terry, Todd Daczkowski (who beat me in the last race) and Kelly Hoce who was the overall winner in the previous race in this series at Whitewater in late March.  There were two other guys up in front that looked like they were pretty experienced runners - one tall guy and one short guy - so I knew there would be some really good competition in addition to  Terry, Todd, and Kelly.

The race began and sure enough the two guys that I couldn't identify took off in front of the pack.  Turns out that one of them, the tall guy, was Derek Katt.  Derek won the first race, a 3.8 miler at Whitewater by a huge margin back in January.  He didn't run in the Sticks and Stones race back in March.  The other mystery runner was Anthony Nero (31 from Spencer, NC).

Initially I was in the mix trailing Kelly and was even keel with Terry and Todd.  My initial goal was to win Masters and I figured with Anthony and Derek out in front and Kelly establishing 3rd, I needed to beat Terry and Todd which was easier said than done.  I decided to try to keep up with Kelly and at the same time keep Terry and Todd at bay.  Slowly the pack spread out after the first mile or so. Anthony and Derek were completely out of site before the second mile.  Kelly tried keeping pace with them but to no avail.  As Kelly started breaking away from me, I started breaking away from Terry and Todd but was not comfortable as I felt any time one of them would sneak up behind me. 


We entered an area of single track somewhere in the 3rd mile and Kelly increased his lead and at a few points I could not see him.  I almost conceded that he was leaving me in the dust when I completed a hill climb and noticed he reappeared in the distance.  After that I noticed that I was gaining ground on him on the uphills.  I kept note of my running form and breathing on the uphills trying to ascend as efficiently as possible and it appeared to be paying off.

Also around the third mile I decided to look back to see where Terry and Todd were.  Much to my surprise they were nowhere in sight.  At that point my paranoia subsided.  I no longer felt like prey and changed my whole perspective to predator and trying to catch Kelly.  Somewhere around the 4th mile marker there was a water stop.  Kelly was well within striking distance.  When he slowed down to get water I narrowed the gap by opting to not grab water.  I continued gaining on him on the uphills and finally passed him with only a few tenths of a mile left in the race.  At that point I was in a state of disbelief that I actually caught him and almost felt like celebrating.  Before I could revel in my new position I heard him break into a sprint and he passed me running like a locomotive.  Apparently he saw the finish coming around the final downhill and put it into overdrive.  As he passed me I had no idea the finish line was so close and got on my horse as well but it was too late.  I ended up finishing just 5 seconds behind him in 4th.  The links to the times are below.

Uwharrie Rumble 8K Results

I was somewhat bummed about giving up 3rd but I was happy with my performance and keeping pace with the guy who won the last race was a great confidence builder.  Next up is the Warrior Dash!