Most popular running races occur in the winter and spring, which doesn't work well in our triathlon training. We are either working on building our foundation for the upcoming season or we are deep in a training phase in route to the first race of the year. However, there's one race that always gets us excited - the Paris Mountain Road Race. As the oldest and most challenging road race in South Carolina, we are lucky that this event starts less than 2 miles away from where we live and it is usually held in Nov/December. Not only doesn't this make for a logistically easy race to get to/from but we know the course very well (primarily from biking it). The reason why we love this race is that it suits us as triathletes - it's a strength-based course.
My training has been going really well over the past few weeks. On average I swim 4x week, bike 3-4x week (one trainer session on the tri bike and the rest road and mountain bike outside) and run 3x week. The focus has been on building a strong foundation with lots of strength focused workouts and neuromuscular firing. I also do mobility work every day as well as a few ECFIT strength sessions. As I enter 17 consecutive season of long distance triathlon training, I'm feeling incredibly strong and healthy.
Two weekends ago Karel and I did a recon run on the Paris Mountain Road Race course to see how our bodies handled the course. We started at our house which added an additional 4 miles to the 20K course. With 1600+ feet of elevation gain over 12.4 miles, it's not so much the uphills that hurt but the downhills make the quads and calf muscles work so hard because of the eccentric contractions. The run really crushed us and we felt a lot of soreness and niggles after that training run. It took us several days for us to shake off the damage in our body after that training run.
We kept the race in our mind for the next two weeks but resisted to register until the last minute. We didn't want the race to negatively impact our consistency with training so after we finished a quality week of training, we were driving home from a mountain bike ride at Pleasant Ridge on Thursday evening and decided we would register for the race when we got home. For the $65 registration fee, we received a pair of socks (super comfy), a soft and light hooded long sleeve shirt and for awards, a big coffee cup.
To help loosen out our legs (and wake up after a really tough upper-body focused masters swim that morning) we got on our road bikes in the late afternoon. We first dropped off a package to mail at the post office in Traveler's Rest and then went to the church to pick up our packets. We then rode some of the run course (the backside of Paris Mountain) to recon one section of the course that we wanted to double check.
We left our house around 7:30am to arrive a few minutes before the 10K start. The overall field for the entire race was small but we wanted to be in a race environment during a training run - it adds a little bit of pressure to give your best.
The first 2.5 miles is uphill - from the start to the top of Paris Mountain. There are two kickers (one near the beginning and one at the top) that are steep but otherwise it is a gradual climb averaging around 6.4%. Karel and I focused on being steady on the climb as that was just the "warm-up" for the rest of the race. After climbing for almost 25 minutes, it was time to tackle the next section of this course. While there was a lot of downhill to look forward to, there was still almost 300 feet of elevation to gain over the next 4.37 miles. Karel found himself in third place at the top of Paris Mountain and I was also in 3rd place overall. There was girl ahead of me that was too fast for me to run my steady effort with and then my friend Allison passed me on the kicker before the top. She was running super strong uphill. I've really worked on my downhill running so I knew that was an area where I could try to move up. I passed Allison on the first downhill and managed to inch my way closer to the first place girl. Nearing the top of Paris Mountain, it started raining but it was a nice rain - not too cold. The rain stopped after a few miles and the temp felt comfortable for the entire race. I noticed on one of the slight uphills that the first place girl had stopped and was managing some cramping in her stomach/sides - which is pretty normal with downhill running and something I was needing to be extra careful about with my breathing, form and gait. I passed her as she was trying to work on the cramps and within a mile, she passed me again. I was happy for her that she was able to work through the cramps and didn't give up.
There was one new section of the course that surprised me as we turned left off Altamont and it was a steep downhill with switchbacks (familiar with it from biking) so that kinda messed with my mind as I was preparing to run straight. The volunteers were great and there was someone at every corner/turn, even though the course had orange arrows on the ground. I didn't use the aid stations since I had my nutrition with me.
Once I was done with the "Paris Mountain" part of the race (7 miles and ~1000 feet of elevation gain), it was time for the third and final section of the race. In my opinion, this is the hardest part of this road race. For the next 5.4 miles, we had over 500 feet of elevation gain with very steep and punchy up and downhills. I was still feeling really strong although I could tell that in the last few miles, my legs were getting tired, especially my right leg which tend to fatigue faster than my left leg. I did a quick stretch to pop my right hip around 11.5 miles and that helped me correct my form for the final 1.5ish miles. With a very steep uphill of ~.25 miles with less than 1 mile to go I was on my tip toes working my way up the hill. I was really happy to finish the race feeling strong and healthy.
Our athlete Yannick won the race in a speedy time of 1:14. Karel placed 3rd overall in a time of 1:22 and I was 2nd overall female in a time of 1:38. We had a lot of fun and it was a great way to get in a quality strength-focused training run. Sure enough, the DOMS hit us hard today. Our legs were talking to us during our 3-hour ride.
Marni Garmin splits
9:07
8:39
7:31
7:25
7:01
7:24
7:54
7:41
8:20
7:51
7:47
7:36 (.42 miles)
Karel Garmin splits
7:06
7:38
7:15
6:14
6:03
6:03
6:22
6:39
6:29
6:42
6:42
6:39
6:31 (.42)