Chattanooga Mountains Stage 3: Signal Mountain

They weren't kidding about the 20 miles at Signal Mountain being the hardest day of the 3 day Chattanooga Mountains Stage Race.  It had some brutal climbs and descents and miles of incredibly technical trail.  I absolutely loved it!

Nathan and I got to the starting line with some time to spare: time for self-doubt to creep in as I rubbed my sore legs.  Since I finished 147th on the first day and 132nd on the second day, I was hoping to continue my streak of moving up the pack.  My legs were making my wonder if that was possible.  Once the race started, I felt much better.  My quads shouted at me on the downhills, but their complaints were no match for the momentum of gravity.

The first 5-6 miles were mostly steep ups and downs.  We went down one mountain, across Suck Creek (I promise not to make any bad puns) on a very wobbly suspension bridge, up another mountain, and then back down it to the 3.3 mile aid station--we didn't reach it until 41 minutes into the race.  Then we turned round and did all of this in reverse.  The course mandated at lot of walking (at least for us, the top runners probably ran most of it) but by the time we came crested the third climb, my legs had loosened up considerably.  A woman we were running with gave us the layout of the course, telling us the major climbs were over and the last 3.5 miles were very runnable.  It sounded as though the hardest part was behind us.

The next few miles were lightly rolling along the ridgeline with some beautiful views.  We couldn't look at the views much though.  The course was technical enough that you could either look up or run; there was no doing both at once, especially given the cliff that was often at our immediate right.  We were able to move up in the pack a little by running the gradual uphills that others walked and we cruised into the 9.8 mile aid station, looking forward to the short 2.6 mile segment ahead.

It may have been 2.6 miles, but it was not short.  The trail was arguably the most technical I have ever run, and I've run some gnarly courses.  Every once in a while we'd get a smooth 50 meter patch and run, but it was mostly hopping around rocks, climbing over logs and boulders, stepping carefully down rocky descents.  This sort of trail is actually a strength of mine, so I pulled ahead of Nathan a bit.  The trail became difficult to follow, and Nathan and a couple others caught up to me.  One of them knew the course well and told me that yes, we were supposed to go up those really steep staircases.  So much for the climbs being over! 

We refilled on water at the station and one of the other racers told us that the next section was "like a dream" compared to what we had just done.  That was the case for about a mile, and then the trail reverted to its rocky state, only marginally better than the previous section.  It made for a tougher course, but worked to my advantage.  I worked up through the pack and left Nathan behind, thinking he would probably catch me in the 3.5 mile runnable section at the end which would favor his speed.

When I looked over my shoulder on a rare section where you could see more than 100 ft of the trail behind you and couldn't see Nathan, I realized I didn't want him to catch me.  Having the mindset of racing him made it a lot easier to push than waiting for him to catch up with me did.  The trail was very tough to follow; there were a few well placed race flags to indicate that the course went over this boulder, up that switchback, etc. and without them I definitely would have gotten lost.

I got through the last aid station quickly and took off on the last section: jeep trail and double track gravel.  I knew I needed to push it because Nathan could run this very quickly.  My legs felt the best they had all day and there was lots of flat and downhill, so I moved well and had fun.  The was one steep climb that I had to walk early in the section, and another at the end that I wouldn't have walked if I had realized just how close I was to the finish, but I ran quickly for the rest of the section.

I finished in 4:13, my lack of finishing kick allowing two runners to pass me in the last 100 feet.  But I managed to crack the top 100 with a finish for the day of 99th place.  Nathan came in at 4:20 for 114th--he also moved up in the pack each day and was only 3 minutes behind me in the overall standings because he took off on the last section of the first day after faithfully running with me for the first 14 miles.  We ended up 117th and 123rd overall.  There were a lot of really excellent runners at this race!

The whole event was wonderful--I loved all three of the courses and the sponsors and organization were top-notch.   I am putting this race series in a special category of races I want to make a point to do again along with the Umstead Marathon and Bull Run Run 50.  Nathan had a blast as well and I think surprised himself with his abilities in running more than he's ever run in 3 days before.  He may want to give a post from his perspective as well.

Thanks for reading!

-Jordan