Running in the Clouds, My Grayson Highlands 50k Experience

Running the 2015 Barkley Fall Classic totally rewrote the book on running for me. It made me realize how much I love running mountain trail races. Nothing else comes close. 

I signed up for the 2016 Barkley Fall Classic and immediately began looking for mountain trail races to use for BFC training. In January, I ran the South Mountains Half Marathon, which had a lot of good vertical climbing in a beautiful state park. 

Next, Marie found the Grayson Highlands 50k for me. I watched the video, saw the feral ponies, the vertical climbing, the beautiful scenery and signed up right away.

The race did not disappoint. Sean Blanton, the race director, aka the Run Bum, obviously put a lot of thought into the layout of the course. Here is a photo of him standing on his car briefing the runners.

The start

After starting, we ran about a mile down a paved road and then took a left onto some technical single track. It wasn't too long before we were climbing to the right side of this nice waterfall.

The first waterfall

Then we got on the trail to Massie Gap and saw the feral ponies. It started to become very foggy and windy at this point. The weather forecast said overnight lows would be in the 40s and the highs would be in the low 60s. I assumed the sun would come out and burn the fog off. Wrong! I forgot that mountains make their own weather. It was very foggy, windy and rainy during the first two hours of my race.

Feral ponies

While I was photographing the ponies I noticed someone photographing me. I asked if he was Sean and he said yes. I chatted with him briefly and took this selfie.

A selfie with Sean Blanton, the race director, aka the Run Bum

After photographing the ponies we were directed through a gate onto an 8 mile loop that would take us off of park property onto US Forest Service land. I caught a glimpse of a very large longhorn steer and decided to keep my distance. We had been warned that they would gore us!

By now the wind was really howling. I would guess it was 25-30 mph sustained. It was very foggy with rain mixed in. I knew I needed to keep running just to stay warm. The field had spread out and I soon found myself running alone in no man's land. There were no trees and the trail was very rocky. It was strewn with 3-6" diameter rocks which made running very difficult for me. 

Soon I realized I hadn't seen any confidence flags in quite a while.

I crossed over the Appalachian Trail (white blazes) and became disoriented in the fog. I thought I was lost and retraced my steps. Eventually, I heard voices and saw a couple of AT through-hikers through the fog. They looked like ghosts with trekking poles and backpacks. 

Finally, another runner caught up with me and said we weren't lost. I asked her if we were dead last and she said no, there were lots of people behind us. We ran together until we got to the first aid station.

Aid station #1

The aid station was shrouded in fog. I actually felt sorry for the volunteers as the weather conditions were not good.

Aid station #1- They could have used a table

They didn't have a table so the food was put on the ground. I had never seen that before. I ate a PBJ and took a baggie full of potato chips to eat while I ran on.

Longhorn cattle

I ran down what looked to be a bridle path that had become a stream due to the rain from the night before.

Muddy path

Clouds on the mountain top

Finally, the fog started to break and I could actually see some mountain views. Then out of nowhere this feral pony crossed the path. I'm sure it saw me, but it ignored me. It kind of reminded of a cat in that regard.

A feral pony that crossed the trail right in front of me

The weather went from foggy and cool to sunny and warm several times.

There were several stream crossing where I managed to get me feet wet. I really enjoyed them!

One of the many stream crossings where I got my feet wet

Eventually, I arrived at the second aid station. I was told I had 14 miles to go, a 9 mile out and back to the next aid station and then 5 miles to the finish. I set off down a very long descent toward the 3rd aid station. Runners were already coming back toward me and I realized how far back I was. No worries, I reached the 3rd aid station at about an hour under the cutoff. 

When I arrived at the 3rd aid station (mile 21) it started raining again. I was cold and had had enough. I knew what the next 4 miles would be like as I had just traveled them. I also knew the visitor center was just a couple of miles of hiking up the main road, so I announced that I was dropping there. The aid station volunteers were very surprised and asked me if they should try to encourage me to keep going. I told them no, I knew I could finish, but I just didn't feel like it. 

There was nothing wrong with me. I knew we had about a 6 hour drive ahead of us to get home. I called Marie and told her I was hiking up to the visitor center. A park ranger came by and gave me a ride. I really enjoyed chatting with him. He said they have search and rescue operations about once a week at the park. The park is very busy and filled with Appalachian Trail backpackers. I had no idea.

I liked how the course had all different types of terrain and views. Sometimes you were in the woods and sometimes you were on exposed ridge line.

Here is a view from the park after the fog cleared. I enjoyed the run and would recommend it. I have no regrets about dropping as I was treating it as a mountain training run for the Barkley Fall Classic.

A view from the park