Pilot Mountain Payback Trail Marathon
4/12/2014
9:00 AM
Pinnacle, NC
Time: 4:48:40
Place: 14th out of 42 finishers
The Pilot Mountain Payback
marathon is one of my favorite races. It was my first marathon back in 2011. I train
on the course most weekends. It's local so my family is able to come
watch. It's just a great race. Usually held in February, it was
postponed this year due to the 18 inches of snow we received just days before
the race. While the snow made for a brutal Holiday Lake 50k, it allowed me to pencil in
PMPB after not thinking I would be able to race it this year.
When held in February, the race begins at 9am given
sunrise time, etc. When I registered for the race, I'm almost certain the
website stated the race began at 8am, which made sense given that A) sunrise is
much earlier in April than in February and B) generally speaking it's warmer in
the spring than the winter. The night before the race I even checked the
website and there was a clock counting down to 8am Saturday morning. But
it also said the race began at 9am. I didn't know what to believe.
Nevertheless, Jon and I showed up around 7:15 that
morning ready to run. We were the first runners there. A couple of
guys from the timing company had just started unpacking and I asked what time
the race started. One of them said 9:00. I said, "You know the
website has a countdown to 8am, right?" To which he replied,
"Not my job, buddy." I guess he woke up on the wrong side of
the bed. The race was under new management this year, and immediately I was
not impressed.
With over 90 minutes to spare before the start, and
since Jon and I had decided not to race, but instead just treat this as a long
training run, we headed out for a warmup. I showed him some trails he had
never ran before and ended up doing a nice 3.6 miles before the race start.
We spent the last few minutes before race talking to a few friends and
soon we headed off.
The first of many creek crossings comes within 100
ft. of the start line. You can't avoid getting wet in this race. A
long uphill gravel road after that and while a lot of people were running up,
Jon and I decided to walk. After running this parts of this course almost
every weekend, and this being my fourth year running the race, I know it like
the back of my hand. I know that pace is key. If you start out too
fast, the second half of the race will chew you up and spit you out and you'll
end up doing the death march to the finish. So we walked. Once we
got to the top of the road, the former race director was there to point us to
the trail. We said hello and hit a nice mix of single/double track
trail. Down the hill and back to the road that leads in to the park, we
have to cross two more creek crossings. You can avoid getting wet hear
but what's the point?
Outside the first section, we cross a road and hit
the Corridor Trail which is a 6.15 mile one way trail that is a constant up and
down. There are few flat sections so you're either going up or running
down. It's a nice section consisting of mostly double track and wider
trails, a lot of the time used by horses. Luckily the horses stayed home
for the race as I did not encounter any. Jon and I ran this section at a
comfortable pace while talking amongst ourselves and other runners.
As we near the end of the section, the leaders of
the half marathon pass us in the opposite direction. We cheer and
congratulate each runner as they pass by and we concluded the Corridor section
with a stop at the aid station. Half marathon runners turn around here and
head back to the start/finish line but full marathon runners cross another road
and head up the mountain trail to the summit of Pilot Mountain. Jon and I
are fortunate that we train on this course and given that this was my fourth
running of the race, I knew where to go. Others weren't so lucky.
Jon and I headed up the mountain trail. I
love this trail. It's about 2.35 miles one way and a lot of rocky
sections. It helped me prepare for MMT100 as it was the closest thing I
could get to the rocky terrain of that course. We ran the downs and
walked the ups. The day was heating up but it was breezy so tolerable.
Soon we reached the end of the trail which gives you the option to go to
the left or right. Course goes to the left but some people, whom we
encountered later, went to the right. Another blunder. Regardless,
we press on. As we near another fork in the trail, the previous race
director was there to greet us. We talked for a minute and then continued
to the summit.
As we near the top, I could see the school where
Summer teaches. Unfortunately, too many snow days forced them to have
Saturday school and it just so happened to be on the day of this race, at which
she loves to come be a spectator. I waved and kept climbing.
Soon we reached the top and there were my parents
and Summer's parents and sweet little Gemma. She was too busy playing in
the dirt to realize I was there. Expecting me sooner, my mom asked me why
I was so slow to arrive. I told her I was there to run instead of race
and that Jon and I were staying together for the day. We talked for a few
minutes but then headed toward the knob.
The trail that goes around the knob can be ran in
any direction. But I believe in a race, everyone should go the same way.
That was not the case today as the volunteer said we could go either way.
As we finished the loop around the knob, another runner was running
toward us and slowed down thinking he was going the wrong way. We told
him they said we could go either way but again, this makes things confusing for
runners.
The next section runs along the west side of the
mountain. The terrain is tough with a lot of steps made out of rocks.
This is also where rock climbers hang out as there are a few sections
worth climbing. This section also intersects where the Mountain trail
ends. Here we encountered other runners who were going the opposite
direction as us. The volunteer who was standing at this intersection said
they made a wrong turn. I wasn't quite clear on what that meant but as we
passed the former race director again, he explained to us that those people had
taken a right instead of a left at the halfway point and not gone up the
mountain trail. Total mind blow as this could have easily been avoided
with a simple sign directing the runners to the Mountain trail.
Jon and I press on though and head down the
Grindstone trail. It's about a mile downhill, semi-steep in one part.
The end of the downhill puts you right at the campground and some nice single
track trail the leads to the visitor's center. I always enjoy running
this section because it is twisty and curvy, up and down. The Grindstone
trail ends and the Grassy Ridge trail begins and more of the same, nice trails
that take you to the park perimeter. Some gravel road trail and some
double track and soon we're back at the half marathon turnaround aid station.
We didn't stay for long here and headed back onto the Corridor Trail that
takes you to the finish.
It was beginning to warm up as we headed down this
section. Another runner, Mark, had joined Jon and I. We talked for
quite a while as Jon ran behind us. It seemed as though the heat was
getting to him or something. Eventually he told us to continue ahead so
we did. Soon enough Mark had to stop as well and I kept going. I
was feeling good. I picked up the pace a little and started looking at my
watch. I had said I wanted to run under 5 hours, which was still
achievable. Although I wasn't there to 'race', I still had that mentality
as I drew closer to the finish. I didn't want to be passed. So I
kept picking up the pace which was tough because temps had risen into the 80's
by this point.
I came to the end of the Corridor trail and crossed
the road and hit the trail into Yadkin Island Park. Only a mile or so to
the finish. Crossing one creek, I come out on the gravel road entrance
and see another friend already in his car leaving. I stopped to say
congratulations and he informed me he finished in 3rd place. An amazing
job since I believe it was his first race of this distance.
Two more creek crossings, the second of which was almost knee high
(which felt really good), and the finish line was in sight. No one to
pass. No one to pass me. I cruised in with a time of 4h48m40s. Good
enough for 14th place out of 42 finishers. Jon came in about 13 minutes
later. It was a good run for us but obviously could have been handled
better by race management. There was nothing left to snack on at the end
either so we quickly departed for home. Satisfied with the day, we had
covered almost 28 miles with about 4,500 ft. of elevation gain, which proved to
be a good long run before Promise Land 50k++.
