Paris Mt Road Race 20k and New Years Resolutions

This last Saturday 12/5/15 I naively took part in the Paris Mountain 20k near Greenville SC. This was touted as the toughest race in the southeast. 

They did not disappoint

The race started at 8 am and it was a clear sunny day and a brisk 37 degrees when it started. I didn't have too high of expectations since I had not really been able to train for this race due to working on finishing out my clinic requirements so that I graduate on time and I had not seen the course at all. I was just happy to be out for a nice little run up a stinking mountain. 

Start of race compliments of Pace Running Magazine

To say that the first three miles were hard would be an understatement. To put some perspective here is some maths in mile 3 I climbed 404 feet that means for every 100 feet that we went forward we went up 7.6 ft or an average of 7.6% gradient. To put that in perspective the national maximum gradient for freeways is 7% in mountainous regions. The hardest part of it was that in the climb up the Mountain there was no point in which we were not going up so no real segments where it leveled off to rest the legs a little. Needless to say after 900+ feet of climbing I made it to the first aid station at the top of the mountain alive but realizing I still had 9 miles left to go.

At top of Paris Mt compliments of SCRunners.com

Right after the peak of the mountain the race immediately started descending. This was great initially because it was nice to get mile times back down to normal. Something that I did not expect though was how taxing the descent would be on my knees and that is when it took a turn from race like exhaustion to real joint pain and by mile 8 I found myself just holding on for dear life. You can see by the look on my face near the end of the race how much I was hurting. It didn't help that in the last 3 or so miles the course went through back roads that went up and down in and out of steep valleys that were just twisting the knife in the wound that was already made.

Near Finish line compliments of RunIn

But hey 12.3 miles later I finished! The race definitely lived up to its name of toughest race in the southeast. Surprisingly since it was so tough and I was not the only one suffering out there I was able to finish 3rd in my age group. And yes there were 5 people in my age group so I did beat other people :)

Now about new years resolutions. This is the time of year that people start making new year resolutions for the coming new year. I have not yet thought of my goals for 2016 but I have completed one of my goals for 2015. That goal was to compete in 5 races over 12 miles in length. I did so by participating in: Jan. Charleston Half Marathon, Feb. GHS Half Marathon, Apr. Trail Blazer Half Marathon (Fastest time and won age group with 14th overall finish), Oct. Spinx Half marathon, and Dec Paris Mountain 20k. 

All the racing swag

It has been a great year and I hope for more success in 2016. 

See Dan Grow