Saturday October 5 2019
My first race victory! Shawnee, Ohio – The Run For Blue Blazes 10k trail race – Joey, 1st place overall! It was a small race but still great to get the win. Becca and I drove the 6.5 hours up to Ohio on Friday after work, and stayed at a nice hotel in Athens (home to Ohio University).
I woke up early, breakfasted at the hotel, grabbed my race bag, and drove the 45 minute winding route north, up through the forested mountains, to the quaint historic mining town of Shawnee – https://kenyoncollegian.com/features/2016/11/shawnee-ohio-not-just-a-ghost-town/. I really felt like I was cutting into a slice of real American history. A cross section of a once booming industry in middle America – life still there, but only just.
A crumbling town with a flash of start/finish line colour –
The course –
It was a really small race, mostly in woods and around a little lake near the start/finish. It was tough – not technical but rolling and really tough hill at the turnaround. I sat third most of race, behind two guys in red shirts running together, then kicked hard to win in last half mile – and won by 30 seconds!
I grabbed a beer with other runners afterwards and headed back to Athens to meet Becca. We watched a D1 College Field Hockey game at Ohio U, had a nice lunch, looked around a gallery and got on the road.
En route back to Charlotte, Becca and I stayed the night in West Virginia, in an amazing faux castle lodge. The nice owner gave me a miners light because he liked my hair –
The race results –
Racing Americana 