Two days after running the VA race with Ryan, I ran the Houston Christmas in July5K. Becca and I had planned a July 4 weekend getaway to Texas anyway – originally we were going to go to Galveston, but then we switched to Houston so we could visit the Space Station, the Museum of Natural Sciences etc. – and Becca found this 5K race in central Houston, walkable from out hotel. It was very humid, and a bit of a slog, but I clocked 20.49 (on my Garmin). I finished 9th overall out of 570, with 21.01 on the chip – course was a little long. We hadn’t hired a car for the weekend but we then visited various tourist attractions, including the bats under bridge, and ate some amazing BBQ.
As a nearby state, I had found a race just across the border in Virginia, so my friend Ryan and drove up early that day, about 2.5 hours, and ran the Patriot Challenge Trail Run 10K. An easy state to tick off. However, the course was poorly marked, and I ended up running two miles too far, placing ‘2nd’ in 30-39 age group, but was probably first in reality! Ryan was particularly annoyed by the course, and threw his bib at the nice old ladies at the end! Lots of awards in the post race ceremony, and lots of free drinks etc. The trail itself was mainly single track with one very steep hill (which a bunch of us ended up actually doing twice by mistake because of the poor course marking!) The race pack included a printed red, white & blue towel, which I still use! After the race, Ryan and I hung out at the Fifth & Pop pool and played some corn hole with friends from the condo complex.
I had a trip to visit a friend in Nashville planned anyway, and with my States Racing adventure fully underway, I was looking at all my upcoming social trips, and as long as the state was hitherto un-raced, seeing if I could possibly shoehorn an event in to the plan. This was just such a scenario.
I was all signed up for the Predators Fangtastic 5K. I ran with Stocky, who had just returned back from being out on the road, and I ran a 20.36 – which felt pretty good. There was a nice downhill to finish. I ended up 17th overall.
Broken Arrow SkyRace – Squaw Valley ski resort, above Lake Tahoe – 11K distance (there are also 26K and 52K options). Part of the Skyrunner USA Series.
Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, it is stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, I caught a very very bad cold, just before we left, and the trip to California was really the perfect storm to exacerbate the symptoms – altitude, pressure changes, time changes, flying, lots of driving, exertion, difficulty sleeping and thus exhaustion. I was honestly as sick as I can ever remember being, in my life, and I still finished the race and thanks to some Fisherman’s Friends, performed OK. I remember thinking very clearly afterwards that if I can get through that 11K with 2040′ of vertical, in that state of fatigue and illness, then no other state will ever be as hard again – what a buzz! It’s all downhill from here, and I’m a downhill specialist…
The terrain was incredibly technical – lots of water, rocks and razor thin tracks, difficult scrubby terrain. There was also lots of snow on the mountains, and descending the slopes would have been almost impossible were it not for my hiking poles (I’d bought them small enough to fit in my Nathan pack). As we descended the summit, it was remarkable how I gained energy – as the level of oxygen in the atmosphere increased the nearer the base you dropped. I rang the bell at the end, collected my medal, and got in the car.
This trip was definitely a holiday trip before it became one of my state racing adventures. Our Lake Tahoe trip was already booked, then I started thinking more seriously about running in all the states, and thought… well, I should try and make use of the fact that we were going to be in California! I found the Skyrunner Series (can’t quite remember how), and just had to fit it in. The 26K was sold out but even the 11K just looked so fantastic. Much to Becca’s delight, booking the race did mean some changing of plans for us – potentially impacting plans to see wineries and take in an amazing restaurant, but with some driving and late nights, we still managed to fit it all in, in the end.
Later in the trip, Becca and I did a Sky dive – which was a birthday present, and amazing. Not great for my condition, but we got through it! We also dressed up to eat at Thomas Keller’s Three Michelin starred resto, French Laundry, in Yountville CA. This was also for my birthday – it was very nice, especially the extra steak and dessert.
With this race completed, I had now raced in four states – MO, NC, SC & CA – and I really started to think, I could do all 50. I’m almost 10% of the way there! So let’s do it – at that point, I really started looking at other possible destinations – working out which states were drivable, which weekends I was free, and when there were races – real, official races. I also started planning which vacations Becca and I could book, around a given race event, and what sort of events I should do. I decided to look at a mix of events and distances – focusing on half marathons but also taking on 10 milers, 12Ks, 10Ks, 8Ks, 5Ks, 4 milers and even a marathon, always working on a mantra that I should always really do the longest distance available (except marathon) if the event looks cool. Runningintheusa.com became a new favourite website, and I started to map out my next two to three years…
Our Carolinian neighbour is where my passion for racing started to kick in. It’s certainly where my idea of racing in each of the 50 states first started to spark. With my parents visiting us in Charlotte, I drove and took them on a weekend away to Charleston – beautiful and full of American Civil War history. When booking the trip, intrigued by the unseasonably high prices for hotel rooms, I discovered it was to be the weekend of the Cooper River Bridge Run – a long standing and massively popular 10K event, where participants run over the huge bridge. Knowing I would feel bad seeing all the finished runners were I not to participate, I signed up! It was an extremely early start for the shuttle buses, I was in almost the last coral due to my novice status and late sign up, and it was freezing. I set off fast, tracking a guy in front, and in the days before my understanding of purposefully discarding cheap clothing when waiting for ages in cold corals…quickly had to pocket my Nike windbreaker. That was April 7 2018, I was bib number 27694 and ran 49.39. This was my 10K PR at the time and my Mum was there to cheer me on at the finish line.
I also ran in a team Ragnar Trail Carolinas event in South Carolina, with my colleague Brandi’s Team Tamatoa. It was held at Anne Springs Close Greenway, overnight Oct 5-6 2018. It was great fun and I managed to assist the team with our fastest times over the three different distances – 3.2, 5.6 & 7.6 miles. I also popped over to my friend Jim’s house for a lovely home made pizza for dinner!
North Carolina is my home now. Unforeseeable five years prior, Becca and I moved here shortly after marrying in Greece in the summer of 2017, and we absolutely love it. Charlotte, and indeed the USA, has very minimal amounts of graded adult amateur team sport, and even less men’s (field) hockey. Missing the competitive outlet which that particular love brought me back in England, I found myself running to keep fit, to challenge myself, challenge others, and to compete.
So here I am – another new hobby, running. Forever keen to avoid identifying as anything particularly indicative, I don’t associate with many other runners, but nonetheless, it is difficult to escape the notion that I am in fact a ‘runner’ now. I am at least into running. And running gear. And I run pretty regularly.
I have run some North Carolina races, but not maybe as many as you’d perhaps think. For this state, I’ve run the Charlotte Knights UpTown Rundown 5K – as Ryan M’s brother, Bill (Sep 29 2018 – 20:43, then a PR); the Time Laps 24 Hour Relay Race team trail event (static campsite) at the White Water Center (May 17-18 2019) as part of The Blue Orchids of Asia Fan Club, running different mileage coloured trail loops for different point scores; and two BRRs – Blue Ridge Relays – with F3 team SBTO and vans (Sep 16-17 2018 & Sep 6-7 2019). I set some PRs in the most recent BRR event, finishing with my now signature 10 mile gravel downhill as the fourth of my four legs…
Once upon a time, in another life, I ran a These Colors Don’t Run 5K ‘Color Run’, a Split Master Timing event at Fort Leonard Wood, a plush military camp near Dixon, Pulaski County, Missouri. Thursday July 4 2013. It was at the time, insignificant, but now forms an unlikely part of my collection of successfully raced US states. I was living in Clayton at the time, and may come back to MO in 2021 or even 2020. I have next to no record of the Ft LW event, didn’t take it particularly seriously, and have a great network of hockey friends in St Louis that require little excuse to spark me toward another visit to the Show Me state.
I had been thinking for a while that I should redo Missouri, and make sure I had a ‘proper’ race ticked off and completed. This weekend’s Skippo trail half marathon ended up being just that redo – it was like running in the Somme.
We flew into St Louis, leaving Charlotte around 1300. I almost had to leave much later, when upon arrival at the airport around 1210, the realisation hit me that I had left my wallet (and ID) back home, a journey that is normally 20, not 12 minutes away… One hair-raising return trip later, and I was throwing the truck key at the valet guy and sprinting toward gate A2. Amazingly, I made the flight, and we touched down in St Louis around 1400.
I have old hockey coaching friends in St Louis, so visiting them was another motivation behind this weekend away. Kate picked us up from the airport and we hung out at her and Billy’s house, looked round the Christmas store, then went for a late dinner with them and Joe Joe, eating at Olive & Oak.
Saturday, we went to look at the arch and its St Louis History museum, went for lunch at Peel Pizza in Clayton, then watched Billy’s a Union HS football team beat JBS on the big screen stream. We played some board games, visited Kelly & Joe, then headed out for a delicious dinner at Brick Tops.
Sunday morning was an early start, with Becca and I borrowing Joe Joe’s car to drive to the trail race, 45 mins away at Broemmelsiek Park in Defiance, MO. The GPS took us to the wrong spot, and parking was not near check in and the start line. So upon arrival, I had to grab my stuff, sprint up the hill to packet pick up, and get ready for the race within seconds – shoes, laces, bib, supports, headphones, playlist, gels, watch, headband etc etc. This meant I started last from wave one, with no one else in sight. There were no markers or marshals on the first corner, so I was lost immediately! I got on track, managed to get some space between me and the lady who was trying to follow me, and had to stop to rock a leak.
The Skippo is normally held at Castlewood State Park but with COVID restrictions, it had moved counties, to the aptly named town of Defiance. The new course consisted of three woodland loops, and was signed, but overall it was a pretty confusing experience, and extremely difficult, particularly after the mammoth storms in the area, that had even caused Saturday’s races to be cancelled due to lightning.
850’ of elevation, three lots of three separate river crossings – including one mid calf level after the rains – and a muddy terrain that wouldn’t have look out of place in 1918 Ypres – all combined to make this run, tough but memorable. I caught 11 half marathoners on my first loop (having started so far behind everyone), but as the other events (10k etc.) had also now started, from loop two onwards it was difficult to know who I was overtaking – but it was a lot of people.
I had one extremely muddy fall but I was fine, and although I never caught the lead pack, I ran pretty well and clocked a 1.40.32 (7.40 pace), which is great for such hard terrain. I could definitely have pushed harder last mile or so but with the regular wooded canopy limiting the accuracy of my Garmin, and the confusing course loops, I didn’t realise quite how close I was to the finish. I placed 7th overall out of 103 (3rd in my age group). I believe that I could probably have placed 3rd if I’d started on time and been able to pace off some of the faster guys.
Becca met me there and we headed back to Eureka. After a long shower, I was finally clean, and we headed over to Joe Joe’s house. He took us to Villa Duchesne to watch some of the Gateway intra club scrimmages, before dropping us at the airport for our flight back to Charlotte.
I am writing this on the plane, exhausted after a tough race and a weekend without much sleep. But at least the truck valet is waiting for us…
Racing Americana 