There will be Mud - The Night Flight 10k

If you wanted banana bread for a finishers prize, you should have run the 5k. That was my takeaway after finishing the Night Flight 10k in Mifflinsburg, PA

Ran the 10k option

Earlier this year Falcon Time Racing introduced the Rocksylvania Trail Series. Three classes, 10k, half marathon, and 25k. Due to prior race commitments, I couldn't complete all five of the halfs or the 25ks. But, man I really want that shirt. I was looking through the 10k dates and realized all the race days were open on my calander. Next thing I  knew I was signed up for all of them. I even talked the Commander into signing up for a few of them.

So I could get this logo on a shirt. 1 down 4 to go

The first race in the 10k series was yesterdays Night Flight. With an 8:30 PM start time this would be my first night race. We packed up the car and headed east at around 2:00 PM to make the 4 hour drive. Side note, we stopped at a roadside diner along the way. The old dude Art at the bar informed the waitress, and everyone nearby with his booming voice that 1) tattoos are bad, everybody regrets them, and they have to be burned off, and 2) apparently piercings anywhere but in the ear are bad and they poison you. I dont know, I guess your ears have super awesome anti-metal poison controls, but nowhere else pon your body does. You have been warned, I however, apparently am totally screwed, and will need  to burn off most my upper body soon.

One of many tattoos, gonna hurt burning that off

Thinking we would would need more time to eat and get lost, and being quick eaters and good navigators we arrived at the race venue a little early, Ok alot early, 2 hours early. But we were pumped to be there.

Me and the Commander pumped to be there

In other news I was also excited to test out a run in my new Altra Timps. I have a bit of a hammer toe and a tendency to cut up my toes on my nails if I forget to trim them. These shoes are designed with a large toe box giving your feet the ability to splay out and I liked the lug pattern they sported. I got a few training runs in with them, but I put them to the test out here.

Altra Timps post race. There will be mud

The 10k was a double loop of the 5k course. From the start we pretty much ran downhill through some fields and woods before getting to crash through a creek with about a foot of water running through at a decent clip. Nothing for it but to blast on through dodging the rocks that may or may not show up in the light of the head lamp. The first time through was difficult as the runners had yet to spread out so there wasn't much I could see and the water was pretty cloudy. After crossing the creek I was deposited into a maybe 30 yard stretch of slimy shoe sucking mud and boulders making for very odd terrain. One step I'd sink down into inches of soupy mud, the next step I'd be jarred by an unyielding rock. We ran along the creek (maybe, I dont know it was dark) for a while and then it was time to cross back over. The other side of this creek crossing was met with a decent little climb that was also kind of an ahole. There was a short steep part in the beginning, that when I topped out, seemed to be over. It was short enough that you could see most of it in a headlamp so I ran up it. What I couldn't see was the steady, albeit shallow uphill grind that came after it. This was followed by muddy bogs, which were followed by more muddy bogs, and after that, some more mud. The most fun part about that was knowing I'd get to run through all this again on the second loop, I was thinking "there will be mud" which made me think I should watch "There Will Be Blood".

Daniel Day-Lewis is a cool dude. He's no Val Kilmer, but he's cool.

Up the hill, a loop around a field, and onto the main access road and we were headed towards the end of the first loop. 5ker's through the chute, and the 10kers got to look on longingly as they peeled off to make another trek through creeks and mud and hills.

Night Flight 10k course

elevation profile. Not too bad, about 400' of gain, give or take

The second loop was much the same as the first, weird I know. However, I kind of forgot about some of the portions of the race ahead. I thought things would be easy when I made the second creek crossing, but then I remembered the hill, and then the bogs, and then the climb up the access road. It was all good though. 

I must say the trail was excellently marked with glow sticks on the sides and arrows at ground level for turns. Having a bit of familiarity, and not needing to worry about getting off course,  I did make the effort to check out the night sky while running through the field. It was impressive to see, and it was also cool to see the line of bobbing head lamps as runners made their way around the course. 

When it was all said and done I waited at the finish line to cheer on the Commander as she kicked in the afterburners to sprint through the chute. We made our way inside to collect our finisher prize, a delicious little loaf of bread, but not banana bread because it was all gone and that made me sad. We hung out a bit, and talked with a couple other runners that we see at many of these. They are incredible. They had both run the Dirty Kiln that morning. Badasses. 'nough said.

Finished the 1st of 5 10Ks

A huge thanks to Joel and all those who helped set this race up! We made the four hour drive back home after the race. I threw some sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows in the truck in case we had to stop along the way. We ended up sleeping in the truck for about an hour and we got home about 4:00 AM. It was a great day but we were shot and slept in. I'm already looking forward to the next race, which is next week.

Damn it feels good to be a gangster