Uwharrie 100

I first met Dan and Amanda Paige, the race directors of the Uwharrie 100 mile trail race back in 2017 at the inaugural URE marathon. This is their sister event held every March that covers the the same terrain as the iconic Uwharrie 100 mile and 100K event which is held during the third weekend of October.

Dan, myself, and other runners of the inaugural URE Marathon back in March of 2017.

Upon meeting Dan and Amanda, I could immediately tell how passionate they were about trail running and putting on a quality event. My wife Jennifer and I are also race directors of a local trail run and I’ve learned a lot about race directing just by observing Dan put on remarkable events over the years. Fast forward almost three years to the 2019 Uwharrie 100 and Dan and Amanda haven’t missed a beat when it comes to putting on a wonderful race weekend.

The race. Although I made my plans to run the Uwharrie 100 mile event back earlier in the year, I didn’t actually sign up until the week before the race. The reason being is that I had Grindstone 100 on the calendar and this race was only two weeks before Uwharrie. Grindstone was a race I DNF’d at two years ago and it’s bothered me ever since. I’ll write up a report at another time on why a DNF is actually a good thing and everyone needs a least one DNF to become a better runner. The short story is I ended up finally finishing Grindstone and even better having my eleven year old meet me at mile 88 in the race and pace me throughout the finish during some of the toughest sections of the course during the night!

I took it easy in the days after Grindstone. I’ve learned that after a hundred mile race you don’t know what really hurts until about 3-4 days later, after all the inflammation goes down is when you really feel what parts of the body you taxed. Overall, I felt pretty good considering everything. This is when I pulled the trigger to commit to Uwharrie. Even though I felt pretty good about going into Uwharrie, the only thing guaranteed going into a 100 mile race is absolutely nothing.

The race started at 6:00am sharp. I opted to start towards the rear of the field and purposely get into the single file congo line for the first few miles knowing this would prevent me from going out too hard and there would be plenty of time to go fast later in the race if I needed to. An hour or so after the race began daylight started to show it’s face, so I turned my headlamp off and was able to scope the beauty of the secluded Uwharrie forest. Shortly after I approached the first aid station which are more like remote mini restaurants; waffles, pancakes, bacon, hot maple syrup, and this was just a fraction of things that were available. Not to mention nothing but 1980’s hair bands playing over the loudspeakers. If you had any doubts about this being a first class race, they were completely removed by the time you left the first aid station.

As the morning went on I just kept logging miles, respecting both the distance of the race as well as the course. This course demands full respect. It’s a fast course and it's very easy to go out too hard and over abuse the first couple of laps. About 80% of the course is runnable if your properly conditioned. The other 20% is made up of small steep climbs. You never get a break on this course. Most one-hundred mile trail races consist of at least 5-10 miles of forest/service road where you can get a little mental break. Uwharrie is all single track, and rocky single track. Which means both your body and mind never gets a break. If you take your eyes off the ground for one split second, or loose focus, your toast. And toast was exactly where I found myself on mile 39. I was about to complete my second lap, when I tripped on a rock and fell hard. My kneecap took the brunt of the impact, I also got the wind knocked out of me, I just continued to lay on the ground and regain my composure for a few minutes. I then got up and walked back to the start finish line to regroup for lap number three. Another part about this race that makes it challenging is that the event is on the third weekend of October, which means there are a good portion of leaves covering the trail, which promotes many opportunities for rocks and roots to "hide" underneath and wait for your tired legs to come passing by.  

Crawling up the famous Sasquatch Summit

I knew that a tropical storm was coming in sometime Saturday evening and into the night, and the long night ahead was going to be a wet one to say the least. This meant miserable conditions at best, so I wanted to cover as much ground as possible during daylight, still being moderately conservative respecting the course. I felt the rain starting to fall as early as 6pm, however this was just a light mist. Around 10pm is when the fun started. Hard rain was coming down sideways for hours upon hours, dry stream crossings earlier during the day, were now raging shin deep rivers. I was halfway through my fourth loop by this time as I came up to Kelly's kitchen which is the northern most aid station on the trail, only to find about a dozen or so runners shivering around a fire. It looked tempting, so I decided to join them for a minute to warm up. Although the temperature wasn't extremely cold (upper 40's), consider that up to this point in the race everyone has been running for 18 plus hours straight, they are calorie depleted, and wet. The perfect recipe for hypothermia if you're not careful. This was a crucial point of the race for everyone who was at this aid station or in the nearby vicinity of the course. We were still anywhere between 2-4 hours from the start/finish line, the place where home base was; all of our warm dry clothes and any other personal items needed for comfort on the trail. Many runners around the fire had already decided to drop out of the race and were waiting for a ride back to their vehicles, the other runners were on the fence between dropping from the race or continuing. This point during the race is where my previous experience from running winter ultra marathons came into use. Winter ultras are a completely different animal, you must carry all of your gear (sleeping bag, bivy sack, food, extra clothes, and a stove to melt snow for drinking water) on a sled that you pull through the snow for 100 - 1,000 miles depending on the winter ultra you enter. I was in a positon where I was starting to get cold, if I could have done anything different I would have brought a extra layer of clothes when I started my fourth lap, but I didn't so I had to make due and improvise with what I had. I knew if I wanted to make this a successful race and finish, I needed to do three things; stay dry, eat often, and keep moving. I was soaking wet and it was still raining, so I made a slit in a trash bag, wrapped it around my core, and marched on back to the start/finish line to complete my fourth loop.

When I got back to the start/finish line (around 4am), Dan the race director told me I was in the overall lead of the race. I knew in the back of my head that I was around the 2nd or 3rd place position, which I was completely content with, because I had given it everything I had up to this point, and to me that's all that matters. I then went over to my area that I had set out at the beginning of the race for all my personal belongings, only to find that all of the rain had collapsed my tent. Luckily, Daniel, one of the volunteers saw me struggling to get my things ready for the final loop, came to my need and helped me get on my way. I was grateful for his help. Daniel and I actually spent a good bit of time together on the trail of a 50 mile race back in August. The trail community is a small one, so always make as many friends with as many people as you can, because you'll never know when you may need a helping hand.   

I gathered my things and went on to start my fifth and final lap, the only thing I wanted was to get the final loop done as soon as possible (and take a warm shower). I put my mind in another place for the next 4 hours or so, and focused on taking one step at a time towards the finish line. As daybreak came, the rain almost came to a stop. At this point I had around six miles to go. I was getting close. Finally, the finish line was in sight, what a wonderful feeling! I ended up keeping my lead and finishing 1st overall! I was greeted at the finish line by Dan and Amanda and then my wife and two children James and Emma.

In closing I’d like to thank my wife and kids for coming out and supporting me, all of the wonderful volunteers who worked so hard to make this race one of the top races in the country, each of the brave runners who towed line, regardless of the distance you ran, whether you finished or not, it takes a certain amount of guts just to stand on the starting line, and last but not least the race directors Dan and Amanda Paige, who continue to make this event better and better each year. 

Crossing the finish line!!!

Finish line photo with my wife Jennifer, and two children Emma and James