Scenic City Trail Marathon = super tough

The scenic trail marathon (just outside of Chattanooga Tn) was my 4th marathon since March, and my 3rd trail race. I love running on the trail. It is definitely a different beast then road racing, but probably more rewarding then a road race..... at least this one was. Take a look at the elevation. I ran that loop twice. Ouch is right.

This is Coy and I before the race. The race was delayed 30 min, due to runners still showing up. This irritated me because why should us on-timers be punished just because they couldn't get their crap together and get to the start by 8am. It's not like it was a 6am start. I guess this may be due to how laid back trail runners are.

Coy's husband was on the trail at about mile 8 and snapped a few pics of me. I look like a weird-o.... I think I was talking. Ya, that's it. ;)

This is at about mile 11. We are running along the bottom of the dam. Picture... courtesy of Luis Martinez.. thanks dude.This was just one of 4 blisters I got. Ouch.

I realize that I claimed to have had one of the hardest runs of my life back when I ran the Country Music marathon.... but that was a cake walk compared to this course. The terrain was dirt, sand, rocks, boulders, roots, and gravel. I tripped at mile 3ish and skinned up both knees. A war wound I like to call it. The terrain was very comparable to the Land Between the Lakes trail marathon I ran back in March, but Scenic City is much hillier. Their website downplayed how tough a course it really is.

By the end of the race, the temps were up to *87. I had some pretty rough heat exhaustion and I was sick the rest of the day. I didn't go into this race with a goal time.... but by mile 15, my only goal was to finish and not be dead or last. I was neither of those things and I did finish. Isn't that all that matters?

So what did you do the day the world was suppose to end?