14th Annual New River Gorge-ous Trail Half Marathon, Minden WV-Aug 22, 2015

 

This was the 14^th Annual New River Gorgeous Trail Half Marathon held by Ace Adventure Resort and Tri State Racers in Minden, WV, just outside of ‘the coolest small town’ of Fayetteville.

Camping and running around a lake, with a race that offered ‘free’ camping for race weekend, all with a  low registration of less than fifty bucks? Who wouldn’t jump on this?

The flight into Charleston, WV is just an easy hour drive away. But apparently the actual arriving/departing flights are always an issue, as both my flights arriving and departing were delayed.

Luckily I arrived just in time (literally only 10 minutes to spare) for my first excursion of The New River Gorge Bridge Walk. Yep you guessed it, I got to walk the steel under the bridge 876 feet up and over the New River! Seemed like a pretty calm thing compared to some of my travel adventures, but I thought it would be a cool introduction to the area as the race is in fact named New River Gorge-ous. (it wasn’t until later I learned the race course goes nowhere near the bridge). Once it was all said and done, I walked away really enjoying the experience and highly recommend checking it out! Not only was the guide and tour informative, but it was a whole other feeling. I mean, the bridge literally shook, and the sound of the traffic was intense. We had a couple opportunities to actually sit down and enjoy the view as well, watching the white water rafters below, which was exciting as I was going to be partaking in that the day after the race.

 

I finally got to settle into my home away from home at Ace Adventure Resort in the early evening.

Although there was free camping for the runners, and you could actually rent tents/sleeping bags, I had decided to upgrade to the ‘tent cabin’ (a YURT of sorts on a wooden platform with a roof and 3 beds) because it was still cheaper than any hotel. If you just can’t handle the camping experience, no worries, there are regular cabins to rent, or you can bring your RV.

The bathhouse in the tenting area was bare minimum and really not a place I could picture myself getting clean. However, there was a huge and ‘new’ bath house in the trip departure area that was much nicer, except the one cold shower.  

Ace Adventure Resort is located on a small lake which is packed full of not only inflatable fun, but also a zip line, a BOB, and a cool slide. You can buy day passes to play all day or part day.

 

There is a restaurant, bar, and camp store located on site as well. Wifi is available and if you are doing a whitewater rafting trip, the buses leave straight from there as well.

There are a wide range of other activities including but not limited to zip lining (day and night), horseback riding, and rock climbing,

Fayetteville is a short15-20 minute drive to town where there are a few other very good and unique restaurants to try out, such as Pies and Pints and Secret Sandwich Society.

Firewood and supplies are located right at the Ace check in. There really is no need to leave once you are there.

PACKET PICKUP

Packet pickup was done the morning of the race at 930a. The race was set to start at 11a, but because it seemed most volunteers did not show, it took them longer to get everyone checked in and registered….yes they even allowed same day registration. We started about 20 minutes late.

We received a shirt in the packet as well as coupons.

There was no opportunity for any fuel/gear/race souvenir purchase.

COURSE

The race includes a half marathon, 8.5mile, and 5 mile option which runs the trails surrounding Ace Adventure Resort. The 8.5 runs the same exact course as the half until the very end. All three start at the same time, and there is no official line up, which lead to very tight quarters in the first couple of miles. Once we were into the woods (which was very soon and up until the very end) the paths were single file, making it difficult to pass slower runners and also made it hard to see your footing if you ran too close or did try to pass. Because the race reporting was messed up, I do not know the actual number of runners, but I assume it was less than 500.

The elevation difference was about 1700 overall according to my Garmin. The course is a very technical trail with lots of turns, steep hills, cliffs, dirt, tree roots, and big rocks. You constantly have to pay attention to foot placement to avoid falls and twisted ankles.

COMMUINICATION

There was an event page on Facebook and Ace Adventure had a page as well in which they put out limited information the couple of weeks before the race. The actual website is very limited information however, and I never once received an email with any direct race details.

HYDRATION/FUEL/PORT POTTIES

There were 3 water stops for the half marathon. Being a late start and knowing that the temps were going to rise to 80, I made sure I carried a water bottle with me, and I am glad I did. I was able to fill it up at each stop, which consisted of one volunteer manning a cooler and cups of water only. Not once was there Gatorade or fuel of sorts.

Surprisingly, I never over heated or dehydrated, as almost all of the race is in the wood/shade and I never ran out of water. Breakfast was coffee and left over pizza, which probably wasn’t the best of decisions, but I just wasn’t hungry. 11am race time is a very weird time for figuring out eating. I brought with me 2 leftover GU chomps, but unfortunately I did not have enough fuel to keep me going. I absolutely was not prepared to have no Gatorade/fuel provided.

We were also warned at the start that there would be no porta potties on the course, that you would just have to go on trail.... welcome to West Virginia!

RESULTS

Before I go into my results of this race, I’m going to take you back five years to my first year of doing the ‘half marathon a month’ when I travelled to Miami to do my very first and only  ‘trail’ run. I walked away from that race, the only DNF race in my life, and swore I would never do another trail run. It was also in August and I knew absolutely nothing about trail running. Which also meant, I had no idea how much longer it takes to run on trails vs road. I scheduled my flight out that day entirely too close to what I thought I should be finished, and I had to DQ myself. I left that race so embarrassed and defeated. I really had no desire what so ever to do another trail run again.

Well, then came WV New River Gorgeous half. I jumped on it because I thought it sounded fun, inexpensive, and I knew the area had some great whitewater rafting for afterwards! It was quite funny as I opened my running magazine on the airplane and realized it was focused on trail running. I took away tips from experts that actually helped during the race. But little did I know just how much of a technical trail this was going to be. It was very exciting in the first few miles and we even came out to an overlook of the River. At about M6, I was about ‘done’ with hills. It seemed we were constantly going up and never coming down. Every turn, there would be another incline. Before the half way mark, I was definitely down to walking the inclines, then running the straightaways, but also having to walk a lot of the downhills as there were huge rocks to avoid slipping on. I just kept telling myself, I could not get injured as I will be hiking the Grand Canyon in a few weeks! We got really spaced out on the 2^nd half of the course, that I literally only saw 1 or 2 people for the rest of the race….and then I saw no one. We came across a small waterfall and creek on the 2^nd half and I kept forcing myself to focus on enjoying the scenery (vastly different from Florida beaches) and not focus on the lack of energy. By about M10, even walking the inclines were exhausting. I had to stop and latch onto a tree as my breath had escaped me, I felt faint, and I started to panic because I was all alone. Luckily, I calmed down, continued on, and shortly after, one of the guys in charge came up on a 4wheeler making sure I was okay. I asked if I was last and to much surprise, he said no!

 

FINISH

I crossed the finish line with another runner right behind me, but there was literally no race people at the finish. The Finish Line sign was still up, and the clock was still ticking, but no water, no medal, no direction, no one to make sure I was ok.

A lot of families were enjoying the lake amusements, but I felt they also got an amusement of me staggering in too. It took all the effort I had to make it into the restaurant, where I knew they were going to have a burrito buffet for us and that is where I found all the runners as they were waiting for the last runner to do awards. I immediately cramped up, yet still could not find any Gatorade….well, that was because there was none. Still. You had the option of sodas or water. No orange juice, no chocolate milk, no fruits, no bagels, no chips, no nothing. Beer was $1, which if I had known, I would have ran with money. Thankfully the bartender was nice enough to let me have one as I offered to leave my Garmin behind. Highly disappointed, I grabbed my medal, and forced myself to eat a couple of tacos.

Come to find out, the race did not announce a ‘cut off’ time, yet results are not posted past 3:11

 

SHIRT

The tech shirt is unisex and matches the medal.

MEDAL

The medal is generic without a mention of date

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS

I had an absolute blast the entire weekend and despite the piss poor results, I thoroughly enjoyed trying something not only new, but out of my comfort level. I highly praise trail runners. It is a whole other level of the word ‘runner’ or ‘athlete’!! Not only running at elevation, but running on uneven terrain steadily for 13.1 miles is exhausting in itself, but add in the mental strength you need to constantly be planning and focusing where your next step will be so you do not get injured. Trail runners are BADASS. Bottom line.

 

 

I love the concept and location of this race, but the execution could be much better. First off, better/more communication of race details for out of towners would be nice. A different race start time for each distance would help the crowdedness. An earlier start time would be nice to avoid the heat. Gatorade or a fuel drink on the trail is a must. More volunteers for check in would get us to start on time. The burrito/taco/nacho buffet was awesome, but would be nice to have more after race friendly food/drink. (aka bananas, oranges, recovery drink, beer). Despite all of that, I would recommend the race if you don’t mind all of the above, but you are also looking for a challenging course combined with an activity filled weekend. Once at Ace Adventure Resort, you don’t have to leave the property the entire weekend, you get to embrace with nature during the race, and try some exciting excursions in the area all arranged by the same resort. Overall, since the course itself and the partnership with the resort is the only great thing about this race, I would have to give it a C- in my books.

THE NEXT DAY

The next day since my flight wasn’t until late, I did a full whitewater excursion of the Lower New River. I had a fun group of girls on my raft and it was a beautiful and exciting day.

13.1TRAIL-3:21
State #23
Half Marathon #53

 

 

I am currently running a half marathon a month and also running a half marathon in each state all to show support and raise awareness for breast cancer via The Donna. Please consider showing your support by making a donation today!
www.donate.breastcancermarathon.com/2016-marathon/melissajohnson