The Phillip Parker Black Warrior 50K is located in the beautiful rolling hills of the Bankhead National Forest in NE Alabama. All but the first and last 2.5 miles of … MORE
The Phillip Parker Black Warrior 50K is located in the beautiful rolling hills of the Bankhead National Forest in NE Alabama. All but the first and last 2.5 miles of the 50K course were on dirt trails with moderate hills and many creek crossings. It rained about 90% of the time while I was running with a total of over 2 inches of rain for the day. The National Weather service even put out a flood warning alert. I think there were a few new waterfalls and creek crossings that day that weren’t there before. I ran into some problems during the last 10 miles or so. Somehow during all of the slipping and sliding, mud got inside of my shoe and started caking up underneath my foot. I wouldn’t have thought that it would bother me, but at one point it felt like I had a marble under my foot. It was definitely uncomfortable, so I stopped twice and took off one of my shoes to clean out the mud. It actually took me quite a while to scrape the caked up mud from off of my insoles. Then when I bent my leg to try to put my shoe back on, my legs cramped up both times. It took quite a bit of stretching to get the cramping to stop. At one point, another runner caught up to me and stopped to ask if I was okay. I told him that I was and to go ahead and I didn’t see him again. Once I got going again, I was fine, but I probably lost 10-15 minutes of time. It was all good though, as I finished with plenty of time before dark. It was definitely the wettest and slipperiest race I’ve ever done.
Please login to reply to this review.
Wild and Wet
The Phillip Parker Black Warrior 50K is located in the beautiful rolling hills of the Bankhead National Forest in NE Alabama. All but the first and last 2.5 miles of … MORE
The Phillip Parker Black Warrior 50K is located in the beautiful rolling hills of the Bankhead National Forest in NE Alabama. All but the first and last 2.5 miles of the 50K course were on dirt trails with moderate hills and many creek crossings. It rained about 90% of the time while I was running with a total of over 2 inches of rain for the day. The National Weather service even put out a flood warning alert. I think there were a few new waterfalls and creek crossings that day that weren’t there before. I ran into some problems during the last 10 miles or so. Somehow during all of the slipping and sliding, mud got inside of my shoe and started caking up underneath my foot. I wouldn’t have thought that it would bother me, but at one point it felt like I had a marble under my foot. It was definitely uncomfortable, so I stopped twice and took off one of my shoes to clean out the mud. It actually took me quite a while to scrape the caked up mud from off of my insoles. Then when I bent my leg to try to put my shoe back on, my legs cramped up both times. It took quite a bit of stretching to get the cramping to stop. At one point, another runner caught up to me and stopped to ask if I was okay. I told him that I was and to go ahead and I didn’t see him again. Once I got going again, I was fine, but I probably lost 10-15 minutes of time. It was all good though, as I finished with plenty of time before dark. It was definitely the wettest and slipperiest race I’ve ever done.