Xterra - Deep South Trail Run - 15K - Jackson, GA - 5-31-2014 - Details

Xterra - Deep South Trail Run - 15K - Jackson, GA - 5-31-2014 - Details


On Saturday I was in Jackson, GA for the Xterra - Deep South Trail Run - 15K. I ran this event because I thought I would find some hills similar to what I will be seeing on August 2nd at Eagle Creek Park on the west side if Indianapolis. I was not disappointed. The course was mostly single track on rolling hills with lake views at times and several creek crossings. 


We stayed at a hotel in Macon, about a half hour to the south, just to have a reasonable selection of dining establishments. On the early morning drive to Jackson I left the interstate after about 15 miles and continued into the woods for another 13 miles. 


I was careful not to make the mistake of going out to fast as I had done in Indy last year. I ran at a comfortable pace and enjoyed the scenery. Instead of doing walk breaks at regular intervals based on time or distance I kind of power walked the uphills as is done quite often at this type of event.

There is a little discrepancy on the course distance. The race promoter stated the distance as 9.3 miles and my Garmin watch recorded 8.45 miles. I've read that sometimes Garmin can be off based on how they measure with the GPS map points. The official results on the race website show my time as 1:45:04 with a pace of 11:18 MPM. My watch recorded a time of 1:44:48 for 8.45 miles and a pace of 12:24 MPM. Since my pace at Eagle Creek last year was 14:34 I'll be quite happy if I can finish with a pace of somewhere between 11:18 and 12:24 on August 2nd this year.

Now back to those official results. If you clicked on the link in the previous paragraph you will see that I finished a pretty disappointing 9th out of 10 in my age group. If you'll look a little closer you will see that Goober Owen from Thomaston was running like the police were chasing him and he edged me out of 8th place by nearly 2 MPM. Darn that Goober.

The race promoter said that they will update the You Tube video from the race but as of this time it has not been done yet.

Since Saturday was the end of the month I will report that my mileage for the month was 84.69 and that brings me to 338.29 miles year to date including this 4 mile recovery run around the neighborhood this morning.