Overview. I look forward to this race every year - great race, great town, and great beer! The course is challenging, but very runnable, and the town of Morehead is on the come up. As trail towns go, this one checks all the boxes, and in terms of races, this is an ideal Spring tune-up with wildflowers, dogwoods, and redbuds setting the scene.

Location | Morehead, Kentucky
Trails on Course | Sheltowee Trace
Route Type | Out and Back
Total Distance | 10 miles
Elevation Gain | 2,029 feet
Overall Difficulty | Moderate with a Strenuous Climb

Recap. My friends (Bork and Handsome Klatzke) and I booked a room at the Comfort Inn a little outside of town proper and hit up race check-in Friday night. After grabbing our bibs, pint glasses, buffs, and shirts, we headed straight to Sawstone Brewing for a few beers and take-out from Pasquale’s across the street.

The brewery is classic Kentucky chill and has a beautiful taproom with outdoor seating on the street. The staff was excellent, and the beer was fantastic. We sampled a few brews, stuffed down some old school pizzeria sandwiches and headed back to the hotel to get ready for race day.

Saturday morning we headed to check-in and were able to stay warm in the gym that serves as race headquarters for the weekend. The starting line had plenty of runners and went off as usual - a great experience after all the cancellations of 2020.

The climb from the start to the top of the knob above Eagle Lake starts out nice and paved through campus, but quickly turns into switchbacks and an arduous endeavor. After reaching the top, it’s a lot of nice, runnable ups and down with a good combination of challenge and fun.

The downhills here are fast running and a real joy when you’re out there. I wasn’t sure how my quads and footfalls would do since I haven’t done a lot of trail running this year, but all was well.

Of course, the beers from Friday coupled with no hot breakfast race morning delivered some nice visual effects (aka dizziness) before I realized I needed some food and fluids. A sawdust feeling Kind bar with a pint of water set things right though.

After walking the better part of miles 4 and 5, I was right as rain and setup for a nice second half - running negative splits the rest of the way.

After the finish, we refueled at La Finca with giant plates and headed down the street for another round at Sawstone Brewing. We grabbed some growler fills to go - a great way to remember a fun race weekend!

To sum up the weekend, it was everything race weekends are supposed to be - social, physical, and fun. While enjoying brews, we all just said how nice it was to get back to doing weekends like this.

Post-script. It was nice meeting Lisa Manley in person after seeing her on Instagram. Always remember that if you can hike, you can trail run - because trail running is a lot of hiking;-)