What a really cool little race.
Simply Unrelenting
The course is marketed as Simply Unrelenting™, which I can 100% confirm is accurate. I would also describe it as punchy. As in if you don’t come with your A game, then it’ll knock you out. The advertised elevation gain is 18,000, yet my Garmin measured it at over 20,000 so who knows. One unrelenting aspect is that there are no large climbs. I think the largest is still under 400ft gain. It’s just one 40 to 90 foot climb after another; over and over again. The trails are moderately technical, but share the unrelenting theme in that the entire course is filled with rocks and roots. There are no fire roads, smooth snowmobile trails, or buff double track to zone out on. Interestingly enough I thought the course got more technical as I went along. I definitely wasn’t hallucinating as the rocks hurt every time I tripped over them so I can only assume someone was adding a couple more after each time I passed.
The race is five 20.5 mile figure eight loops with three aid stations. One at the start/finish, Crossroads which you hit twice per loop, and Kelly’s Kitchen which comes after a half mile out-and-back section. They’re anywhere from 4-6 miles apart and had some of the best looking food options I’ve seen at a race. Unfortunately, I passed on most of the gourmet choices as what would be amazing for a Tuesday dinner/Sunday afternoon snack doesn’t fit with my ultra nutrition plan (see below). I’m not going to tell you to sign up for this race just to sample the aid station fare, but I also won’t say not to not sign up for it either.
In The Begining
The race starts at 6am so I went with my backup headlamp for the first 90 minutes. There was some light rain/heavy sprinkles for the first 5 or 6 hours. I had tossed my raincoat and gloves into my pack just in case, however never had to pull them out until overnight. Temperatures were perfect with highs about 60 degrees and lows in the 40s. The start was pretty humorous as everyone except like 2 guys lined up about 10 yards from the start line. Things were pretty crowded for the first 2-3 miles as 100+ runners are immediately dumped onto single track trails, however there was enough room to pass if you wanted to.
There’s always a feeling out phase in the beginning. You’re trying not to go out too fast, but typically you only find this out after the fact. There are three named climbs: Sasquatch Summit (mile 7.4), Soul Crusher (mile 8.4), and Hallucination Hill (mile 16). The start of Sasquatch Summit is the steepest, most technical section on the course and is borderline bouldering in places. Soul Crusher is overall the hardest with the drop down off the top almost as bad. They mess with you on the last one by putting the sign for Hallucination Hill halfway up the climb. I remember seeing it on the first loop thinking “what’s that doing here? I’ve been climbing for a while.”
Splits and Commentary
I didn’t have any time goals for the race though guessed I might end up about 32 hours based on recent race results.
- Mile 20.5: 5:15 (+5.15)
- Mile 41.0: 11:02 (+5:47)
- Mile 61.5: 17:26 (+6:24)
- Mile 82.0: 24:27 (+7:01)
- Mile 102.5: 31:27 (+7:00)
My first loop was basically right at 15 minute pace, which was a best case scenario. That clearly didn’t carry over into loop 2, which was quite a bit slower even though I felt good. The third loop was mostly done in the dark, which explains the extra time there. And then the dead of night (midnight-5am) is always the slowest since your circadian rhythms are at their lowest which impairs your ability to stay on top of your nutrition. I was a little surprised I didn’t speed up more on the last loop considering the sun was up for almost all of it. Partly I was losing focus and starting to zone out a bit (I mean, it happens late in hundreds). Mostly though it was because my legs were just fried by this point. I was able to run more, but my stride length was completely shot which slowed me down even more on the overly technical sections.
Latest Nutrition Iteration – Finally Reached Endgame?!?!
The challenge with managing nutrition throughout a 30-36 hour ultra is that what works for 4-6 hours may not work for hours 10-20 let alone 30+. The saying is nothing new on race day, however nutrition is the exception in my opinion. You need to continually experiment with what works and what doesn’t work in various conditions (hot, cold, wet, dry) and at different times of the day (morning, afternoon, overnight). The goal is to maximize your caloric/carb intake in as consistent a manner as possible. Ideally you track you carbs, but that’s advanced math for me so I stick with counting calories which is easier for my brain to handle. Here was my simple plan which worked better than anything else I’ve tried in 70+ races:
- 75 calories every 15 minutes
- Base: gels for about half nutrition
- Supplement: peanut M&Ms, gummy bears, bananas, other candy
- Extras: bacon, waffles, potatoes
- Fluids: Gatorade first 5 hours, water remainder of race, soda occasionally at ASs
My big breakthrough was shifting my nutrition plan from being mileage based to time based instead. While it’s convenient to eat a little something every time your watch beeps a mile completed, your nutrition intake slows in tandem with your pace (no bueno). I was able to eat something pretty much every 15 minutes except when I lost a little focus and didn’t check my watch. I’ll need to look into setting up a timer for my next race to make this a little more automatic.
Despite what I’m about to say, the Spring Energy gels provided at each of the aid stations were amazing and really hit the spot. For some reason though, I ended up gagging with about 90% of the gels I consumed. At no point did I actually spew up anything and this was clearly not a stomach issue as I was able to get them all down after a short pause of a couple seconds. Pretty weird, but if this is my only nutrition issue I’ll take this any day.
The other key component to my nutrition plan is variety. I’ve been using the Seven Flavors strategy to good results over the past several years and it served me well again at Uwharrie. The goal is to always be cycling through at least seven different flavors to stave off palette fatigue. So every 15 minutes I was stuffing something different into my face and ideally four different things each hour. The only exception was peanut M&Ms, which I can tolerate in large quantities for literally days on end (no, seriously I’ve done this). The aid stations had the little fun sized packages and I grabbed a couple at every one.
At no point did I ever not want to eat, which may be a first for me. I wasn’t keeping strict count, but probably averaged 350 calories an hour for most of the race with low points still well over 200 calories. Typically, I max out at 250 calories per hour and have many periods around 100. Overall, I probably had 30% more calories than any other race. This was definitely aided by the cool temps, but that only explains part of my success.
Steady nutrition really is the cheat code in hundreds. It preserves your legs and lets you run longer. It keeps you awake overnight, which lets you run faster. And it helps with post race recovery. Fingers crossed I’ve finally found my ultimate nutrition plan.
Final Thoughts
I would highly recommend Uwharrie for anyone looking for a challenging hundred miler. The looped format makes logistics easier to coordinate (warning: also makes it more convenient to quit when things get hard). The course profile is a different than most other east coast hundreds with 20k elevation gain. The race organization is top notch. And the overall vibe is very old school, which I loved. Definitely put this one on your bucket list.