Mt. Mitchell Heartbreaker

 Posted on March 23, 2024  |  16 minutes  |  3223 words  |  Clockwork  |  [csaup] 

One pax succeeded and another attempted to leave the 2nd Annual Mt. Mitchell Heartbreaker 50-miler without a broken heart. Unlike some other people, both also left without broken bones. About the race The race bills itself as an “extremely scenic tour” of the tallest mountains on the East coast. You run up and down three peaks that exceed 6,000ft elevation. The first two, Green Knob and Mt. Mitchell, also involve 3,000-ft climbs and descents in fairly short stretches of distance (~3-4mi up, then same down). [Read More]

Hill Climb Challenge 2024

 Posted on February 24, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  633 words  |  Clockwork  |  [csaup] 

Around 150 pax from the Greater Carpex region participated in the 2024 Hill Climb Challenge. We ran, rucked, or walked a total of 5,300+ miles worth of hills, which would be enough to walk both from coast-to-coast and north-to-south across the USA. Which, come to think of it, might be the natural answer to people who are already asking, “What’s next?” The event kicked off with a bang at midnight of February 10th, when several Peak City pax completed a ruck of Umstead, and continued apace until closing with the 4th Annual Duck Donuts Dash, hosted by South Cary on February 24th. [Read More]

They say third time's the charm

 Posted on November 15, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  631 words  |  Clockwork  |  [lions-den] 

Three years have flown by. Some things have changed, such as our region, our workout locations, many of our pax, some dumb new trend of Bay City Scissors, the 4th F, my weight. Some things have stayed the same, such as busy fall F3 schedules that take up just about every free weekend you have, Chiquita’s 5-minute grace period, Greater Carpex having the best newsletter in F3 Nation, Wake-O refusing to put my coffee in the cup I bring, or YHC having too much Q-drenaline and starting off too hot out the gate. [Read More]

Raiders of the Locked Park

 Posted on October 24, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  604 words  |  Clockwork  |  [raiders] 

The evening AO, nearly killed by covid and the WFH trend, yet proves oddly resilient, mutating in unexpected ways. Just like the park rangers thought they could kick us out of ANP, the evening AO, cockroach-like, lives on. If disgusting bug metaphors and existential F3 AO musings aren’t your thing, you clearly haven’t read enough backblasts. And so, YHC presents you with this. Warmup So many people with dogs, I changed my initial plan to run down the hill and around to bear crawl bridge. [Read More]

Ragnar Appalachia 2023

 Posted on August 12, 2023  |  9 minutes  |  1769 words  |  Clockwork  |  [CSAUP] 

If you ever completed your last leg at BRR (or SMR) and thought, man, that felt great, I wish we could stay here one more day and run all of that distance all at once tomorrow, then this race is for you. If you ever thought, wait, instead of paved mountain roads, let’s run on wooded trails instead, then this race is for you. And if you ever thought, you know what would make this trail even better? [Read More]

Been There, Dusted That Again: A Smoky Mountain Relay Story

 Posted on April 30, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1188 words  |  Clockwork  |  [CSAUP] 

Another year, another great, smoky race. This backblast, alas, will be heavy on the details and light on the memories…you’ll just have to run it next year to experience those cherished moments of nonsensical jokes, midnightmountain musings, vibration devices, sleep-deprived photobombing, and Olde English stickers. Race details 🛣️ 207.4 miles ↗️ 22,056 ft uphill ↘️ 22,501 ft downhill For more details, check out the SMR website. Team details 💨 Been There, Dusted That: Clockwork, Ramsay, Track Star, Theismann, Horseshoe, Prodigal, Mr. [Read More]

We’ll take it from here", "Cardinal

 Posted on January 13, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  876 words  |  Old Maid  |  [dazed-and-confused] 

Early Thursday morning, YHC was stirring and came across the news of young Taylor Phelps, F3 Cardinal, out of Knoxville TN, who had horribly passed away during his Virgin Q (VQ) at a workout on 1/11/23. For Thursday’s workout, I incorporated one small element of his planned workout, 15 double count Freddy Mercury’s. We did them at the very end of our workout, and after the workout was over, I shared that his planned workout looked extremely hard, and I would be hesitant to try it. [Read More]

12 Ways that Year 2 Differed from Year 1

 Posted on November 16, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  424 words  |  Clockwork  |  [lions-den] 

Following up on my 12 pieces of advice from last year’s f3versary backblast, I thought it might be fun to reflect on how things were different over this second year. To summarize, I would say focusing and finding my place was the theme for this past year. Q’d a lot more this year (30+), and am more comfortable, yet oddly perhaps less prepared, at leading. Wrote way fewer backblasts. Used to write one per workout. [Read More]