Via Ferrata at Torrent Falls

March is always a fun month. Not only do we see signs of spring and more daylight hours, but we also have two birthdays in our family to celebrate. Mine is on the 28th and my middle child is on the 29th. As I have gotten older and with kids, more focus of course has been on them. Last year, I decided I wanted to start a new tradition. Gather a few friends and go do. Last year we took a class at Suspend learning about aerials with trapeze and aerial hoop. This year I opted on Via Ferrata in the Red River Gorge area.

view from climbing up to the climbing area

 Via Ferrata at Torrent Falls describes it as "a way of climbing that consists of a steel cable that is attached to the rock face every 8-10ft.  Climbers are clipped into this cable with specialized via ferrata climbing lanyards.  Iron hand and foot rungs aid the climber as they ascend, traverse, and descend the course." This seemed like the perfect new experience to start my last year in my 30s. 

The company recommends reservations so I made one a few weeks in advanced. They just opened for climbing season at the beginning of March. Since there was just 4 in our group, we did not need to pay anything at the time of reservations. Their website was full of information on what to wear, bring etc. 

Our climbing adventure day arrived. My 3 friends and I packed the car with lunches and drinks and headed out for our 2 hour drive. It is just a few minutes down the road from Natural Bridge State Park in the Red River Gorge area. We arrived a few minutes early, but was able to sign the waivers and get checked in. We had about a 40 minute training session where we learned how to put our harnesses on, helmets, and practice on the training wall. Once we finished, the guides let us loose to climb.

section 2

section 2

 
There are 6 courses that you can climb ranging from easy to expert. You pay for an all day pass, so you can climb as many times as you want. They suggested Section 2 for us since it was our first time. This was harder than I expected even on the easiest one. I expected rebar for feet and hands all the time and the cable to not have so much wiggle room. There were always places for feet and hand grips, but it could be rock face, crevice. You were always attached to the cable, but for the first go around, definitely hard trusting the cable. 

We all made it through Section 2. My friend, Marian, and I opted for Section 3 after we all had lunch and debriefed about what we just did. Before we entered back into the climbing area, the guides checked all our equipment. Section 3 was intermediate level and went behind the waterfall. There were a few tricky sections such as climbing over a cliff to scale the rock face, but I always felt I had great hand or foot holds that made me feel more secure than section 2.

section 3 climbing over and scaling

 

 Next we tackled Section 1 which was more climbing up and down on the rock face. My last section I tried was the tight rope section. My arms were getting tired. I was also nervous not knowing the handhold on the remaining advanced courses, if I could complete them. The tight rope section you can climb to just that part, walk across and then climb back. The walking across was the easy part. Scaling back was more challenging considering I had to cross a gap between two rocks faces and I was getting fatigued. 

section 1

 

Tightrope

climbing back after the tight rope

Via Ferrata is for ages 10 and up. If you join their email, they send out discount coupon occassionally. They are open in all weather, but if storming, they wait it out. They sell gloves for climbing for $5. I brought cycling gloves, but felt they were too slick for me. I opted for no gloves. By the end of the day, my hands started to hurt from the death grips and knuckle scrapes. We arrived at Torrent Falls a little after 9am and left a little before 2pm

The via ferrata was a great experience. I loved the new challenge and experiencing it with friends. We each faced different fears, overcame, and met our limits. I would like to go back again and try the advanced sections.  Since we were so close, we stopped by Natural Bridge State Park for a short hike that ended up being 3 miles. I can't think of a better way to spend a day with some of my best gal pals.

Land Between the Lakes 60K- First Ultra Marathon!

My first ultra has finally come and gone. I have been actively planning this race for a year. I had hoped to run the Rough Trail Ultramarathon in November last year, but had my head and neck cancer surgery that same week instead. Needless to say this weekend of racing was bittersweet.

A group of 6 of us from my running group, Moms Run This Town, had signed up for the various races. Two were running the 23K, two the marathon, and then two running the 60K. No one was running the 50 miler which was the last distance this race offered.

 

It took us about 3 hours to travel to our race destination in Grand Rivers, KY. Packet pick-up was quick and easy. We then headed to our cabin we rented at Moors Resort to finishing getting ready for our race and have our dinner.

our cabin for the weekend

sunset outside our cabin

The race started at 6:30am central. We knew we had about a 20-25min drive to the race start in the morning. As we opened the door to head to our car, around 5:15am, we see all the snow! There was a light ground covering and it kept coming down. It was so beautiful! All week we had talked about the weather. It had gone from 70 and rainy to 40 and rain to 30s and snow and then back to rain in the mid-afternoon. In reality, we had a chance for a little bit of everything come race day!

pre-race photo

We made it to the race in Grand Rivers next to Kentucky Lake in plenty of time to visit the restrooms, drop off the drop bags, and walk about 7-8 minutes to the start line. As with typical trail race starts, it was pretty low key. The first 1.9 miles were on the road. My friends, Amy and Marian, and I all started together. We knew we wanted to start out conservative at the beginning, so we kept checking our watches to help with pacing. Apparently, my GPS watch was off a minute or two, so I thought we were right where we wanted to be. However, Amy and Marian's watches had us going 1-2 minutes faster. The funny part is that we talked about pacing not realizing my watch did not match their watch.

I am the one with the blue pack

Snowy trails to start the race

  Anyways, we made it to the single track trails ready to start our first loop. The snow continued to fall pretty much the first 5-7 miles of the races. It was gorgeous to see the trees covered and views of the lake. As expected most of the first loop, you were running with lots of other people and if needed to pass, it took a little while. There were some trees across the path, few creek crossing with little to no water, bridges with chicken wire on them, and mud. Lots of muddy running. The aid stations were about every 2-3 miles with water, SWORD, food, and restrooms. I had packed all my food: sport beans, honey stinger waffles, paydays, and lara bars for the day, planning on stopping as few times as possible. I also carried Tailwind, SWORD, and water. I ended up with mainly using the liquid forms of fueling. I stopped at one aid station on the first loop to refuel a bottle with SWORD and to use the restroom.

About 2/3 of the way through the first loop, we caught up to our friend, Jennifer. We got to run with her until the start of the our 2nd loop where she headed to the finish line for her 23K. I had two more loops to do. I was still feeling pretty good at this point. My goal was to continue to run on feel. With runners more spaced out, it was easier to go the pace you wanted. I wanted this loop to still feel easy. I stayed hydrated and fueled, checked if anything felt tense, hands relaxed, etc. On this loop, the trails were getting slick and even muddier in some parts. I decided to run the runnable parts at a bit more faster pace knowing I would be walking through the muddier parts to be safe and use the free speed that downhills bring. One spot of mud was the kind of mud that could take your shoe off. Fortunately, my shoes were on tight enough, that I didn't lose it. By the end of this loop, my hips were sore and blisters were forming on my right foot, but still feeling strong.

As I started, the third lap, I knew I would be entering unknown territory for me. I had yet to run over 26.3 miles. My biggest weekend mileage was 31 miles between two days. I knew my legs would be tired. I knew I would be tired of seeing everything for a third time. I also knew that I had run it two times and definitely had another lap in me. I wanted to still run based on feel, but knew it would take a little more effort to maintain the pace I started. The runners were even more spaced out, but I would catch up to some every half mile or so. Again the trails were in worse condition.  Fortunately, these trails were not as technical or as much climbing as I had trained on at Jefferson Memorial Forest. This lap I stop by the drop bags and put mine into the take back pile. I did not need to change shoes or shirts since the weather stayed dry. With 11 miles left to run, I started counting down the miles and focusing on the miles I was in. I thought people in my life - my family and friends. I thought about Kaiya who I run for that has CP, the people I had met through Livestrong program, and others who have fought cancer. I thought about how blessed I am to be running and not fighting cancer. It kept me going.

I finally made it back to the road to run the 1.9 mile back to the finish. The road miles back to the finish were the hardest. The concrete was tough to run on with tired legs that were sore. But knowing I only had less than 2 miles kept me motivated. As I came up over the last bridge, I could see my friends at the finish line and even saw one of them finish a few minutes before me.

I.am.an.ultrarunner!

So bittersweet to finish an ultra after the unexpected journey it has taken me on. When I finished, the lower half of my body was so sore. I definitely had the long run swagger. My friends and I waited a little while longer to see our friend (and my training partner) finish her first ultra. It was quite the experience.

I surpassed my goals. I was hoping to be in the 8 hour club and finished in 7 hours and 10 minutes. My pace was pretty consistent the whole race ranging from 11:00 to 14:05 minute miles. The few slower miles were ones waiting for the restrooms and refueling my waterbottles with SWORD. I also slowed down and walked the muddy areas more after the first loop.

Overall, this was a great race for a first ultra: plenty of aid stations, easy trail to follow, and not a technical trail (besides the mud). I learned I am not a fan of multiple loop races, but understand the benefits from a race directing standpoint with volunteers and ease of aid stations.
This race provided a fun opportunity to see another part of Kentucky that I have not seen before and share it with some fabulous running friends. Onto the next adventure!