The Rugged Red is a point to point trail half marathon located in the Red River Gorge of Kentucky. An absolutely beautiful course utilizing some of the prettiest trails at the Gorge. It is put on by a guy named Joe Bowen, who is a very interesting individual. He's biked 14,000 miles across the US for charity twice, owns the Guinness Book for World Record's record for longest stilt walk, has traversed the US on stilts & is an author.
Training: This race fell inside my training plan for Not Your Mama's 100k, near the end of the Relentless Forward Progress plan & two weeks before NYM. This was my last hard effort before starting the taper.
Gear: With temps in the low 70s for the start this is what I decided to wear.
- Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 6
- Socks: Injinji Trail Socks
- Shorts: Patagonia Strider Pro Shorts 5"
- Shirt: None
- Tracking: Magellan Echo + iSmoothRun + Garmin GLO
- Other: Amphipod Handheld, & Half-Buff
Learned my lesson from the previous trail race & went with a much lighter kit. This ended up being a perfect combo for the race.
Race Day: I camped the night before at the Natural Bridge Campground, just like last year. This is the location of packet pickup the night before & within walking distance of the shuttles to the start line the day of. The shuttles are scheduled to load at 5am but don't leave until 6am. I decided on a 4am wakeup to give me plenty of time to take care of all my pre-race needs. My normal breakfast was replaced by a couple of PB&Js, mainly for convenience. After a couple of cups of coffee I was good to go for the day. By 5:15am I was ready & headed for the buses.
The only part of this race I dislike is the bus ride to & from the race. While I understand the necessity in a point to point race, I do wish there was a way to at least eliminate the need for one of the shuttles. After a short walk to the rest area I was loaded onto my bus which didn't leave till sometime after 6am getting us to the start line shortly after 7am.
The start time is listed at 7am & in the two years I've ran this race they've never started on time. This isn't a big deal at all, since it gives the sun a chance to get a little higher in the sky making the trails not quiet so dark. The race starts in waves & is chip timed. Every 5 minutes a new wave of about 100 runners takes off down the road headed for the trails. I ended up assigned to wave 3, something I was very happy about. Had I been in the first wave I would have waited to go in the second or third wave. I'd rather do a good bit of passing than be the one getting passed.
The first wave took off at 7:20 with the second wave following right on schedule at 7:25. I lined up with wave 3 for our 7:30 start & after a short countdown we were off!
Obligatory Start Line
The first 1.7 miles are along Chimney Top Rock Rd. This allows the wave to get nice & spread out before entering the single track. It's also a great chance to go out too hard & ensure a blow up later on in the race. I stuck with the main lead pack for this section not really pushing the pace, averaging around 7:50 pace.
The next .6 miles drops 450ft along Rough Trail to Koomer Ridge Trail. I was surprised that we were actually catching people from the earlier waves already. While this presented it's own challenges everyone was pleasant & moved over as soon as possible to let us through.
The following 1.2 miles climbs back up 400ft & rides a short ridge line to the Buck Trail which you are on for another 1.5 miles. The start of Buck is a 300 ft drop followed by a 350ft climb back out. This race starts out with 2 very steep descents & 2 equally steep ascents. Ensuring your legs are fully awake for the next 9 miles.
Buck Trail intersects with the Sheltowee trail which you get to spend the next 7.5 miles on. At the 5.8 mile mark you are treated to another 400ft drop which leads to a very fast section. With a gradual downhill slope this "flat" section allows your legs to recover a bit. During this stretch I almost made a wrong turn, where Sheltowee & Rough split. Luckily another racer yelled out to me & I was able to get back on track without much lost time or added distance. It's not a trail race until I get lost.
At mile 8 you are treated to an awesome crossing of the Red River via suspension bridge. This also starts a 300ft climb to a rolling ridge line. This culminates with 250ft scramble over just a quarter of a mile. Definitely takes any last energy you had out of you. From this point the race is mostly downhill all the way to the finish.
Suspension Bridge over Red River
The last .8 miles of the race is along Bison Way Trail & Red River Rd. A very enjoyable mostly downhill run to the finish line. Once I hit the road section I was glad to see I still had enough energy for a decent kick to the finish coming in just two seconds over last year's time at 2:29. Unlike last year I finished feeling like I could do more.
Strava Activity: Rugged Red
Conclusion: Amazing race that went better than I expected. With Not Yo Momma's coming up in only two weeks I didn't want to really push the pace hard. Even with a time a tad slower than last year I still improved to 19th place overall & 2nd place in my age group. I'm assuming the heat played a role in the standings, the winner of the race was 15 minutes slower than last year's winner.
I definitely ended up in the right wave. I didn't get passed after the road section & was able to pass quiet a few people. Huge morale boost to be the one passing, especially late in the race, than the one being passed.
This is definitely a race I'll continue to do each year. It gets better each year & supports an area dear to my heart. My hope is that we start seeing a few more races down in RRG, maybe even some ultras in the 100km to 100mi range.
One last thing on the shuttles. I boarded my shuttle at 5:30 & was on the first shuttle back from the race, which got me back to the campground around noon. Subtracting my 2.5 hour race means I spent 4 hours either waiting on a shuttle to leave or riding in one. I really wish there was a better way!
Elevation Profile
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