The Georgia Death Race is typically a 74ish mile point-to-point trail run in the North Georgia mountains with about 14,000ft of elevation gain (climbing) taking place in March. The Georgia Death Race 2020 COVID Edition was a little different. This time it was a 66.6 mile out-and-back trail run with about 20,000ft of elevation gain starting on November
The 2020 Georgia Death Race (GDR) was a horror show. It was said to be the hardest one to date with only about 50% of the runners finishing the race and the finish times being about 20% longer. I finished in 21hr 57min 14secs placing 49th overall.
In March 2019, I first attempted the Georgia Death Race but was medically dropped for (what they thought was) excessive dehydration miles from the finish with 5hr 30min left on the clock. I later discovered that I was experiencing rhabdomyolysis. After I healed up from my 2019 attempt, I was determined to get stronger and go back and finish the race. I kept the railroad spike I had to carry and the wristband I wore from that race on my dresser next to my bed. I would see the spike and band every morning when I got dressed and every night when I went to bed. When 2020 started, I trained hard. I was doing 15 to 20 miles of hill repeats on the Hill of Life in Austin every weekend. Then COVID-19 happened. GDR was postponed until further notice, trails were closed, most races were cancelled or postponed until 2021.
When it was finally confirmed that GDR was still on, it was scheduled less than 5 weeks after Moab 240 – a 240 mile trail race I planned to (and did) run. Going into GDR, I had one goal: Finish the Race. I usually have a time goal as well, but this time I just wanted to finish.
It was a punishing race. I took a conservative approach to it, not pushing myself too hard, but not relaxing either. While I did my best to convince myself that I was fully recovered from Moab, it was pretty clear within the first 10 miles I was not. All in all, I enjoyed the race and I am thrilled that I finished.
COVID-19 and the Georgia Death Race
After I finished my last race of 2019, I had my sights focused on the 2020 Georgia Death Race. Like I mentioned earlier, I kept the railroad spike I had to carry and the wristband I wore from that race on my dresser next to my bed. I would see the spike and band every morning when I got dressed and every night when I went to bed. I was doing 15 to 20 miles of hill repeats on the Hill of Life in Austin every weekend. I was determined to get stronger, improve my climbing, and destroy the Georgia Death Race. While I had at least of one race planned before GDR, GDR was my focus for the first half of 2020. Then COVID-19 changed everything. As we learned more about COVID-19 and the federal and state governments started to take action to stop the spread, the GDR race director was still trying to hold the race but was forced to postpone the race to an undetermined future date.
My focus and energy shifted from being focused on trail running and climbing training to more important things – family well-being, financial stability, etc. I still ran. In fact, I ran a lot, but the miles were mainly road miles with little to no elevation change.
As the year went on and things became a little more settled, my training focus was on Moab 240. I was not even sure GDR would happen or if I would participate in it. After I returned from Moab, it was confirmed that GDR was still on but the race would be different. The communication on the changes was not great. Most of it seemed to take place over Facebook posts and the occasional email through UltraSignup. The main GDR webpage was not updated and it felt like there was a lot of conflicting or incomplete information. In the end, I was able to confirm the following changes about the race:
- Style: Out-and-back versus point-to-point
- Mileage: About 8 to 10 less miles for about 66ish miles in total
- Elevation: 20,000ft of gain, about 6,000ft more of climbing
- Aid Stations: 2 drop bags allowed, available at 2 aid stations that we would pass through 2x each. The drop bags were restricted to gallon-sized ziplock bags. Anything left in the drop bags after the race would be thrown out. It was unclear what food/aid would be available at the aid stations.
- Staggered start: Runners would be split into 3 different groups with different start times.
Pre-Race
I was taking time off from running after Moab 240 to recover, but I was getting antsy. I decided to complete the virtual 50K I signed up for, instead of just using my Moab miles for it. Less than 2 weeks after finishing Moab, I ran a 50K virtual race in my neighborhood. I was feeling great until about a third of the way through when I realized, I was not recovered. It was a struggle to keep going. My legs were sore, my feet hurt, and I had to use super glue on my toes and feet to keep them from bleeding. Once I finished, I took the rest of the time off from running until GDR.
Going into GDR, I did not feel ready for the climbing, and that was before realizing that this year’s race would have 43% more elevation than last year. Feeling unprepared for the climbing, I thought about how I wanted to approach the race. I decided that my focus would be on finishing the race. I would approach it conservatively, keeping my pace lower in the beginning, even on flat or downhills. I would hike or fast walk the climbs, run the flats at an easy pace, and run the downhills at a safe pace being careful not to put too much stress on my quads.
Like the previous year, I decided to drive out to the race. It was about a 15hr 30min drive. I would leave Thursday, stop overnight along the way, and arrive in Blairsville on Friday. I booked a hotel in Blairsville for Friday night, the night before the race. For after the race, the plan was to either see if I could find an inexpensive hotel room or sleep in the car depending what time I finished. Then start the drive on Sunday morning and stop along the way home if I was feeling too tired.
Since I got into Blairsville early, I decided to get a decaf coffee at the local coffee shop and explore the center of town before picking up my race packet. I was thrilled to find a place that offered vegan tofu tacos. That sounded much better than the ramen I packed.
I picked up my race packet on Friday evening. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, we couldn’t really socialize with the other runners – just pick up our packet and leave, which is what I did. On the way back to town, I stopped at the Booger Hollow store hoping to find a cheap shirt. I didn’t find a cheap shirt, but I did find some interesting locally made jams and preserves. I bought one that I did not recognize. I also stopped and picked up the vegan tacos I scoped out earlier for dinner. After I ate, I put all my gear together, taped my feet, and went to bed early.
Race Time
I arrived at the start of the race pretty early. Found a parking spot and basically chilled out until about 30 minutes before my start time. There was a quick pre-race meeting and then we were off. Everyone was wearing masks or other face coverings until we got about a mile onto the course. The packs of people start to split up. I was feeling really good about my pace. I had to fight the urge to run with the fast group. My legs felt good and I had a lot of energy, but I kept to my plan. It wasn’t too long before we were all spaced out and on the single track trails.
Due to the race being pushed to November, there was a new obstacle that I had to deal with this year – fallen leaves. They proved to be a little more to deal with than I had originally thought. Living and training for so long in Texas, I was not used to how leaves feel and move under feet and how they conceal the trail’s terrain. While dealing with the leaves, I also discovered that I had worn out the cushioning of my trail sneakers in Moab. Within the first 10 miles, I slammed my foot down hard on a rock I did not see under the leaves. My foot felt it. It hurt a lot. (A week later, it is still a little painful.) “This is going to be a long run if my foot is already badly bruised so early in the race,” I thought.
About 10.5 miles in, I came upon the first aid station. While I was there, a runner came in asking for duct tape. He was able to find some and I saw him start taping up his shoe. I felt bad for him, having to tape up his shoe so early in the race.
I was in and out of the aid station pretty quick, but it did take a little longer than I would have liked. I checked my time as I was leaving and I was about 30 minutes behind the time I had planned. I wasn’t too upset about the extra time because my plan was not exact and I did not calculate how much extra time the elevation would add. There was a lot of tough climbing in this section.
The next section was about 5 miles and went by pretty quickly. This was the first aid station with drop bags. I pulled some nutrition from my drop bag and my Tailwind. While I was there, the runner who had taped up his shoes was chatting with Sean, the race director, about seeing if he could have someone on his crew meet him with replacement shoes. It turned out that he had torn a big hole in his shoe which is why he needed duct tape. Sean suggested he ask if anyone has some spare sneakers he could borrow, which he did. Then, something pretty amazing happened, one of the volunteers or a random crew member walked over with a pair of shoes in his hands.
“Here you go,” he said.
“Are you sure?” the runner said. I looked over to see that the guy that bought shoes over was just in his socks. He had given the runner the shoes off of his feet. When the runner tried to get his details, he said not to worry about it. “We are all trail runners here. It is what we do.”
The next several sections of the race were pretty uneventful for me. It was climbing, then descending, climbing, descending. I was making okay time. I was slower than I would have liked, but not too slow but not over exerting. As I was going in and out of aid stations, there were other runners very concerned about the cutoffs. I would over-hear when the cutoff for the aid station was and how long until the cut-off of the next aid station. I was always at least 1 hour ahead of the cutoff and at each station I seemed to gain some time.
The Sapling Aid Station, at 31 miles in, was a little less than halfway to the finish and it was the turn-around point. As I was approaching the aid station, I came across a bunch of runners headed in the other direction that I had met earlier in the race. By the time I arrived at Sapling, I was feeling some fatigue from the race and was becoming hungrier. The talk at this aid station was about the high number of drops for the race. From the sounds of it, they were already seeing an over 30% drop rate. I did not pay too much attention; I just grabbed some potatoes with salt then started on my way back around 4pm.
I was feeling really good about finishing. My body was a little sore, but doing well. Hydration was not an issue. I was a little calorie deficient, but not bad. I still had plenty of time on the clock. On my way back, I saw the 2 other runners from the Austin area, Richard and January. Back in the beginning of the year, they joined me on one of my Hill of Life training runs when they found out I was also training for GDR. I was not sure they made it to race and if I would see them. We exchanged quick “hello”s and “good job”s as we passed each.
The next aid station was the second visit to the Point Bravo which had our drop bags. For my second pass, I had packed a couple of caffeine options including a Red Bull. I took some extra time at this aid station, about 15 minutes total, to take out my contacts, eat some more food, drink my Red Bull, and refill all my water bottles. While I was there, I saw a couple of people decide to drop. The rumors were that this year’s race was seeing higher than average drop rates and longer times. Once I got all the stuff done that I wanted and needed to do, I was back on the trail.
The next section had a previously unrun section, down an “out and back” to a new aid station, Skeenah. The sun had set and the temperatures dropped a little. Between my unfamiliarity with the trails and the abundance of leaves, night running was slowing me down. On the way back, I decided that I could use a stick or two to help with the climbing, descending, and added balance. I kept my eyes open for a stick and before long I found a good one. It was a good height, size and fairly light.
The rest of the race was uneventful. My pace was slowing, I was becoming more tired, but I was still motivated. On the final section of the race, my stick broke on one of the descents. The way it broke put some strange strain on my wrist. My wrist was sore for at least a week and half after the race.
After nearly 22 hours, I finally finished. It felt good to cross the finish line and toss my railroad spike in the coffin. I thanked the volunteers and went to my car for a quick cleanup and nap for a few hours. I slept in my car waking up briefly whenever a pack of runners came in and when the last runner finished. After a couple hours of napping, I started my drive back home.
Final Thoughts
When I started this year, I had the Georgia Death Race in my sights. I was determined to not only finish the race, but to also conquer it. Once our lives got all flipped around due to COVID-19, my mindset switched from wanting to conquer the race to not even sure I was going to go. In the end, I am glad I went and even happier that I finished. I may not have conquered the race, but it felt good to be out there running the trails with my fellow runners. Would I go back and run the Georgia Death Race again? I am not sure. I feel like I found what I was looking for with the race and have my eyes set on different races and goals for the future.
Thanks
Thanks to all the volunteers, organizers, and other folks that helped put this race on and support the runners throughout the journey. Thanks to my wife, AJ, for helping with all the logistics and taking care of the kids and animals while I was away.
Images from Around Blairsville
