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Marathon
and half marathoners gather at the starting line while Cummins Falls murmurs
nearby. Photo of runners by Tom Glynn.
Despite my urging Josh Hite didn’t
decide to run the inaugural Cummins Falls Marathon until late the day before
the race. Then he sent me a text:
“Chances
are that I will run a marathon tomorrow.”
And so he did.
Good thing, too—he won, finishing in
a time of 3:13:56. That’s not likely a time that will impress anyone who was
not there. The course is challenging, bringing an insane climb at mile 17, and
Josh had been undecided because of a recent bout with the flu followed by an
injury from a fall on an icy patch. The injury healed just in time.
A gray sky, 40 degrees, and calm
winds greeted the 197 runners assembled at Cummins Falls on Saturday, February
23. Runners spread across four races held that morning—a marathon, half marathon,
10K, and 5K. Twenty eight had registered for the marathon. They knew what they
faced. The course map and profile had been posted on the race’s Facebook page, here:
http://www.runningahead.com/maps/a0e701fd73ed4927 a57517a8f432ffa0?unit=mi
“One
big downer, one big upper, and eight miles of routine hell to pay...”
Half marathoners and marathoners
started and ran together for the first five miles, until the former split left
on Perry Smith Road. Just 1.5 miles into the run we plunged into the gorge
carved by the Blackburn Fork State Scenic River, the stream that makes Cummins
Falls. We ran alongside that river until it joined Roaring River—also a State
Scenic River—followed it for two miles and then turned up Morrison’s Creek, which
drains another narrow valley. At the head of that valley, the course demanded
payback. A crushing climb called Chaffin Hill at mile 17 delivered marathoners
back to the plateau on which they’d started, and to which they were bound to
return.
For eight miles after that, the
route followed a roller coaster along a ridge known as Seven Knobs. Suffering runners
will tell you that Seven Knobs has at least a dozen knobs. Other roads
followed, bringing more dips and climbs. The last eight miles, on legs already wasted
by Chaffin Hill, were bitterly hard. The course profile looks like a mountain
turned upside down.
Put in geologic terms, runners
started on the Highland Rim, descended into the Nashville Basin and climbed
back out again, a traverse encompassing millions of years in geologic time. But
runners measure time in seconds.
“…I
trailed by 30 sec until 17. Then Hite crushed me.” - @thunderruns
Andrew Holbrook, a friend of Josh
and mine, also ran the marathon. Andrew grew up in Cookeville but now operates
a running store in Roanoke, Virginia. His Twitter handle is @thunderruns. Since
they are the same age, 35, and both accomplished runners, I expected Josh and
Andrew to have a competitive race. That was true for 11 miles. At that time
Josh pulled ahead by 30 seconds. Then, for Andrew, the crux came in the hard
climb in mile 17, as he tweeted me above. Andrew ended by finishing in third
place, with a time of 3:28:24.
Third place for Andrew, because
Franklin Baker, 33, of Cincinnati, Ohio ran a spirited race. Franklin, the son
of well-known mid-state runner Bill Baker, was able to finish in a time of
3:15:39, taking second place.
Virginia
marathoner Andrew Holbrook runs to a third-place finish. Photo by Bombdog
Hamilton.
On the women’s side, Donna Dworak,
48, took first place honors in a time of 4:38:11. Karen Austin, 60, of
Nashville finished second, with 4:51:19. Altogether, 23 runners managed to complete
the marathon.
“Hold
me and make it stop!”
For myself, the oldest runner there
at age 72, I managed to trudge across the finish line after precisely four
hours, one minute and 52 seconds, to finish in eighth place overall, first
place for runners over 60.
While half marathoners and
marathoners were out on their courses, 10K and 5K races were held. Men and women winners of the half, 10K and 5K
were:
Half Marathon (45 finishers). Brian
Shelton, 34, 1:20:59; Ginny Bond, 31, 1:46:02
10K (48 finishers). J. D. Pollard,
27, 49:29; Erin Rainer, 27, 49:39
5K (64 finishers). Tracy Yoder, 49,
20:06; Anne Sharpe, 33, 22:35
Cookeville
runners Jennifer Hackbarth Parks and Gabriel Gitan help Jennifer Scarlett,
center, up a hill. Photo by Bombdog Hamilton.
“Where
the scenery is hardcore and the course is hardrun.”
Despite the vast differences in our
ages, overall-winner Josh Hite and I are running partners. I’m sure he runs a
little slower when he runs with me, while I run a little faster. Nonetheless,
somehow it works. One of our favorite things is to make what we call adventure
runs in Jackson County, following loops across the hills, ridges and hollows.
Hills like Chaffin Hill are hardly new to us. Indeed, we’d run most of the
course for this marathon before Cummins Falls Park existed, before the idea for
this marathon was born.
Pastoral scenes greeted runners all along the course, this one on Blackburn Fork. Photo by Cyrus Rhode.
One impromptu run took us down
Blackburn Fork just nine days after the historic flood of August, 2010. That
flood evinced power we’d never seen. A TTU geology professor later researched the
flood. Among his findings: its magnitude fell in the range of a 500-1,000-year
flood. It is thus likely such a flood has never occurred on the stream since Europeans
settled in North America.
Our run that day was in a landscape
Saturday’s marathoners would scarcely have recognized. We climbed through
house-sized piles of uprooted trees, waded the river, and ran where a road only
used to be. The experience so enthralled it became the ultimate chapter in my
2011 book, Going Down Slow.
Marathoners ran beside the river and bluffs. Photo by cummins Falls State Park.
The road has now been repaired beyond
its original condition. Two bridges on side roads have not been rebuilt, but
the main bridge at Zion Road has been replaced by a higher, longer bridge.
The Blackburn Fork landscape remains
rustic, still one of my favorite places. Many of Saturday’s runners commented
on the course’s outstanding scenic beauty.
A note on Jackson County. Cummins
Falls lies only a routine run from where I sit in my home in Cookeville, county
seat of Putnam County. Although near Cookeville, Cummins Falls State Park and
the marathon course lie entirely in Jackson County, one of the state’s more pastorally
rural and sparsely populated counties. It was that county marathoners saw.
And they saw it as few outsiders
ever have. But not just outsiders, it’s likely that even most people who live in Jackson County have never seen
Morrison’s Creek. The marathoners saw it intimately. They saw Chaffin Hill, and
they’ll never forget it. Seven Knobs, they’ll never forget. They will tell
amazed stories to running friends back home. Those runners will come to run next year, and the next.
Alex Forest, Maine, on Facebook:
“I’ll never forget that hill nor will I ever complain about hills again! Thank
you for a wonderful day, awesome hospitality, and a memorable experience.”
@Karenruns, Twitter: “4:51 bitch of
a course, 2nd female overall.”
Danny Staggs, Facebook: “Beautiful
course!”
Bill Baker, Facebook: “Wow,The
toughest half course I remember running—ever…”
“Thank
you all for a great job. It was SO hard but beautiful,” Karen Austin, Facebook
Runners were unanimous in their
thanks and praise of rangers and volunteers. It takes a large body of helpers. Race
Director Ray Cutcher brought together an outstanding team.
Often a lone marathoner ran into an aid
station where from five to a dozen volunteers waited to offer water, sports
drinks, food, anything needed. I felt guilty for having so much help. And I
never saw so many rangers in one area, sitting with blue lights flashing for traffic
control, or pointing runners in the right direction at remote intersections.
Other state parks must have been short-handed of rangers that day.
Friends of Cummins Falls State Park
sponsored the race in an effort to improve the park and eventually buy enough
land to protect the view shed. An immediate concern is to protect the park’s hemlock
trees from the woolly adelgid. That insect has already killed many hemlocks in
the Smokies. Spraying works. “The spray lasts for three years,” Friends member
Jim Whitaker told me. In that time natural protection may be found in the form
of an insect that preys on the woolly adelgid.
Unique
age-group and finishers’ medallions were made of laser-cut wood.
The Friends outdid themselves. The
success of this year’s race establishes a base from which future editions will
grow. Finisher Cyrus Rhode, on Facebook:
“I would dare say that this could be the signature marathon for the
great State of Tennessee.”
From
the whole spectrum of big-time races, little-time races and those in between, I’ve
never seen post-race food like Ruby Tuesdays brought to Cummins Falls. They
spread a full cafeteria—even including that Southern favorite, sweet iced tea.
Ruby Tuesdays deserves recognition for their outstanding contribution.
And if I were in the market for a
kayak, I’d give Jackson Kayak of Sparta, Tennessee my business. I’ve never seen
such a generous door prize as the one they donated, a 14-foot kayak with MSRP
of $1299.
“Double
proud.”
For myself, I’m proud my running
partner Josh Hite took first overall. Since I won about all I could expect to
win, one has to say we did okay. Mutt and Jeff, in terms of speed, but we do,
after all, go out and run those hills. It pays off, and the boys did alright.
I’m putting it down as a good day. I hope to be there again next year.
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