What a fun race. The finish line was at a lakeside campground a few miles off the highway in Nashville, Indiana. Two friends and I arrived there at the designated packet pick-up time, 6pm Friday, in complete darkness. The race organizers had a generator to power some lights in the stone campground shelter, but the lights flickered on and off. The temperature was in the 20s, and we huddled around with other runners chuckling at the absurdity of picking up our race numbers in the near-complete darkness of a smoky campground shelter instead of the usual hotel conference room or daylit parking lot.

The next morning we were back there to get on shuttle buses to the start. It was cold, very cold. I had brought a handful of extra layers, not knowing how much I’d want to wear, but decided on an undershirt, long-sleeved shirt, windbreaker vest, running tights, gloves and an earband. I left my jacket and a fleecy shirt in my bag for later.

I figured I'd finish in about five and a half hours due to the difficulty of the course. That's around an hour slower than I'd expect to do a flat road marathon with my current fitness. My last Ironman marathon time was 5:26, so I thought it would be nice to beat that since that run was a total death march. But I did not pick this race to run fast; my goals were to have fun, finish without breaking an ankle, and enjoy fall in Indiana.

The race started down a paved road and quickly moved to trail. The stream of runners clad in neon brights clashed with the mottled browns and grays of the Indiana woods. I started at an easy pace and was pleased when I arrived at the first hill to see that everyone was walking. And good thing, because it was steep.

And so it went, walking up the many steep hills, running as much as possible, scrambling through creek crossings. The trail wound through dense woods, up and over ridges and down into switchbacked ravines. We crossed a few roads and saw a few farm houses. We encountered the same enthusiastic volunteers at every other aid station as two aid station crews leapfrogged each other.

By the halfway mark I was feeling pretty tired and sore. The trail was very narrow, and it was rocky and covered with tree roots. But the thick blanket of leaves disguised all of that, so I took frequent stumbles and recovered from many, many ankle rolls. Lucky for me, around the halfway point I started running into people I knew, so I was never alone for the rest of the race.

It was hard. Very hard. At the end we found ourselves doing our best to "run" the flat parts, tenderfooting the downhills, and walking the uphills slowly. I was happy that my ankles were holding up.

In the final mile, I told my running partner Kent, "This was a nice way to spend a day." It was 3:40pm and starting to get dark. We finished in 5:21 to the cheers of the four or five people at the finish line and headed straight for the campground shelter. There were big, inviting fires in the two stone fireplaces and volunteers served hot homemade soup, sandwiches, hot chocolate and phenomenal cookies. We hung out by the fire for nearly two hours while we waited for the last of our group to finish, then headed back to the hotel for showers. I could hardly walk, but I didn’t care all that much. I had spent a lovely day in the woods of Indiana. It was a day I won’t forget for a long time.

The campground shelter at the finish line.