Flying Squirrel 10 Miler Race Recap - 15 weeks until the 100
Flying Squirrel Finish Line Welcome Party
I love local races because I love sleep. The Flying Squirrel 10 Miler takes place just North of downtown Asheville so it was less than a 20 minute drive for me. Hooray! I had picked up my race packet the evening prior from the local running store, Jus’ Running, where I also received a 20% discount on one item since that was a nice perk included in the registration. I splurged and bought a new tech shirt from Rabbit. They got me, dammit!
Saturday morning, I lazily woke up at 7:00 am, drank some water and ate my overnight oats and got dressed. I drove into down through extremely heavy rainfall but was hopeful that the forecast was accurate that this would subside soon. Less than two minutes from the race, the rain stopped and the sun started peaking through the clouds. Luckily, the rain held off during the entire race, and then started back up again about an hour after I returned home. Talk about luck!
I easily parked a few blocks from the start line, thankful that I was very familiar with this part of town. I could hear the race DJ spinning some fun vibes for 7:54 in the morning, blasting the sleepy little neighborhood. I texted my wife while I watched other racers doing their warm up jogs. I’ve never been one to do that, instead just half heartedly doing some dynamic stretches right before the start. The line for the handful of port-o-potties was crazy long, I luckily was feeling just fine in that department and I felt a hint of anxiety for the dozens and dozens in line as the start was only a few minutes away.
My view of the starting line gathering
There was a young woman dressed in a flying squirrel costume running wildly around and I loved her more than anything.
The race started and the 350ish of us made our way up towards Sunset Drive, which is a very beautiful uphill trek on a side of a mountain, weaving through beautiful homes and gaining wonderful little peaks of downtown Asheville. I’ve run this stretch a handful of times for training runs and it typically does not have many cars as it’s a private community but bikers are frequent. During the race, we probably had about 6 bikers fly through, doing their own Saturday morning training rides.
The first five miles is a gradual uphill climb on paved road. You gain 1,000 ft very consistently and I walked frequently for multiple stretches. I did a lot of yo-yoing with a few runners who were running at a more consistent pace. I admired their grit and wondered why I wasn’t able to do the same. I preferred to run at a moderate pace and then when I felt a bit fatigued, I would walk as quick as possible to catch my breath before returning to a jog. It’s kind of how I treat trail running and it seems to work for me. My heart rate stayed pretty consistent through the whole thing so I felt like this was a good approach.
Uphill climb on Sunset Dr. It’s not super steep but it goes on for a hot minute.
Once you reach the top of the climb, then you get to bomb down for five miles. Miles 5-7 are gravel, but my road shoes were just fine for this stretch. I was crushing it for the first few miles of this downhill, just thankful to not be climbing. I kind of chilled out a bit from mile 8-10 but felt strong during the whole second half of the race. Honestly, I felt strong during the whole thing.
Downhill bomb on tightly packed gravel. View of a pretty sweet mountain home as well.
As I approached the finish line, I run next to a young man who was running with his hands straight down by his legs. He also had what appeared to be cargo shorts on and his long hair was just blowing in the wind. It was a little odd, honestly, seeing someone do this and I couldn’t help but laugh as other onlookers were also staring at him. But hey, his finish time was close to mine so whatever technique he used seem to work!
I had originally predicted that I was going to finish at 9:57, and had told my wife that estimate. As the race progressed, I gave her two updates that I was running a bit faster than anticipated but unfortunately she missed me finish by less than a minute. She had trouble finding parking due to being unfamiliar with that area and multiple road closures for the race. But it’s okay, she was able to snap a few finish line photos!
Finish Line Smiles
The post race vibe was pretty cool, multiple tents and vendors and the DJ really pumping out some great music. There was a lot of great free snack items post race. I picked up a free banana, orange, water, NA beer, a cookie from Subway (the main sponsor), a donut from Duck Donuts (another sponsor), a interesting new “craft beverage” called Sarilla (another sponsor) and a Bojangles biscuit (I have no idea why). When I ran the race in 2022, they were giving out a free beer but there was none to be found this year. Instead there was a coupon for a free drink at the new Flying Squirrel Pub in Arden, but it was only good for that day…lame.
I finished with a time of 1:37, so about a 9:46 pace. I’m very very happy with my finish as this is almost 25 minutes faster than my 2022 finish. That’s crazy! I brought my Nathan handheld water bottle with me which had about of scoop of caffeinated Tailwind. I almost finished the bottle by the time I finished and I felt sufficiently fueled during the whole thing.
I definitely recommend this race if you are looking for a unique local challenge. It’s an interesting distance with a perfect symmetrical uphill grind and then a downhill reward. The registration is bit pricey but the post race party and the discount at Jus Running is pretty nice.
The next race I am scheduled for is the 50 miler out in Bend, Oregon in August. So I have close to two months to really dig in and focus on my training plan. I’m looking forward to seeing my weekly mileage climb and feel really recuperated after this week’s “cutback” low mileage and multiple rest days. Let’s go!
View of Beaver Lake from Sunset Dr.