State #13 Race Recap: Panther Creek State Park, TN

Race Recap: State #13 Tennessee

For state #13 we headed just over the Virginia border and checked off Tennessee!

We did the Panther Creek Half Marathon Trail race.

First off, the course was beautiful! Loads of elevation and some very technical parts but we went in with a goal to not fall down as many times as our last trail half, and we did that!

It was pretty humid but there was great cloud coverage and majority of the trail was tree covered which we loved since it did start a little later for a longer race. 8am start time!

We drove up the day of the race and there was no issues grabbing our packet before the race and getting ready in time for the start. I prefer to do packet pick up the day before but this worked just fine!

The half marathon and 4 mile race started at the same time but the group of runners were all great at the starting line and it didn’t feel like people were trying to push eachother or get to the front.

This was hands down one of the most well marked races we have been too, but also one of the driest courses which meant no getting water logged or lost!

People always assume half marathons are going to be easy if you have gone further before/do further distances more often but that is never the case. They are a fight just like the longer races and I actually struggle with pacing them/not going to fast and burning my legs out… the steep mountain with lots of rocks made sure we didn’t do that this time!

They had two aid stations that seemed well supported, I had my fuel on me and since it wasn’t super long race I didn’t need to stop at them but post race they ahead pizza and lots of post race fuel which was amazing so I could snag some fuel for Josh who had been with the kids following me around the course to give fuel and encouragement.

Overall I would definitely do this race again! They have a triathlon on the Sunday after that also sounded fun but we haven’t started dabbling in those yet! It was a great one to squeeze in and definitely helped us feel more confident heading into state #14 West Virginia for a 50k the next weekend! Be sure to check out that race recap and let us know if you have any thoughts or comments!

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