2025 Night Moves Marathon

The Background

I ran/hiked a 20-mile training run, running the first 11 miles and hiking the rest. I continued using my Goggins accountability mirror post-it notes, because I did not want to finish that one.  My next note was "Run some sections you do not want to run at Night Moves Marathon."

The race would begin at 6pm, and was less than an hour from my house at Stephen F. Austin State Park.

The Race

The race was 8 loops on smooth trail with only 3 or 4 slight climbs.  So the whole thing was runnable.  A lot of sections curved back and forth slowing you down slightly, but otherwise it was a fast course for trail. The loop had a red section and a blue section.  In the middle, there was a yellow section added on for the first 2 loops.

I saw a fellow I had run with at Great Springs Trail Race - Austin and Seabrook Lucky Trails and said hi.

I ran the first few miles at 10- or 11-minute pace.  My first goal was to get the the yellow loops out of the way. Then, I made it to mile 10.  Next, I focused on running to 11 miles, the length I ran in my previous training run.  

On lap 4, I had to work to keep running to half marathon.  I reminded myself of my goal to running some sections I did not want to. 

After half marathon, I switched to powerhiking to practice for Canal Corridor 100 Mile.  I was able to complete 14-minute miles all the way through lap 7. This was good, as I figured 16-minute miles on slightly easier trail at Canal Corridor might feel easier for a while at least.

On the final loop, my hiking pace slowed a bit. On the spot, I made up a goal of keeping the miles 14-minute pace. So I picked .25 mile sections to run. The first mile of that loop, achieved this, but the second was a few seconds over 15-minute pace.  But I did not really matter, as the goal kept me competitive.  

With a little less than a mile left, I saw headlamps behind me.  It looked like a single runner, then a group of 2 or 3. That was enough to get me running. But then for some reason I thought I might have gotten off the course; I didn't see a flag for a while.  I slowed down to look, and then a runner passed me.  Sure enough, just ahead was a flag.  I ran hard trying to catch him, but couldn't.  Once again, all of this did not matter too much, but it kept me competing. 

Overall, a goal was to finish under 6 hours, and I finished in 5:51.  My splits were very consistent in the running and hiking sections.

I finished 23rd out of 51 finishers (top 45%) and 64 starters. 

Results

Split	Time	Pace
Lap 1	39:30.74	10:36
Lap 2	41:07.55	11:02
Lap 3	38:15.61	12:19
Lap 4	41:50.38	13:28
Lap 5	47:43.82	15:22
Lap 6	47:13.69	15:12
Lap 7	47:24.2	15:15
Lap 8	47:46.81	15:23

Reflections

This was a training race, and I am increasing the distance I am running.  The powerhiking will be more important at Canal Corridor, and I was strong at that.

If I did not have a hundred miler coming up and was focused on running the whole thing, I could perhaps be more competitive here some year.

Thanks to God, Terri, James, Paloma, friends and family, Cal, Trail Racing Over Texas, and the volunteers for the support!