I think it’s fair to say that none of us saw this coming. Two months ago, we were still arguing about carbon plate shoes and how Jim Walmsley was going to fare at the Olympic Marathon Trials. Like so many others, my spring race was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. I was slated to run the Yamacraw 50k on April 4th, but that was nixed in mid-March. Realistically, I don’t really think canceled races matter all that much in the grand scheme of what is going on right now. What really matters right now is the health of family, friends, and all humankind. At the end of the day, it’s just running, and worst-case scenario, a few of us are out a fancy finishers medal and a shiny new PR. 

 

All that being said, I think it is completely fair to feel frustrated in not being able to take part in an event that you have spent so much time and money preparing for. Training for a race like the Boston marathon or Western States requires a major physical, mental, and monetary sacrifice. It’s important to remember that the fitness that you accumulated training for these events is not lost if you are unable to toe the line due to a race cancellation. I have enjoyed seeing the increased number of fastest known time (FKT) attempts and records set over the past few weeks. I am also hopeful for the silver lining that some of the new trail-goers out there will get just as addicted to single track as I am and I will see some new smiling faces out there when this is all over. 

 

From John Kelly’s double Barkley challenge loop to Amanda Basham’s FKT on the Kalalau Trail, it seems that folks have been cashing in on the fitness accumulated over the past few months and doing some awesome things with it, so I decided to do the same (on a much smaller scale).

 

The Knoxville Urban Wilderness has been a frequent trail running playground of mine for the last two years or so. Situated about three miles from downtown Knoxville (and less than one mile from my house), this trail network is made up of about 50 miles of single track trail among five interconnected parks intermixed within the South Knoxville suburbs. Connecting all five parks in a single, main artery trail called the south loop. This was my target. My goal in writing this report is less about my personal experience and more about drawing attention to the urban wilderness itself. As popular as it may seem to all of us that run there frequently, it is still underappreciated and underutilized in my opinion. 

 

The south loop trail is just a hair under 11 miles long with about 1100 feet of elevation gain. It is mostly single track trails with some gravel and paved greenway thrown in at the end. I should note that this has been my go-to for trail long-runs in the past few years, so I was about as familiar with this trail as one can be with a particular trail system. I’ve also come to love every inch of it. The trail is very runnable and can be quite picturesque in most spots. There have been some fast times on this trail in the past and some attempts made similar to the one that I undertook here. Most notably, Brian Williams and Aaron Bradner ran the loop in the 1:30-1:40 range, and Emily Clark has the crown for the women in 1:52. Problem is, there was a recent re-direction of the south loop trail that shortened the trail a bit and took out some of the climbing, and most of the previous FKTs were on the old route. Aaron Bradner ran the updated loop in February after the course changes, but he got a bit turned around where the new trail changes were implemented and so ended up adding about a mile and a half to the loop and about ten minutes to his overall time. Still, his pace around the loop was the fastest yet at 7:57/mile (That’s fast…). I figured the only fair way to do this was to verify my updated route with Brian and Aaron and then target Aaron’s pace as the statistic to beat for the crown. 

 

I opted for the counter-clockwise direction so as to stack most of the climbing (~600 ft) in the first 3 miles of the loop. This is the Mead’s quarry section of the loop which is largely made up of rocky single track trail with a handful of switchbacks that carry you up and over Mead’s quarry ridge and Burnett ridge, both of which provide spectacular views at the top. I knew that this section could make or break me so I pushed pretty hard over those two climbs. Coming out of the Mead’s quarry section, you enter Marie Myers park where the aforementioned trail updates have been implemented by the Appalachian Mountain Biking Club (AMBC). The AMBC does some awesome work in the East TN area and all of us trail runners really owe them a debt of gratitude. The trail in Marie Myers is now entirely gravel and consists of a smooth, mile-long climb up into the next park which is the Hastie Natural Area. 

 

While some of the turns in Hastie can be a bit confusing, this is the first time that you really run through some open hardwoods on the route and that always makes the Pennsylvania boy in me very happy. Pushing hard through the first four miles was starting to catch up to me so the downhill runnable single track in this section of the loop was a bit of a relief. I started to see the average pace on my watch inch back down towards the 8-minute mark. I mentioned earlier that the last bit of the south loop consists of about a mile and a half of flat paved greenway. I kept this in mind and knew that I could probably make up a good bit of time there if my pace wasn’t exactly where I wanted it to be. 

 

When you run up and out of the Hastie natural area, you are treated to a few blocks of road on one of the faster sections of the loop. I intended to make that count. I dropped down into a faster gear and made it to the next section of trail, the Anderson school trail connector, fairly quickly. Another bit of single track, the Anderson school trail section of the south loop is a fun one. The trail is mostly straight and net-downhill so you can really get the legs turning over here. The only problem for me is that this is where my shoes started to come loose. That always spells disaster for my ankles and lower leg tendons so I knew I would have to stop and tighten them up to avoid problems. That short pause cost me about a minute, but finishing the run with intact Achilles tendons was probably worth it. 

 

The last section of the south loop is the Forks of the River Wildlife Management Area. My favorite. This chunk of state-owned property is teeming with wildlife and is downright beautiful in most areas. Unfortunately for me on this particular run, my legs were throbbing pretty good at this point and my lungs were on fire from sprinting the previous eight miles. This is where I clocked my slowest miles and I started to realize that this was going to be close. My average pace still read only about 8:10/mile and I had a few small climbs left before I hit the greenway. I reached the end of the single track at an 8:15 average pace and I had some work to do if I was going to make this happen. Party time. 

 

Once I hit the greenway, I dropped it down to a 6:50 pace. That got me to a 7:59 average pace with about ¾ of a mile to go. Pushing even harder, I didn’t see the average pace dip below the 7:57 mark until the last half mile, at which point I just had to hang on. I reached my starting point, the big map in the Mead’s Quarry parking lot, at 1:25:59, 7:50/mile average pace. 

 

I call this an FKT, but, in reality, I know it’s more of a baby FKT. Certainly not of the caliber of other routes which are longer, steeper, and far more challenging. Still, this was a nice consolation prize for a canceled spring race. To reiterate, my intent for this report is to hopefully get more folks onto an awesome trail system that they’ve never or seldom visited (and hopefully to also beat my south loop record!). All of the parks that I mentioned here are close to home for Knoxville folks and make for great afternoon hiking spots or casual beer-drinking destinations. I will put addresses to all of the trailheads below. To anyone interested in replicating this run, just shoot me an email and I will send you my GPX file and share everything I know. 

 

Mead’s quarry:

3518 Island Home Pike,  Knoxville, TN 37920

 

Hastie Natural Area:

1302 Margaret Road,  Knoxville, TN 37920

 

Anderson school trails:

4808 Prospect Lane,  Knoxville, TN 37920

 

Forks of the River WMA:

3140 McClure Lane,  Knoxville, TN 37920