Since 1996, the Fredericksburg Area Running Club has hosted a 10-mile race in late August. The club’s objective was to provide a long race event for those runners training for a fall marathon or other long event.
Bill Brooks was the founding race director and plotted a course in Hartwood, Virginia, using his long runs’ roads. That race used Curtis Park as the staging venue and the country roads circumnavigating the park.
There were no developments on Hartwood, Stoney Hill, Poplar, and Shackelford Well Roads in those days, and traffic was very light. After the 21st running in 2016, the Stafford County Sheriff Department could no longer manage the increase in traffic, even on a Sunday morning, and asked FARC to find a new course.
By 2016, Chris Koehler had taken over as race director. Not able to plot an exciting course in Stafford County, he looked to Culpeper County, where he did bike rides.
He approached Culpeper County to use Lynd Park or the Winery as a hosting venue. The county could not allow either option and recommended using the Sports Complex instead.
Chris was able to plot a course using country roads, similar to the initial Hartwood 10-mile. The last 3 miles were on Route 666 and, without cloud cover, would be hot in full sunlight. Thus, the Devil’s Den 10 Mile was born.
2021 was the 26th running of an August FARC hosted 10 Mile race. 21 in Hartwood and 5 in Culpeper.
I was fortunate enough to finish Hartwood 15 times with my best time in 1997 of 1:12:54. And, in last year’s in-person Culpeper race, I surprised myself with a 1:34:03 CPR.
Four weeks ago, I struggled with leg muscle issues and asked the RD if I could start 30 minutes early? So they did not need to wait for my 2:30 finish. I was not very confident.
After last week’s 50km and training without straining a muscle was more encouraging, I started Devil’s Den with the general field. I planned to walk 2 minutes every mile and finish under 1:50.
I got out by 5:45 am and arrived at the Culpeper Sports Complex at 6:30 am with some time to run, walk and stretch a little.
The weather was 70 degrees with a 69-degree dew point and overcast. There was slight rain for the first 10 minutes of the race.
I’ve been wearing shorts over compression shorts.
The compression shorts keep my groin, quad, and hamstring muscles a little warmer and held together. I can carry some other stuff in my over shorts.
Today was a day for my white FARC singlet with the banned logo, a white hat to keep the rain from my eyes, and my last race in my Nike React Infinity Flyknit 2. Those shoes are at 500 miles, and time to be retired to runs in the rain.
The race started at 7:15 am.
As planned, I did not push the first 4 miles, walking for 2 minutes each mile. I got to mile 5 at 51:48 with only the first mile under 10 minutes, 9:54, 10:16, 10:33, 10:41, and 10:23.
At mile 5, I decided to stop the walk breaks. My legs were feeling OK, and I hoped I would not pull anything. I started catching people in front of me and looked to the next person to chase down.
Mile 6 through 8 were 9:56, 9:29, 9:44. I was happy about the overcast. Route 666 would have been brutal in the sun.
After mile 8, there were no other runners in sight to catch. So, I ran a few surges between telephone polls to keep up the pace. Mile 9 was 9:17. And one of the last people I passed was hanging with me.
I heard the breathing and footsteps behind me. I kept pushing my pace and ran surges on each of the corners in hopes of dropping my shadow. I knew he was younger with young legs.
Just before the last turn onto the home stretch, he was able to pass and kick away from me. I still ran the last mile in a 9:22 with a finish time of 1:39:37 and a final 5-mile time of 47:49. Good for 70th overall, 50th male, and 12th in the Men 60 and over age group.
They gave a cool finisher’s award, a tree slice with the race logo. It could be used for a coaster or thrown on my pile of medals.
Another bad trend in racing, 20% of the finishers were men 60 years old or older. Where are all the youngins?
I was pleased about my time, negative splits, and final 2-mile push. Let’s hope for the best on my easy runs the next couple of days.
Now that my legs held up 2 weeks in a row, I may have to think about running a fall marathon or ultra.