Jan-31-2024 LLTH last minute notes

Foremost on last minute notes for 2024 is:   the closure of the north end of Holsclaw Hill Road, the main route to LLTH.   See the updates in the previous post for details on the closure.  The only driving route now available to the LLTH start is shown below.  You may want to add some additional drive time.

Google Map directions to the Start from the Brooks Road Interchange on I-65 can be found  HERE.  

 

 

Online registration thru UltraSignup ends tonight (Jan 31) at 11:59 pm EST. 

Early packet pickup is at QUEST OUTDOORS at 4600 Shelbyville Road in the Shelbyville Road Plaza in Louisville on Friday from 4 to 7 pm EST.  QUEST OUTDOORS will also be having their FREE pre-race pasta dinner again this year at their store location -- everyone is welcome.   For 2024, True North Catering will provide the catering of the pasta dinner.

You can also register and/or pick up your race packet at the Horine Center at the Start/Finish area on race morning starting around 7 am EST.  It's recommended to pick up your packet on Friday to avoid the rush & lines on race day.

Flagging will be pink this year.  JMF & contractors within the Forest also use pink (& other colored) flagging, so be aware of the course layout beforehand and follow the pink flagging on the well worn trail to stay on course.  Flagging on wooden stakes are always the contractors'.

Trail junctions will be marked with several flags & major junctions will also have signs or a volunteer on site.  Intermediate flagging is spaced approx. 200 to 300 feet along the entire course.

There are course changes this year:   For both the 15m & 50k, there are minor diversions in the Tom Wallace Recreation Area (past the Welcome Center) due to ongoing construction.  For the 50k, at Scott's Gap:  the entry/exit trail segment to the 3 mile loop has been moved from the east to the south and a steep incline & 2 deep ditches have been bypassed on the loop section.  Also, instead of running up & down Scott's Gap Road, you will now cross this paved road & run up & down a trail that's parallel to it.

Current local forecast from the National Weather Service can be found here:   NWS Fairdale, KY   With warmer than usual weather predicted & very good trail conditions, there will be many more users sharing the trails than on a usual race day here.  Any horses (allowed on the Yost & Purple Heart Trails) you may pass need special attention & considerations.

As in previous years, in collaboration with the Land Between the Lakes (LBL) trail running event in western KY, a special award will be given to those who complete both LLTH (50k, 15m or 6m) and LBL (50m, 60k, marathon or 23k).  Information on LBL can be found here:  https://runsignup.com/Race/KY/GrandRivers/LandBetweentheLakestrailruns.

Good Luck to all!

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2024 Louisville's Lovin' The Hills 50k/15m/6m Registration

Registration for the 20th running of Louisville's Lovin' The Hills, to be held at 8:00 a.m. EST on Saturday, February 3, 2024, is open on UltraSignup at  https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=106886.  Online registration will close on Wed, January 31, 2024 at 11:59 pm EST.

There will be a few course changes in 2024 as Jefferson Memorial Forest (JMF) continues their program to remove steep sections and also the technical trail sections in the Forest. The most notable course changes will be at Scott's Gap in the 50k.  A new course map will be forthcoming for the 50k.  Also, the Tom Wallace Recreation Area of JMF is currently being revamped with new parking lots, sidewalk & landscaping affecting the Purple Heart section of both the 15m & 50k courses.  This construction is presently active and it appears the course will cross work areas in at least 3 locations. Since nobody at JMF is able to provide any information about the construction, it appears the conditions will just have to be dealt with the day of the race. There should be only minor diversions from the original course thru these areas and at worst, the course will be diverted to the park road for a short segment.

The 2024 FAQs have been posted.  Information about training runs can be found there.

 

UPDATE:

Unfortunately, there's another disruption to this year's LLTH.  Jefferson County has recently decided to close Holsclaw Hill Road between Mitchell Hill Rd & the Horine entrance to LLTH starting Monday, January 29 for culvert construction.  Access to LLTH will be blocked if you're coming from Fairdale on Mitchell Hill Rd to the north end of Holsclaw Hill Road.  The only way to the race start will now be from the south end of Holsclaw Hill Rd which starts in BROOKS.   Google map directions HERE.  Be aware this end of Holsclaw Hill Rd is quite narrow in a few places and the road also has a couple very sharp/blind curves.

 

 

Google Map directions to the Start from the Brooks Road Interchange on I-65 can be found  HERE. 

1-29-24 UPDATE:

Confirmed this evening that Holsclaw Hill Road has officially been closed to thru traffic.  Local access is available from both ends of Holsclaw Hill Rd  -- up to the actual construction site on the north end (Fairdale) and up to the Horine (LLTH) entrance on the south end (Brooks).

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2023 LLTH Results and Race Recap

 Preliminary results have been posted:

 https://headfirstperformance.com/Results/23%20LLTH.pdf

If you note any errors or have any missing information, notify Headfirst Performance.  Results will be on Ultrasignup at a later date once the results have been finalized and HeadFirst Performance gets them uploaded to that site.

 

Recap:

The 19th running of LLTH is now history.  This year there were over 400 entrants.

start video:

The weather and/or trail conditions usually add to the challenge of LLTH.  The weather though, was fairly typical for this time of year with low 20's & light winds at the start with upper 40's & moderate winds in the afternoon.  As for trail conditions, many of the trails resembled ice rinks on Wednesday, but warm temps on Thursday & the sunny day on Friday pretty much removed all the ice except for some isolated spots & 3 or so short sections :  on the gravel road just after the start, the 2nd downhill on the Red Trail and the downhill approaching the sidewalk on the Siltstone Trail.  For the most part, the trails were hard & frozen for the 1st few hours & then were increasingly muddy as the day wore on.

2023 winners:

50k:  Benjamin Shirrell     4:47:13            Piper Gray           5:55:12

15m:  Evan Heitz              2:02:00            Melissa Pitts        2:20:08

6m:   Seth Snider-Hayes      41:59            Sally Thompson      50:08

 

Other notes:

Like last year, the free pasta dinner had several hundred attendees -- Quest Outdoors has been a great sponsor & has done an incredible job putting on this dinner.    Thanks Quest!-

As usual, tasty homemade soups & other assorted food was available at the post race meal --  Thank you Cynthia from all of us!

As noted previously, in collaboration with Land Between the Lakes (LBL), a special award will be given to those who complete both LLTH (50k, 15m or 6m) and LBL (50m, 60k, marathon or 23k).  Information on LBL can be found here:  https://runsignup.com/Race/KY/GrandRivers/LandBetweentheLakestrailruns.
 

An award is issued to runners when reaching 10 finishes at LLTH.  4 runners reached that milestone this year:  Jonathon Amlung, Ryan Miller, Jeanette Schmidt and Gerard Weiter -- Congratulations!

If anyone has any photos/videos/race reports that they wish to share on this blog, send them or the link to me.  Thanks!

This video is shared by "Late-Runners" on YouTube:     https://youtu.be/H_ZeTRe-OSs

Swag:

 

 

 

 

Congrats & Thanks to all for making LLTH once again a success this year!

 

 

 

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Feb-1-2023 LLTH last minute notes

Online registration thru UltraSignup ends tonight (Feb 1) at 11:59 pm EST.

Early packet pickup is at QUEST OUTDOORS at 4600 Shelbyville Road in the Shelbyville Road Plaza in Louisville on Friday from 4 to 7 pm EST.  QUEST OUTDOORS will also be having their FREE pre-race pasta dinner again this year at their store location -- everyone is welcome.

You can also register and/or pick up your race packet at the Horine Center at the Start/Finish area on race morning starting around 7 am EST.  It's recommended to pick up your packet on Friday to avoid the rush & lines on race day.

Flagging will be pink this year.  Trail junctions will be marked with several flags & major junctions will also have signs or a volunteer on site.  Intermediate flagging is spaced approx. 200 to 300 feet along the entire course.

Out on the course flagging trails today, there’s a layer of ice at many locations on the trails from the sleet and freezing rain yesterday with a very light dusting of snow on top.  At times it was difficult to even hike. Forecasters say it will warm to the low 40's tomorrow (Thursday) & will do a lot of melting but I would not count on all of it melting & what does melt will probably refreeze Friday & early Saturday, so be prepared for ice.

At Mitchell Hill Lake mile 6.2 this morning:  

All main roads in Louisville are clear, although the 1st half mile of the race is on a gravel road that holds water in one area & it was a sheet of ice today, as were all the wood trail bridges.

Current local weather from the National Weather Service can be found here:   NWS Fairdale, KY

The course layout is unchanged from last year — not even minor changes, which is rare.  However, there are changes in the works.  One is a re-route on the Scott’s Gap trail (unaltered for 20+ years) that will bypass a steep incline and 2 deep ditches next year. You may see some wired flags in the ground veering off the trail -- ignore them & just follow the pink flagging on the well worn trail to stay on course.

50k runners will notice that one hillside on the Siltstone Trail was burned due to a small brush fire during the drought last Fall.  It looks like the trail worked as a small firebreak and also allowed quick access for firefighters.

As in previous years, in collaboration with the Land Between the Lakes (LBL) trail running event in western KY, a special award will be given to those who complete both LLTH (50k, 15m or 6m) and LBL (50m, 60k, marathon or 23k).  Information on LBL can be found here:  https://runsignup.com/Race/KY/GrandRivers/LandBetweentheLakestrailruns.

Good Luck & Be Careful!

 

 

update 4 pm Thursday, Feb 2 2023 :

With warmer temps today, most all of the course is no longer ice covered.  There are exceptions.  The ice in the photo above is now all gone.

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2023 Louisville's Lovin' The Hills 50k/15m/6m Registration

Registration for the 19th running of Louisville's Lovin' The Hills, to be held at 8:00 a.m. EST on Saturday, February 4, 2023, is open on UltraSignup at https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=96414 .  Online registration will close on Wed, February 1, 2023 at 11:59 pm EST.

A training run has been scheduled for Saturday, January 14 @ 8 a.m. EST and for Saturday, January 21 @ 8 a.m. EST.  Details are listed in #11 of the 2023 FAQ.

 

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2022 LLTH Results and Race Recap

Preliminary results have been posted.   The direct link is currently at:

https://headfirstperformance.com/Results/22%20LLTH.pdf

If you note any errors or have any missing information, notify Headfirst Performance -- the sooner the better.  Results will be on Ultrasignup at a later date once the results have been finalized and HeadFirst Performance gets them uploaded to that site.

 

Recap:

The re-scheduled 18th running of LLTH is now in the books.  There were more new registrants in the last 2 weeks since registration reopened than the number of runners who deferred their entry to next year.  There were the usual drop downs & drop outs this year -- still over 250 finished.

start video:

                                              

The weather or trail conditions usually add to the challenge of LLTH.  This year both made it tougher than usual:

The area received over 2” of rain on Thursday.  However, with 2 cold nights, most of the course froze over.  With temps starting in the low 30’s and only reaching the upper 30’s late, much of the course remained frozen the entire race day.  Still, there were muddy spots/holes/short segments that expanded as the day progressed, but not real bad considering what it had been.  

As for the weather, the skies stayed mostly clear and it was very windy.  The wind chill made the 30’s feel like the 20’s all day.  The 25+ mph wind gusts from the northwest were most noticeable on the hill tops and ridges.


2022 winners:

50k:  Scott Ritter     5:34:16            Lauren Manuel       6:31:45

15m:  Evan Heitz*    1:55:04            Jayla Elati              2:37:12

6m:   Ronald Black      46:27            Jessica Miller            56:33
 

*Evan Heitz had the fastest time on the 15m course since the hilly Purple Heart section was included in a major change in 2014.  Ryan Althaus still owns the LLTH record for 15m  of 1:53:55 in 2013.

 

 Other notes:

The free pasta dinner at Quest Outdoors was unexpectedly attended by more than 3 times the usual number that had came the 4 years previous.  Runners will likely be queried during registration next year as to if they (& any guests) might attend the dinner to get a better handle on the number of possible attendees.   Quest Outdoors plans to expand the dining area and food quantities as needed next year.

The homemade soups & assorted foods, including mystery burritos were again a hit at the post race meal at the Horine Center --  Thank you Cynthia from all of us!

Hats off to the Public Works Dept who cleared the trails of trees & debris since the ice storm 2 weeks ago and for also clearing the trails, on very short notice, of downed trees after the heavy rain and windstorm on Thursday.

As noted previously, in collaboration with Land Between the Lakes (LBL), a special award will be given to those who complete both LLTH (50k, 15m or 6m) and LBL (50m, 60k, marathon or 23k).  Information on LBL can be found here:  https://runsignup.com/Race/KY/GrandRivers/LandBetweentheLakestrailruns.

If anyone has any photos/videos/race reports that they wish to share on this blog, send them or the link to me.  Thanks!

Congrats & Thanks to all for making LLTH a success this year!

 

 

 

 

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2022 Louisville's Lovin' The Hills 50k/15m/6m Registration RE-OPENS

HeadFirst Performance re-scheduled LLTH (see last blog post) from February 5 to February 19  since the Jefferson Memorial Forest forbid the running of the event due to the ice storm.  Registration has reopened at Ultrasignup:

https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=87105.

Online registration will close on Wed, February 16, 2022 at 11:59 pm EST.

The HeadFirst Performance website is still under construction and currently not available.  All previous links thruout this blog that went thru that site are also not functioning.

Early packet pickup will be at QUEST OUTDOORS at 4600 Shelbyville Road in the Shelbyville Road Plaza on Friday, February 18, from 4 to 7 pm EST.   They will be having their FREE pre-race pasta dinner again at the store location -- everyone is welcome.

 

You can also register and/or pick up your race packet at the Horine Center at the Start/Finish area on race morning starting around 7 am EST.  It's recommended to pick up your packet on Friday to avoid the rush & lines on race day. 

 

 

Thursday, 2-17-22 -- last minute notes for the LLTH 2-19-22 edition:

The Parks Dept. has been busy the last 2 weeks clearing trees and debris from the trails due to the ice storm.  With the heavy rain (2") and gusty winds today, some more weakened trees have fallen across the trails (there's currently at least one large one on the Siltstone trail).  Don’t know if the crew will be able to get to them on such short notice — if not, they’ll just add to your race day challenge!

Since 2020, there have only been very minor changes to the courses, and those have mostly been on the 50k portion of the Siltstone trail -- minor diversions at:  Jefferson Hill Rd for a new trail bridge; Bearcamp Rd aid station for a new road culvert; and reconstruction of the Scott's Gap trailhead.

Flagging is orange this year.  As usual, trail junctions are marked with several flags & major junctions have signs or a volunteer on site.  Intermediate/confidence flagging is spaced approx. 200 to 300 feet along the entire course.

And, as in 2020:  In collaboration with Land Between the Lakes (LBL) Event, a special award will be given to those who complete both LLTH (50k, 15m or 6m) and LBL (50m, 60k, marathon or 23k).  Information on LBL can be found here:  https://runsignup.com/Race/KY/GrandRivers/LandBetweentheLakestrailruns.  When you finish at LBL, just let them know you did LLTH and they'll hand you the award.

 
Have Fun!  Stay Safe!

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