Trail WhippAss Fat Ass

Today was supposed to be the Naked Bavarian 40 miler.  However, with all the snow, they postponed it last week.  Since a bunch of people from the Trail WhippAss group were going to do it, they decided to run a Fat Ass instead.  You could do loops, up to 40 miles.

The event took place in Valley Forge.  It was a 4 mile loop.  I knew it had some solid climbs, but I had not run there since my very early trail running days.  I was worried that the course would be a mess like yesterday's run was.  However, the trail was packed down and nearly perfect.

Last night was daylight savings time.  I lost an hour and that really hurt.  I didn't even sleep for two hours.  Then, I had to drive over an hour to the start.  I would pay for this.

The weather was tricky.  It was still chilly in the morning when we started.  It was going to get warmer as the day went on.  I wore a lightweight long sleeve shirt with a jacket.  I had on tights too.  That was too much. 

It took us awhile to get started.  I was getting chilly standing around.  I decided to be goofy.  I bought a colonial style hat yesterday.  I figured it was perfect to run at Valley Forge in.

In addition to running, I wanted to take some GoPro video.  Therefore, I recorded the start and wound up behind everyone.  Luckily, I have some good road speed.  Then, I ran up a hill too.  I passed about half the people.  It was a lot of working doing so though.

I think the videos turned out good.  The trail was in excellent condition, but it still takes some effort to run it.  Clear trails will be great, whenever they come.  There was some nice running along the ridge and then more climbing of Mt. Joy.

Mt. Joy was a decent climb.  My problem is that it was pretty much all runnable, but with so much difficult terrain, I can't run long periods of time any more.  I usually need to hike.  I need to work on that.

After going up for a bit, we had a fun downhill.  Then, we crossed the road.  It was back up on Mt. Misery.  This climb was awful and much tougher.  I had to hike a lot of it.  I was trying to catch one group, but I was using too much energy.  I was already zapped from the lack of sleep and I was overheating too.

Coming down Mt. Misery was nice.  I caught Ryan at the bottom and he couldn't quite find his way.  The course was pretty well marked though.  Maggie and Destrie did that earlier in the morning.

I was happy to be done with the first loop.  I had been hoping to do three loops at least, but already I wasn't feeling great.  I took off my colonial hat and headed back out.  I took my time and Ryan and Russ got quite far ahead of me.

Again, I was kind of slow going up Mt. Joy.  I was glad this was easier.  The pace was pretty quick.  One thing that screwed me up the first time was that I was trying to do video and forgot to start my watch until about a half mile in.

Now, I was getting quite hot with my jacket on.  The problem is that I was already sweating too much and didn't want to be wearing a cold shirt, so I kept it on.  It seemed hot at the top of the climbs.  I was happy to be going downhill and heading over to Mt. Misery in no time.  These loops were short.

The smooth trails did make this run fairly quick.  I took my time with some videos, so that slowed me a little.  I ended up hiking most of Mt. Misery again.  Near the top, some kids were carving on a tree and shoveling snow.  Apparently, the kid was asking someone to the prom.  I could not believe he was ruining the tree.

By this time, I had resigned myself to this being my last loop.  I was overheating and just feeling like shit.  There was no point in forcing any more.  However, going downhill on Mt. Misery was nice and it almost made me reconsider.

I did the smart thing though and just quit.  It would give me more of a chance to take some videos.  I finished up around 8 miles and got some climbing in.

I was pretty beat, so I hungout and rested for a bit at the aid station.  Destrie wasn't running, so she was working there.  I was chilly after a bit, so I changed clothes.

After hanging out for awhile, I headed back on the course.  I wanted a couple more course videos.  I got some downhill and uphill ones.  I hung around for a couple more hours and left late in the afternoon.  Ryan did a good job, running 20 miles.  I might've been able to force myself that far, but that would not have accomplished much.  It was a great day hanging out with both old and new friends.

I hope to get up to Mt. Tammany again tomorrow.  The snow is beginning to melt.  It will either be an awesome route or the snow will melt too much.  If it is good, I hope for three or four loops.

7.57 miles - 1:24:17 (11:08 pace) 1424 feet of elevation gain