We headed down on Friday to camp for the evening. I went to packet pickup, so I wouldn't have to worry about it in the morning. I only knew about 10 people out of the 1200 people running the race, but I bumped into four of them at registration. I hung out for awhile and talked to Nita, Bob, Janine and Destrie. I then went back and made sure I had everything prepared for the race.
We camped probably less than 3 miles from the start. That was sure nice and convenient for a change. Usually, these races require a long drive early in the morning. I slept in until about 6:15 AM and then ate breakfast and headed over for the 8 AM start.I saw Ryan, Janine and Bob and another Bob before the start and I chatted with them for awhile. Then, I saw Destrie, Maggie and the other Ryan. That was good because I planned to run early with Destrie. With the top of my foot killing me since Naked Bavarian, I wanted to take it slow at the start and see how it would go.
My foot was fully rested and I wore KT Tape on top of it the day before. It felt as good as it had in weeks. Still, I was unsure how it would go. I was quite confident that I could run/hike my way through about 25K, but I was well prepared to DNF the 50K if I had to. That would be tough for one of my big goal races, but I had to do it.
I thought the temperature was perfect at the start. I had on shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Destrie was freezing. I knew it would get warmer, so the roles would be reversed later.
We took off on the announcement. The race starts with some road running to thin out the crowd. The 25K is much more crowded than the 50K. At least the road running is on a bridge over the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The scenery is nice.
I let Destrie decide where we would start. I was kind of surprised at how far up front we started and how fast we ran on the road. I thought we would be holding back a little more. It was great to have someone to chat with early on. I've never actually run with Destrie before. I've only seen her at races and other events.
After the road portion, it was on to some singletrack. This is a neat section of ridge running on the side of the mountain, next to the river. With no leaves on the trees, the visibility was great. It was a sketchy cliff at certain spots. There were only minor ups and downs and it was runnable. I pulled away from Destrie slightly, but not too much.
After a bit of this, it was on to the first climb of the day, Humble Hill. This steep section is an immediate hike. It was quite foggy early in the morning. I started hiking my normal pace, but Destrie fell back a bit. She doesn't get to train as much as me on steep terrain. I think all my winter hiking on Mt. Tammany really paid off.
I stopped at one point to rest and let Destrie catch up. It was early on and I was in no rush. I wanted to save myself as much as I could. Her and I chatted for a bit and then I continued on at my pace. I found this hike fairly easy actually, compared to some of the winter hiking that I've had to do.
It wasn't long and I was at the top of Humble Hill. I stopped there to wait for Destrie. About 10 people hiked past me. I could still see about 10 more people below, so I figured she must've fallen behind even more. My plan was to stick with her until Hyner View, but at this point, I decided to just keep moving and go at my own rate. We never agreed to stick together, that was merely my plan to hold myself back.
This next part was flat and runnable. After being on that for a bit, it was on to more steep hiking. The next part of Humble Hill takes you to Hyner View. This was tough, but again I was feeling pretty good. Usually my back kills me on the first steep climb of the day. However, I put some cream on it beforehand and that seemed to help.
Hyner View is an amazing location. You can see up the river and the endless mountains both directions. That wasn't the case on this day though. Instead, there was blanket of fog. It looked amazing though, because the View was above that layer. It made for a unique view and great setting for photos. I was hiking near the View, but ran the last little bit.
There was an aid station there. I grabbed some water and added my Tailwind. Not surprisingly, Ryan cruised on by. Then Janine, Bob and the other Ryan followed too. Destrie still wasn't around though. Both Ryans were long gone. I caught up to Janine for a bit, but I wouldn't see her much longer either. She flew downhill and I was careful. I did pass Bob.
At this point, the foot was definitely bothering me a bit. Still, it was manageable. I figured that as long as it doesn't get much worse, I'll be able to toughen it out and finish the run. Some of this downhill was quite steep.
I ran some of the it and then I stopped. I realized that I was already getting hot. We were now to Johnson Run. I've run trails through hollows before, so I thought I knew what to expect. I was wrong.This section was like nothing I had ever seen. The trail went back and forth on both sides of Johnson Run. It was a gradual uphill, but with jumping back and forth and the terrain was rocky or muddy. It made footing frustrating and my soft shoes didn't enjoy it. I had to run on old shoes with less rock protection in order to make it through the race.
I basically hiked this. I was cursing to myself the whole time. The only thing I took comfort in was knowing that we left Johnson Run about halfway through. Then, we split off of the 25K course and went straight uphill. At this point, I was thrilled to get out of there and climb.
This climb was named Sledgehammer. It is a really nice and grassy woods road. It is actually runnable, if you aren't in the middle of a challenging 50K. I heard Ryan actually ran up a lot of it. I was being very cautious and hiked with a group of other guys. I chatted briefly but didn't say much. I don't like to talk to strangers that much during ultras.
I could actually see Janine up ahead and we did gain on her. She ran parts of it. We never did quite catch her until the aid station at the top of the hill. I said hello and that would be the last time I'd see her. I took my time to fill my bottle with Tailwind. I'm using a squirt bottle now and it works much better than the last couple races, but it is still slow to fill up. That was fine, as I was in no rush.
Someone had told me that our extra 25K loop was more runnable that the other 25K. That was definitely the case. It was now grassy woods road at the top of the mountain. I ran a bit and still hiked some, especially when I came to hills. I was comfortable with my pace and just trying to take on enough nutrition and water and not overheat.
There are some nice and runnable trails here. I just watched the distance slowly click away. I was thrilled to make it over mile 10. I was nearly 1/3 of the way done. The legs and foot weren't feeling great at the moment, but not terrible either. I just focused on getting to aid station 12.
Getting there was a huge boost, as my friends David and Ashley were there. It was great to see someone I know and they filled me up and had me on my way. I knew this 6 mile stretch would be the longest one without aid, so I made sure to get my water and Tailwind as full as I could. I had been drinks cups of Gatorade and water too. I brought along S-Caps and tried to use one of those each hour too. Every so often, I took a Tylenol to try to reduce my foot issues.
Leaving this aid station it was some smooth downhill running a fire road. I had passed Bob earlier and he caught me at the aid station. We ran for a bit. However, my foot was killing me going downhill. I mixed hiking in with running. Bob was steady and eventually he was long gone. That was the last I would see of him.
What goes up must come down. I knew there was another long section up a hollow at some point. I just didn't realize it was here. Ritchie Run was just like Johnson Run. Gradual, but wet and rocky with stream crossing after stream crossing. It was described as a grind on the course description and that was definitely accurate. I hiked through the slop with two other guys following me. That was kind of frustrating. In the beginning, you try to find good places to step. After awhile, you just go right through the middle of the water. Your feet get so soaked that it doesn't matter. After awhile you go from being mad to simply not even caring any more. You just keep moving along slowly. The one nice thing about the water was it was numbing my sore feet.
It was such a relief to get out of Ritchie Run. There was still some climbing on next section of sloppy trail, but at least it was smoother. I hiked up it and then we got to a relatively flat section. I kept waiting for what should be an approaching aid station. I ran some and hiked a lot. It was getting very hot.
Finally after running through the woods roads at the top of the mountain for some time, I came to an evergreen covered oasis. It was an area built by the CCC way back in the day. They had tons of food and it was almost like a party. It looked like they had camped overnight there. I tried some chicken broth and some other foods. Runners just seemed to be hanging out longer at this point.
I had considered dropping out around this point because it was getting hot and my feet hurt a lot now. However, the aid station's remote location made it easier to just keep going. I knew I could finish, unless something bad happened. I just wasn't sure that I wanted to suffer several more hours in the heat on these trails. I also knew the second half of Johnson Run was coming up.Since I was on top of the mountain now, I was expecting downhill or flat running. I knew we would be meeting up with 25K course shortly. There was some short flat sections up until that point. We came back to an aid station that we hit earlier.
Next up was Sledgehammer again. This time, we would be running it downhill. That would be fun, except my feet didn't agree. The were killing me. I could run through the pain, but I elected to mostly just hike. I figured that I wasn't going to break 7 hours in this race, so any time over that was no different. This was the most frustrating section to me because it should've been runnable, but to me it wasn't.
Finally, I got to the bottom and it was back to Johnson Run. I was not looking forward to it, but at least I knew what was in store, from doing the first part of it earlier. Even this second part went on and on. A few runners passed me earlier, but then I also passed some 25K hikers. That helped me a lot. This time around, I wasn't even bitching that much. I was just pressing on, watching the miles very slowly tick away. It did take forever.
I was so relieved to turn off of Johnson Run and get onto dry trail. However, I encountered more steep and rocky climbing. That was frustrating, but at least I passed a guy who had passed me earlier.
At the top, it was great to get to another aid station. I grabbed a bunch of stuff again and refilled. I was thrilled to be done with Johnson Run. I mostly just focused on the last big climb, S.O.B. Since it hurt less, I actually looked forward to those big climbs. It was better that getting my feet wet. At some points on the course, there was so much runoff that the trail itself became a stream.
I figured since I was at the top of the mountain, I'd at least have some semi runnable downhill to come. I was dead wrong. We were on to Post Draft. This hollow had no stream crossings. Instead, the trail was endless huge rocks. It was so technical that it was nearly unrunnable. Whenever I would try to run, it would get rocky again. I was so frustrated. Some young woman ran by me there. I told her that I had no idea how she was running down that. I could've done better if I had shoes with more rock protection, but I still would not have run a lot of it this late in the race.
As with most sections of this race, this seemed to go on and on. That was the biggest trouble I had with things. The sucky parts of the course seemed never ending. Finally, I did come to the bottom. It was great that I was around the marathon distance now.
I knew the last climbing section was about to start and I was prepared for that. It started off as a nice stone road, but that didn't last. I passed a bunch of hikers. I then got to some steep and rocky singletrack. I actually enjoyed it as I blew past hikers. It was steep, but not too steep. If this was most of the climb, I could deal with it.
I was surprised to be so happy on such a tough section, so late in the race. It did go on for a long time. Finally, I got up to the top of this part. I was far from done though.
I thought S.O.B. was the top portion of the hill, along a powerline or pipeline. This section was insane. It was so steep that you basically had to crawl up it. Some hikers were really struggling. It was exposed and the sun was beating down and brutal. However, I wanted to get it over with, so I pressed on. I made it to the top and enjoyed the aid station. Some people stayed there for quite some time. I grabbed some food and ate as I hiked.I knew after S.0.B. that it was basically flat or downhill to the finish. However, it was actually easier than I expected it to be. It started with a lot of easy woods roads. Since I was beat and surrounded by hikers, I ended up hiking most of it. I did run some though, but my feet hurt a lot when I ran now.
After a bit, we jumped on to the Spring Trail. This part was tricky as it was singletrack with some rocks. I was hiking and then a runner passed me. I had not seen a runner in some time. This actually encouraged me to run, no matter how painful it was to run.
I knew the final section before the road was Huff Run. I assumed since the other two sections named "Run" were just awful with stream crossings and mud, this would be more of the same. I was very wrong.
I passed a very young 25K runner. That was quite impressive to see. She wasn't even a teenager. I was very shocked to find out the condition of Huff Run. It was dry and relatively smooth and actually runnable. I followed the other runner down it.
The weird part was that not only was it runnable, but my foot stopped hurting. I kept going and going. Again, it was another never ending section though and I could only run so much. I passed the guy that passed me earlier. There was even an actual bridge when the trail crossed Huff Run.
I had to stop briefly here. Then, I felt my IT band tighten up. All I could do at this point was hike again. At least I was finally close to the bottom. Another guy passed me near the bottom too. Right before the bottom, there was this last frustrating short uphill.
I was so thrilled to finally see the road and the bridge. I now knew how far I had to go. As much as I hated road running, I was happy to be that close to the finish. I walked the road initially. I then told myself that I might as well at least try to run it.
I ran slowly, but I ran. I picked off a bunch of hikers going over the bridge. I then caught and passed both guys that had passed me earlier. I knew they wouldn't be able to keep up as long as I kept running. They were struggling. Finishing position wasn't important, but I wanted to be finished.
I ran and ran and ran. Finally, I was on to the dirt road toward the finishing area. I knew there was a slight trail finish up. I ran almost all of that, except a very short steep section. I ran through the finish line.
It was a slow run. With how I felt coming into the run, I was merely happy to finish at all. That's especially true when you throw in the weather conditions. It was a very tough course. I knew it would be steeper than any course that I had run, but I had no idea it would be so technical too. It was a challenge and then some.
I saw Ryan, Janine and Bob, as they had finished some time ago. Nita had finished her 25K too. I chatted with them some, but they were sitting in the sun. With about 8.5 hours spent in the sun, I needed some shade.I grabbed a pizza, but couldn't eat much. I just stood around for a bit. I sat some, but I didn't like sitting either. My feet did hurt, but I was surprised that they didn't feel worse.
I waited for Destrie to finish. We then hung out and sat down with numerous other friends. Another friend, Daniel, had run pretty well too. We spent a couple hours hanging out. I love after parties at ultras as much or more than the race itself. It is great to hangout and chat with friends, both old and new.
This was an excellent race and well run. It was surely my toughest race to date. With the physical condition I'm in, it was even more of a challenge. I survived it though. I'm not sure if I want to put myself through the full 50K again, but I'll definitely do the 25K in the future.
My body is quite beat up. It is now recovery time. My quads are still sore and my feet hurt. The KT Tape that I used was definitely a lifesaver. I have two weeks until the Bear Mountain 50 Mile. Again, I'm not sure if I can finish with this foot issue, but I have to try. I also may need to get new shoes and take a chance. I can't wear my current old shoes without rock protection on that super rocky course. Hopefully, I can heal up a bit more in two more weeks.
31 miles - 8:36:30 (16:59 pace) 7456 feet of elevation gain
127th of 155 finishers
No comments:
Post a Comment