2015 Megatransect (The Final One) Race Report

One of the things I like about trail racing is that it is small time and isn't usually the follow the crowd type of thing that you find in road racing.  Like, it isn't the everyone is doing the Broad Street Run, so I have to do it type of things.  Despite that I decided to sign up for the Megatransect near Lock Haven, PA.  It is a big race by trail running standards (900 people) and it sells out in hours, if not minutes.  At most trail races, you can sign up a week or two before if you chose.

It turns out this race or maybe more appropriately "event", has a good mix of the big time and small time feel to it.  You can camp at the start/finish line and I chose to do that along with a lot of other runners.  I pitched my tent next to my friends Ryan and Russ.  We had a great view of the mountain behind us, including the infamous boulder field.  We picked up our packets on Friday evening and prepared for the race.

As usual, I got next to no sleep.  My tent was comfortable, but I simply couldn't rest.  I never can before a race and it is weird because I'm not nervous.  I got up earlier than planned, since I couldn't sleep.  I grabbed some of the free breakfast, including eggs.  It was more than I usually eat.

This definitely still had some of the small time race feel to it.  I didn't even bother to get changed until about 15 minutes before the race.  We were camped right by the starting area.  I'm not even sure where the starting line actually was.  The race director said a bunch of things as we huddled around and then yelled "GO."

I was actually quite disappointed heading into this.  I was planning to take it easy and have fun running with my friend Destrie and just enjoy the last Mega.  She's hurt though and trying to heal up, so that she can hopefully do her first 100 miler in a couple weeks.  That meant I was now on my own to race.

I HATE road running.  I mean really HATE it.  To thin the field out and get to the trail, guess what we had to do.  That's right, run on the road for 3+ miles.  I know that road running is my strength, so I went out faster than I would've liked.  I was running sub 8 minute pace on the road, mainly so that I could get off the road faster.

This part seemed to take long.  I saw a few friends up ahead, Jes, Jess and Aaron.  I wouldn't say I was pushing, but I definitely wasn't taking it easy.  I simply wanted to get off the dreaded pavement and on to some trail.  At one point, it turns into stone road.  Then, there was an aid station before heading on the trail.  This aid station just had some basics, like water.  I had one cup and then went on.

We began climbing right away.  Not surprisingly, I was struggling.  I wore myself out a little on the road.  My pack was loaded too and that made my back sore.  The climb was tough.  Luckily, I've learned by now that the first climb is usually the only one that bothers my back.

Another friend Erman passed me on the climb.  He ran a strong race.  I was very impressed.  More and more people passed me there too.  After climbing, we had some flat and downhill stuff, but there were a lot of loose rocks.  Many people were flying on these.  I still can't believe how some people run technical terrain.  It's like there aren't even rocks in their path.  I'll never figure it out.

We seemed to do a lot of short ups and downs over technical terrain.  It was a mix of running and hiking for everyone.  It was weird, as I was drenched from the humidity and yet freezing cold whenever I ran.  The temperate was probably still only in the low 60s at that point.

I kept waiting to get to the boulder field.  Then, finally I could see the white rocks off to the side.  I joined everyone else along the climb.  I guess I was expecting this to be smaller rocks.  They were quite large and you had to pick your way up different lines, as there was no true trail.  This worked every muscle too.  I was glad it was still early.

The bottom of the boulder field was foggy, but up near the top it got sunny again.  The view was spectacular above the fog.  Friends David and Ashley were on the boulder field taking photos.  Their cheering was a big help.  There were a ton of students up on the rocks cheering too.  I found some of this annoying, as there are a few false summits.  I thought I was at the top a couple times, but I wasn't.

A guy was flying a drone near the top.  When I looked back to take a photo in that area, I saw Ryan.  I wasn't at all surprised to see him cruising on up the hill.  I followed him the rest of the way.  We were thinking there would be an aid stations somewhere here.

I wasn't feeling too bad, so I actually flew down the technical stuff and passed Ryan right back.  A short time later, he ran by me again on a slight uphill.  He tried to encourage me to go with him, but I was trying to be conservative.

At this point, I realized that we probably didn't have any aid until mile 11 and that was still 3 miles off.  I was nearly out of water, so I had to run very cautiously until then.  There were parts that I wanted to run more of, but I was careful.  At one point, I thought I might have to go to the bathroom, but was relieved that I never did.

We had this downhill section and I figured that the aid station must be at the bottom of the hill (they usually are).  I was fooled and we had another up before that aid station.  I had been out of water for 2 miles.

The aid station was a giant oasis.  I didn't pay attention to the course at all before the race.  Usually, I know the details, but today I was trying wing it and run what the course gave me.  It had been 8 miles and about 3 hours until the last aid station.  That might've worked well in the fall when they used to hold this race, but in the summer it was brutal.

I must've spent forever at this aid station.  I think I drank 4 or 5 cups of Gatorade.  I fully filled my bottles and mixed some Tailwind.  I grabbed a few snacks too.

I saw a facebook friend, Kathy, and introduced myself.  We ran out together, with her leading the way.  She's been coming back from injury and taking it easy.  I didn't want to go too fast, so I stayed with her for a mile or so and chatted.

This section was great, as it was a nice and wide woods road.  I was reenergized and ran a lot here.  I knew I had to take advantage of a runnable section, so I took off ahead of Kathy after some time.  I flew on the smooth parts and passed people and even ran well down a rocky hollow.  I had been wondering if any of the course was runnable, so I was glad to find that it indeed was.

The climbs in this race weren't super long, like I'm used to.  However, they were still plenty steep and there seem to be more of them than usual.  One of the worst climbs, was named K2.  That was so treacherous at the bottom that a rope was installed to help climb up it.  I struggled a little with the climb and seemed like my muscles were tightening up, but a few others in front of me appeared to be in worse shape.

Again, it seemed like a long time until the aid station.  We came to a volunteer after a descent, where I thought the aid station would be.  He told us it was another mile yet.  This had some runnable stuff along the ridge, after going up, but I was too frustrated to run much of it.  I needed to refuel too.

Getting to the aid station at mile 17 (mile 18 on my watch) was another huge relief.  I seemed to take forever there, making sure I got all my Tailwind and I grabbed some Swedish Fish for on the go.  Russ came in and spent less time there and I guess Dave came in not too far behind us.

Russ and I left together.  There was another good ascent after the aid station.  Russ and I hiked behind a woman.  Then, she let us pass.  We were now in a nice flat section called Fernwood.  I began running and started to cramp.  I had to stop to try to work it out, so I walked for a bit.  I also took some S-Caps as Russ pulled away.  I had plenty of S-Caps with me, but for some reason I only took them when I had cramping issues starting to pop up.

I was surprised at how many people around were walking this relatively flat section.  If not for the cramps, I would've been running.  That said, the woman and a few others passed me.  There were so many little downed trees everywhere here.  I was afraid that I might cramp while jumping over them.

I did try to run some parts of this trail, but it also seemed like whenever I did, it would be too rocky.  The woman and I came out to the next section together.  It was great because it was a woods road.  It had some rocks, but was pretty runnable.  It was a gradual uphill.  We knew we had to take advantage and run though.

We plugged along for awhile.  Then, she couldn't handle it any more and began walking.  I just kept going.  A lot of people were walking the gradual ascent.  I ran a good chunk of it, as my cramping issue had gone away.  I've learned as long as I'm not in total shit shape, I need to run the runnable sections.  You never know how long they'll last or when the next one will be.

Lucky for me, this one lasted a long time.  Much to my surprise, we came to an aid station.  This one was much closer than the last one.  I topped off my water and then ate a little and was ready to go.  This time, I decided to look briefly at a course map.  It seemed like only one more climb left.

Coming out of the mile 21 aid station was great.  It was more woods road, but this time it was downhill.  I basically ran this entire 2 mile stretch.  Some people were hiking.  Others were going slower.  I ran with one guy for a bit and he was faster and kept running ahead.  I also got a boost when I saw that I was closing back in on Russ.

There was another aid station around mile 23.  It was nice that these were so close together.  I caught Russ there.  I made sure to have everything topped off, as I thought this would be the last aid station.  Russ and I left together.

It wasn't long and we were then on to the infamous "Raw Trail."  This was the last bad climb and bad it was.  Russ and I were both struggling with it, as were some other people.  Still, I felt like I was doing a little better with it than them.  This seems to be one area where I'm good.  I'm not an outstanding climber, but I've done so much elevation that I can continue to climb solidly toward the end of the race.  Others usually fall off.

I passed one guy as we got to boulders.  These boulders were just brutal, but I just kept moving forward.  I was happy to not cramp.  I was gaining on some others too.  I noticed Russ was falling back.  I really wanted to finish ahead of him, as he's a good runner but inexperienced on this type of course.  If he sticks with it, he'll be beating me soon at events like this.

The other boulder section was worse, but the placement of this one at the end of the race was just bad.  After that, I was hoping to have some runnable downhill.  However, the top of the descent was too rocky.  One guy followed me hiking and then passed me.  A couple more were behind me.  I was afraid I'd cramp on this stuff.

It seemed to take forever to get down.  Finally, toward the bottom, I was able to run again as the trail got smoother.  However, I nearly cramped on the runnable stuff.  I took some more S-Caps.  It was good to get to the bottom.

At the bottom, we were on a stone road.  I had to run where I could.  It was a nice, gradual descent.  I then realized we were on the road we came in on.  I cruised on down it and was back on pavement.

When we were at dinner the night before, I commented how if the beginning had a lot of road, the end must have a lot too.  They told me it had "The Green Mile" with grass, so not as much road.  Still, there was plenty of road and it was frustrating me.

The only good thing with road is that I'm good on it.  I passed the guy that had passed me earlier.  I then passed a woman and a guy that was walking too.  The pavement seemed to go on and on, as I waited for "The Green Mile."  It was hot, but I didn't let it bother me, as I was almost done.

I was so happy to finally get to "The Green Mile."  I didn't mind the idea of running on grass.  This did still suck, but it was easy running.  Being in the sun wasn't much fun.  However, I made it my goal to keep running.  That is what I did.  Many people were hiking and I made up quite a few spots.

I thought "The Green Mile" was right before the finish.  As I got near the end, I wasn't even sure where the finish line was.  It was hidden by a banked wall.  After we got off "The Green Mile" I continued to run.  I had used most of my energy though.

I ran over some railroad tracks and suddenly realized exactly where I was.  I still probably had about another mile of running on the road before finishing.  In reality, I could've pushed and still ran the rest of the way, but mentally I was so defeated.  I had worked so hard to run "The Green Mile" because I thought it was the finish.

I just walked for a bit.  Even doing this, I caught a guy.  Once we got to the entrance of the parking and start/finish area, I decided that I would run it on in.  I had enough energy for that.  I ran the rest of the way.  There was a slight hill that I went over.

I really killed it coming in.  I knew a party awaited me.  I thought Destrie would be there to watch us finish and she was.  I basically sprinted through the line, relieved to be done.  It wasn't the hardest race I've done, but it was definitely a tough one.

I waited around for some time and hungout.  A few people, including Ryan were already done.  I waited for Russ and was surprised at how much I had pulled ahead of him over the last few miles.  Dave came in a bit later.  It was good to see most everyone finished.

My body was sore, but nothing more than usual.  The new La Sportiva Bushido shoes passed another test.  They were excellent on this terrain, with all the rocks.  My feet didn't hurt much at all.  I just might've finally found my technical trail running shoes.

I sat around for awhile.  Then, Destrie decided she was going to take her kids to hike up to the boulder field.  Although I was hurting a bit, I figured I could do that.  It seemed like the hike took forever and I was quite beat by the end.  We had quite the adventure coming back too.

All in all, I was fairly happy with this race.  I went out too fast and was very annoyed by the roads.  The distance between the early aid stations threw me off.  Some cramping issues slowed me a little during the middle of the race, but I always have low points.  I'm getting much better at bouncing back though.  I am certainly finishing these things much stronger than I was even just a few months back.  My experience is really helping me deal with everything thrown at me.  I wish I could have smoother races from start to finish and run faster, but I can see some improvements.  It may not be as much as I'd like, but I'll take it.

I do keep questioning why I keep going into these mountain races.  They are so painful, tough and long.  I was thinking after about 5 hours, that I could nearly be done on an easier course.  I was even thinking about how nice it must be to run out west, with less rocks.  However, I guess I love the challenge.

The atmosphere surrounding this one was top notch and it was a good way to finish things off for the final Mega.  It was a good experience for me and I now have my 10th official ultra under my belt.  Due to some issues, like all the pavement and the spacing of aid stations, I doubt I would've done this every year if it was still going.  It was a good enough event that I would've certainly been back at some point.  It is a shame that it is all over.

The trail running community is top notch and that is what this event is all about.  I finished the race a little after 2 PM, yet I didn't leave until after 9 PM.  Trail racing is much more than just a race.  If you drive hours to get there and then you run for hours too, there is no hurry to get home.  I love this community and all the people I've met and continue to meet at each new event.

I wasn't in too bad of shape today.  However, I just had no desire to run my planned 30 miles.  I'm not sure I could've quite made it that far.  Maybe, if I ran this race easier, I would've had more available today.  I still have next weekend free for back to back long runs.  I need at least one good weekend of those to prepare for the West Virginia Trilogy.

Tomorrow, I'll probably get back to running again.  I have no idea what I'll do.  If I feel good and the weather is nice, maybe I'll run semi long.  Next weekend will be the key weekend of my training.

 27.5 miles - 7:11:46 (15:42 pace) 5644 feet of elevation gain
106th of 752 people