Escarpment Trail Race 2009

This is just a preliminary report here, hopefully I'll find the time to do this race justice and write a real race report.

Emma and Jim warned me not to run on Saturday before the race, but I attended our regular run at Bradbury anyway. I got in a nice, easy 5.5 miles. It wasn't the physical act of running that was a problem for my race preparation, it was the amount of time that it took and the fact that it lead me to do a half-assed job of packing for the 600 mile round trip to the Catskills in NY for Escarpment. Jim and I left Portland at 10am Saturday morning and it was only after driving for 5 hours and getting to Jim's friends house that I discovered I had forgotten to bring my glasses, I had not packed my Trail Monster singlet or any other shirt suitable for running in, and I did not bring the screw-on closure for my hydration pack bladder. This was not a good way to get me in the right frame of mind before a big race.

photo by Emmy Stocker

The trail conditions on the race course were very wet, incredibly muddy, and littered with slippery rocks. But after the spring and summer that we've had here in Maine I was soooo prepared for running in those conditions. What I wasn't prepared was the heat and humidity that left me feeling like I was functioning with only one lung, not good when you're trying to run up mountains.

elevation profile

Based on my training - months of mud running experience and a lot hills and mountains - I felt like I should have been able to complete this race in well under four hours. Nope. I suffered a lot and finished in 4:22.

time: 4:22:38
distance: 18.7 miles
pace: 14:02
place: 43/188 starters

weather: mid 70s - mid 80's, humid, mixed sun/clouds

conditions: wet, muddy, slippery

gear: Inov-8 Roclite 295, cycling socks, shorts, borrowed shirt, hat, Source hydration pack