gIANt Running

Bradbury Squall Race Report

2012-01-22T21:51:00.000-05:00

I arrived at Bradbury just before 8 AM to help mark the race course, it was about -5 degrees. At one point I had visions of running the course as I marked it, and even though I felt pretty good following yesterday's 3 hour run I opted to walk the course as I set out the arrows at all the trail intersections. This was a good final preparation for my own race since it gave me the opportunity to see exactly what kind of conditions we'd be racing in later.

Considering the amount of snow we've received so far this winter the conditions looked great. There had been enough traffic on the course to define the route without it becoming too hard packed or any wider than single-track. Snowshoe racing is the most fun when it's on narrow trails, otherwise it's just hard work. When the trails are narrow and you've got deep powder on either side you really have to race strategically, think carefully about when to pass, when to surge and when to relax. Of course, there really isn't any relaxing in snowshoe racing, it's all hard work. In Jeff's race report he talks about trying to find the sweet spot between redlining and falling off the pack.

Ryan and I finished the course marking around 9 and had plenty of time to get everything else set up. It wasn't long before our dedicated crew of volunteers showed up, undeterred by the frigid temperatures, and all of a sudden we were ready for a race. It has been great to see how Trail Monster Running has grown over the last few years, I'm lucky to be part of such a dedicated group of runners and to know that I can count on my fellow team mates to come out and help make our events successful.

One of the great things about having so many competent volunteers, not to mention the fact that Ryan is the race director for the snowshoe races, is that I actually had time to relax before the race, and get out for an easy warm-up run with Emma. The warm-up was much needed since I had been outside for nearly three hours, and even though it had warmed up into the 20's I was feeling a bit chilled. When I got back from my warm-up I had a few last minute things to attend to and I actually forgot to pin my number on. At least the volunteers at the finish line know who I am.

Due to the lack of snow recently there hasn't been much time for snowmobiles to get out and pack the trails, and even though we prefer to run on narrower trails it's nice to have a wider area to start. We lined up on a section of snowmobile trail about 5 feet wide, and with a few more runners than last year I knew that it was going to be a crazy start so I positioned myself in the second row behind Judson Cake and Matt Lunt. All around me were my bad ass training buddies, Andy, Jeremy, Chuck, Jeff, Jamie... this was going to be a fun race, but these guys were going to make sure I worked hard.

photo by Kate Hanscom

The first 1/3 mile of the race course is on a flat and fairly wide trail packed by a little snowmobile and a lot of foot traffic. Perfect for a race start to allow for a little jockeying for position. I was in third place for the first 100 yards but soon got passed by Jeremy and then Andy. That seemed about right, I didn't really expect to be ahead of either of them, I just hope that the rest of the pack didn't come up on me so quickly. The next 1/10 mile starts to climb and remained well packed, but before the half mile we were on single track and continuing to climb. Krista's trail had only seen about three passes through the fresh snow before the race so this was without doubt the most sluggish part of the race. This is also where there is the potential to totally blow your wad if you go out too hard, it's so easy to redline when you're running uphill through deep powder, and so hard to recover from that over the rest of the race.

Judson, Matt and Jeremy were out of sight, but I was starting to close the gap on Andy. I could also hear someone right on my heels and I soon learned that it was Chuck, we exchanged a few words and I announced when we had reached the highest point on the course, about halfway through the Krista's loop (just past 1 mile into the race). I was right on Andy's heels and I had been thinking about passing him but this was one of the most difficult places on the course to overtake another runner. Passing meant stepping off the beaten path into 7" of unpacked powder, not at all easy to accelerate through. I have seen failed attempts at passing in snowshoe races, it can be pretty ugly if you get it wrong. I needed to make a move soon because Chuck was close behind and I knew he wouldn't be afraid to make a bold maneuver now that we were on a downhill stretch. The trail twisted back and forth between trees and buried rocks, there was a lot more than just powdery snow to contend with when you tried to plan a pass. When I saw a slight clearing up ahead I knew that was my best chance to go for it. I called out "On your left Andy" and took a few giant strides to surge past. The downslope helped carry me forward and I managed to get around Andy and back onto the trail just before a large pine tree that could have ended my race had my timing been off.

I knew it was going to be hard work trying to stay ahead of Andy, but I figured that running single track is one of my strengths so I really pushed the pace throughout the rest of Krista's to try and get some distance between us. Once on the Tote Road I eased up a little, the next half mile or so was flat and pretty straight which makes it a lot easier to catch and pass people so I kept an ear out for the sounds of anyone coming up behind.

By the time we hit the Boundary Trail, just after 2 miles, I could tell that someone was closing in on me but I didn't dare look back to see who it was. We were now on a long downhill stretch and the last thing I wanted to do was take my eyes off the trail. I thought this downhill stretch might be another opportunity to put some distance between myself and whoever was right behind, but that didn't happen. On the big steep, icy drop on the back side of the mountain I opted to stay left and cross the rock wall that paralleled the trail in the interest of avoiding the ice at the bottom. I heard Chuck say something about my choice of route and I could tell there was someone else right there with him. This turned out to be a waste of time and energy and my chasers almost caught me.

Knowing that there was about 1 mile left in the race I worked hard to make up for my mistake. There was one last climb ahead and this was where I got passed by Stephen Wells at last year's race. I was determined not to let that happen again. I scrambled up the hill as fast as I could manage, and as soon as the ground leveled out I really put the hammer down. There was heavy breathing behind me but it started to fade, or perhaps was being drowned out by my own gasps for air.

After a few little ups and downs the course comes back to the Northern Loop trail where the race started and we returned to packed snow for the last 1/3 mile. The trail remained flat to the finish so I put on an early sprint and hoped I could maintain it to the end. There was no way I could hear anyone coming up on me over the sounds of my own footfalls and breathing, and if anyone had come up I don't think I could have managed to give anything more. Luckily it was enough and I managed to hold off the chasing pack by about 30 seconds. I didn't even have a chance to catch my breath before a steady stream of Trail Monsters came in. A good day for the team.

splits: 10:05, 9:15, 8:57, 7:35 (pace for 0.62 miles)

time: 33:00
distance: 3.62 miles
pace: 9:08
place: 4/40

FULL RESULTS

conditions: packed powder, mostly single track, still a bit soft

weather: mid 20's, sunny

gear: Inov-8 F-lite 300, Atlas Run snowshoes, sock liners, wool socks, tights, long sleeve top, short sleeve top, gloves, mittens, hat

Beach Run

2012-01-21T15:41:00.000-05:00

Today's run on the Beautiful Loop was kind of like running on a beach. Except it was 10 degrees, and snowing. But the snow was the consistency of beach sand. I guess since most people were planning to run the snowshoe race tomorrow there wasn't a very big turnout for our Saturday run this week. Just Zak and I, and luckily we had the same plan.

The Brad received about 7 inches of snow on Thursday night, and I assumed that the snowmobiles would have been out on Friday to get the Beautiful Loop packed down for us, but the snomo community kinda let me down. Many parts of the loop were only packed by one or two snowmobiles, and a few short sections hadn't seen any traffic at all. It made for another very challenging run, I estimate that in good conditions we could take at least 1/2 hour off our time for the loop, or about two minutes per mile. Compared to last weeks run it was at least less painful running, no postholing through a layer of ice with each step, but the softness of the snow required a lot of extra energy and our time was only a little faster than last week.

It did occur to me during the run that despite the lousy conditions it could have been much worse. I wondered how many different snowmobilers had to come out and ride various parts of the Beautiful Loop in order for the whole thing to connect. I'm fairly certain that no snomo'er starts at the park and completes the loop they way we do, so I'd guess it takes at least a dozen different people riding different parts of the loop to make it complete. And they pretty much did this within 24 hours of the last snowfall which is pretty darn good for us.

There were only three areas along the route where the packed track diverted significantly from my planned route, and at least the snow was light enough that it wasn't too hard breaking trail through 7" of fresh powder. The result of course was that my feet did get a bit wet, and despite wearing gaiters the snow managed to work it's way into my shoes and collect around my toes. I've realized that the Roclite 295's are a little too porous for snow running. I wasn't aware of having cold toes during the run, but once I changed in to dry socks and shoes afterwards, and the blood started flowing again, I could feel the burn that indicated a mild case of frostbite. By the time I got home and took a shower the end of one of my big toes was black and quite painful. Last year I got mild cases of frostbite on several occasions and it seems that the more it happens the more likely you are to get it again.

Speaking of cold... I found a neoprene sleeve for my CamelBak hose that Chuck gave me a few years ago, and it seemed to work pretty well to help keep the hose from freezing during the run. I also filled my bladder with hot water, and after each time I took a drink I blew a little air back into the hose to clear the water out. The only issue I had was that there was just enough water in the mouthpiece for it to freeze right away. I tried to take my first drink about 8 minutes into the run and it was already frozen. I stuffed the end of the hose down the front of my jacket and this was enough to thaw it out and keep it from re-freezing during the rest of the run. Maybe one day Nuun will make an antifreeze drink mix and I won't have to go through such lengths to keep my drink from freezing on such cold days.

The worst part of the run, or best part of the training depending on how you look at it, was the run up Lunch Break Hill at the end. Snowmobiles only go about 1/4 of the way up so most of the climb we were breaking trail. Killer. The run down the Terrace Trail from the summit was fun, not much foot traffic so it was a little slippery but I love running fast down that hill, especially in the snow.

Now hopefully I didn't overdo-it before tomorrow's snowshoe race. I never planned to taper, but I certainly don't want to suffer through it any more than one normally suffers in a snowshoe race.

time: 2:57:15
distance: 15.71 miles
pace: 11:18

conditions: loose, light snow, on not-well-packed snowmobile trails

weather: overcast & snowy, light wind, single digit temps

gear: Inov-8 Roclite 295 with screws, sock liners, wool socks, tights, long sleeve top, short sleeve top, jacket, gloves, mittens, buff, nathan HPL #020

Breaking Trail

2012-01-20T20:35:00.000-05:00

Part one of preparing for the snowshoe race that I'm not really training for was running the course 4 times in two weeks, part two was getting out and actually running in my snowshoes. Yesterday's run almost doesn't count as a snowshoe run because the snow was so hard packed. Today was a different story thanks to about 6" of fresh powder falling overnight.

So I say that I'm not training for the snowshoe race, I guess all that means is that overall my training is leading up to something much bigger, and there will be a number of smaller races along the way that I'll do as part of my training for the Peak 50 miler in May.

There's no such thing as an easy workout when you're breaking trail in snowshoes. Although my pace was slow the effort was significant. I parked at my local Hannaford and jumped onto the River Point Trails, and I wasn't the first person to get out there today but I did make it farther than the other tracks I found. And in this kind of snow one set of tracks doesn't constitute a packed trail.

It was a fun run and felt good to get my local trails packed down a bit.

time: 46:45
distance: 3.77 miles
pace:12:25

conditions: fresh light powder over a crusty base

gear: Inov-8 F-lite 300 with Atlas Run snowshoes

Another Double Squall

2012-01-19T14:39:00.000-05:00

I met up with Jeremy today at the Brad for a run on the Squall course. The plan was to do one lap in snowshoes and the other without. With the limited snow we've had so far this winter and recent rain Ryan and I were uncertain about the status of this weekend's snowshoe race, so a little course recon was called for. I also wanted to get in another couple laps of the course to help prepare myself mentally for the race. Over the past year I've had a handful of PR's and I attribute that largely to being better prepared mentally.

We decided to run the first lap in snowshoes, I guess to get the hard stuff out of the way first. The trails were packed from a lot of foot traffic in the park so snowshoes weren't really needed. Even on Kirsta's which received very little traffic (Danielle & Mindy were out earlier in the week and were likely the only ones to set foot on the trail since the previous snowfall) the snow wasn't very deep and there was a layer of crusty ice on top of the snow. We kept the pace pretty easy and conversational and talked a bit about our race plans. Since both of us are training for ultras in the spring we both agreed that while we planned to do all the races of the Bradbury Mountain Snowshoe Series they were really just part of the training and not major goals in and of themselves.

We finished the first lap in a little under 44 minutes, a little fast for an "easy" snowshoe run but like I said, the trails were so well packed that snowshoes weren't even needed, so it was just like running with a little extra weight on our feet. We took a few minutes to switch into regular shoes and then headed back out for another lap. This time around we maintained about the same effort and finished the course in about 42 minutes. It's a good thing snow is expected tonight, the course really needs it.

Now that I've run the Squall course 4 times in the past two weeks I feel pretty good about how to race it, I just hope I've got some energy left after my planned long run on Saturday.

time: 1:18:26
distance: 7.32 miles
pace: 10:43

weather: sunny, low 20's

conditions: hard packed snow, ice

gear: Inov-8 F-lite 300 w/ Atlas Run snowshoes lap one, Inov-8 Roclite 295 with screws for lap two.

Local Snomo Trails

2012-01-17T20:47:00.000-05:00

I had thoughts about doing a double today. It was Mindy's fault since she suggested doing hills mid-day, even though we didn't end up running together I still got out around 11:30 with Jeff, James and our dogs. Since the weather forecast was calling for rain later in the day I thought it would be a god idea to get the dogs out while it was still nice and sunny. We headed over to Hardy Road to check out the snowmobile trails on Leighton Hill (part of Blackstrap Hill).

We got in a nice 5.5 mile lolipop loop on mostly well-packed snowmobile trails, at a nice easy pace. As the afternoon progressed and the weather got worse the idea of running for a second time today, in the dark and rain, became less appealing and I easily convinced myself that it wasn't necessary.

I recently starting using RunningAHEAD as my training log, but I still miss some of the features of Sport Tracks which I had been using for years. The interactive maps from RA are pretty cool, as well as the ability to schedule workouts, and share training logs online. I miss the elevation profiles from ST though, the one on the map above needs to be refreshed each time you look at it in order to display something closer to reality, the default display is way off.

time: 56:19
distance: 5.49 miles
pace: 10:16

conditions: snowy trails packed by snowmobile traffic, loose under foot

weather: low 30's, mostly sunny

gear: Inov-8 Roclite 295 with screws, wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve tops, gloves, hat

Road 15

2012-01-16T23:41:00.000-05:00

I decided to join Emma for her long road run again this week, 15 miles at as easy (8:30-ish) pace. I had a little lingering tightness in my calves following Saturday's run, and due to the absurd cold on Sunday I decided not to bother running. An easy paced run in warmer weather (mid 20's) seemed like a good idea. Since Emma was once again recovering from an overnight shift at work and only got 4 hours of sleep before the run I was pretty sure we'd be able to keep it slow.

Most of the first three miles are a pretty substantial uphill on the route I had worked out, so there wasn't much risk of going out too fast. For some reason our trip to Scotland last November messed with my Garmin and everything got reset. Since then it hasn't been indicating my mile spits, and generally I don't really care so I hadn't bothered to figure out how to get the split thingy turned back on. Today I did want to try to keep an eye on our pace so I was left to do it the old fashioned way, but I've never been good at doing math on the run. I got as far as three miles, when I noted that we were averaging just over an 8:30 pace. After that I lost interest in trying to do the math and just tried to run at what felt like an easy pace.

Emma and I chatted as we ran, and I would hear her Garmin beeping at the splits but our two watches never coincide with distance (my piece-of-junk 405 is always shorter that her 305). We never actually discussed the pace, just both seemed content to be running together. Although I'd rather be on trails I'll take what I can get with Emma, and these days she doing most of her runs on the road as she's training for a road half marathon this spring.

I decided to wear my Brooks Cascadias today, they've got the biggest heal of anything I own right now which seemed like a good idea to reduce the strain on my achilles and calves. While most of my running is in shoes with a fairly low heel-toe differential (6 to 9 mm) I'll try to run in something beefier if I feel like I've over-worked my achilles. It seemed to work since the pain I had been feeling before the run disappeared quickly and wasn't an issue at all during the run. I bought the Cascadias in June, 2008 to wear for the Vermont 100. I actually bought 3 pair of them in 2008 so I could change out of my wet ones during the race. Even though I did a fair amount of training in them in early 2008 I've hardly worn them since the race so 2 of the 3 pairs still have a lot of life left in them. These days I like to use lighter, lower shoes on trails so the Cascadias have become my back-up road shoe. At this rate I should be able to get another 3+ years out of them.

Somewhere around 11 miles into the run Emma passed me and although she didn't say anything I got the distinct impression she thought I was going too slow. She's always been much more consistent than me and I'm pretty sure she wasn't trying to speed up, just trying to keep me from slowing her down. When we got to 13 miles we crossed Rt 302, and with just over 2 miles to go there was a noticeable increase in Emma's pace. Nothing outrageous, but I knew what she was up to. When we hit 14 miles there was another little injection of speed, and this time I responded by opening up my stride and pushing a bit more. I was surprised that after a 12.5 hour overnight shift and only 4 hours of sleep Emma was able to kick it in at the end of a long run. Wait a minute, that shouldn't surprise me.

The last mile came in at a 7:15 pace which was just what we needed to drop the average pace of the entire run to just below 8's. What I was truly surprised about was how good we both felt throughout the run, up until the last two miles it was really pretty effortless running. Of course having each others company provided a pleasant distraction along the way. Sometimes road running isn't all that bad.

time: 2:00:33
distance: 15.1 miles
pace: 7:59

weather: cloudy, mid 20's

The Oxymoron Loop

2012-01-14T22:28:00.000-05:00

Due to crappy weather and the realization that I hadn't given myself much of a recovery from last weekend's 50k I decided to take Thursday and Friday off. Nothing was feeling bad, just seemed like the right thing to do. We got about 6 inches of new snow on Thursday, but then some sleet and freezing rain that created a hard icy layer on top and left things in a bad condition for running. I was hopeful that snowmobiles would have been out before our Saturday morning run and that we'd be able to do the first run of the year on the Beautiful Loop. I had seen some snowmobile traffic on my local trails so I left the house early this morning to do a little reconnaissance near Bradbury. The first few spots where snowmobiles usually cross the road were free from any tracks, but I found some tracks across Pownal Rd so I was hopeful we'd be able to make it around the 15 mile loop.

Shortly after I got to the park Alan came in from running a few miles on the East Side trails and reported that he hadn't seen any snomo tracks, and that gaiters were a good idea. D'oh! It never occurred to me to bring gaiters, but Alan was right, it turned out they were needed. Jeremy, Ben, Zak, Nathan and Alan we're all up for giving the Beautiful Loop a try, and Mindy & Val planned to follow our tracks as long as they could. No one knew what to expect, but we were all up for some adventure.

Each step broke through the crusty layer of ice and sunk into a dry, sugary snow beneath. The edges of the ice holes we created were hard and jagged and scraped the hell out of our ankles. As much as possible we were trying to follow the footsteps of whoever was breaking trail out front. It took about 2.25 miles and almost a half hour before we eventually hit the snowmobile tracks, which unfortunately only lasted about 1/2 mile. After another stretch of unbroken snow we got back onto snomo tracks around 4.5 miles and then had a decent stretch of about 3.5 miles of well packed trails.

At 7.25 miles we hit Chandler Brook, the only river crossing without a bridge. This river is the reason why we only run this loop in the winter, unless you want to swim there is no other way across until it freezes, and given the relatively warm winter we've had so far I was doubtful that we'd be able to make it across. It looked pretty frozen at first, but we walked to the edge and could see open water up stream, obviously not a good sign. We all agreed it would be stupid to try to cross the thin ice so we turned back to look for an alternate route. A minute later I heard someone exclaim "holy shit! Alan's on the other side." We all looked back and saw Alan waving from the opposite side of the river. That probably wasn't a good idea, but we all followed his lead and one at a time made it across the sketchy ice.

By mile 8 we ran out of tracks to follow and were left to break trail on our own. I kept hoping we'd pick up another set of tracks but it never happened, and the terrain was getting worse with more hills and more unexpected things lurking under the ice and snow. At each road crossing I offered up a bail out option for a shortcut back to the park, but Alan (who had already got in a few miles before the rest of us arrived and was suffering from some cramping) was the only one to accept. It was pretty clear that we were all struggling a bit, but no one wanted to be the one who suggested we take the easy way out. I call these types of runs "character building workouts," when you're running in conditions that are (hopefully) far worse than you'll ever encounter in a race, and you're not only getting a good physical workout but you're really pushing yourself mentally. In training I like to put myself in situations where I have a choice of taking the easy way out, or to keep pushing on despite the conditions. In a long race you'll often find yourself in a situation where you want to give up, it's good to know that you have experience pushing through it. We had a good strong group today and we all helped each other stay motivated and positive.

The elevation profile doesn't accurate reflect the perception of hills on this route, the second half definitely feels like it has a lot of tough ups. That surely has to do with the fatigue we were starting to feel from breaking trail for so long. The one thing that the elevation profile does appear to get right is the big friggin' climb at the end. About 350' in just over a mile. It was brutal. But we were SuperBad...

After the run we regrouped at Edna & Lucy's to refuel and relive the experience. Mindy and Val came in shortly afterwards and we had fun catching up with their experience on the Beautiful Loop. It really wasn't pretty, but we all agreed that it was a fun adventure and a hell of a workout.

time: 3:05:49
distance: 15.55 miles
pace: 11:57

weather: mid 20's, cloudy and breezy

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280, wool socks + sock liners, tights, 2x long sleeve tops, gloves, mittens, hat, Nathan HPL#020

Westbrook Half Marathon

2012-01-11T18:49:00.039-05:00

Emma is training for a road half marathon in a few months and we had planned to go for a run on the course this Thursday, but with the impending snow storm we decided to get the run in a day earlier and stick to local roads. Emma had worked an overnight shift the night before, so after about 3 hours of sleep we headed out on a route through Westbrook that I had mapped out, with the intention of this being an easy paced run. I'm thinking about jumping in the race with her, although I haven't committed to any real training for it yet. My bigger goal is the Peak 50 miler in May, and I don't see the point in spending too much time doing faster road runs as part of my ultra training. I'll probably just end up going along to support Emma.

The temperature was dropping and the wind was picking up throughout the course of our run so we ended up picking up the pace just a bit in an effort to keep warm. A few decent hills along the way also helped to keep us warm, at least the uphill parts. The down were pretty chilly.

We kept the pace conversational and were both surprised to be ticking off the miles at right around an 8 minute pace. It was a little faster than we had expected but the level of effort felt right so we went with it. I hope that Emma is able to get some of her speed back, so far things are shaping up pretty well for her.

I think it's about time for me to get some new road shoes, I've been doing most of my road runs (not that there are that many) in a pair of Saucony Grid Sinisters I bought back in January 2009. The only other pair of road shoes I've bought since then are Saucony Type A4, I think back in the summer of 2010, but they're a little too light and breathable (6.4 oz) for winter running. I think I might check out the Saucony Kinvara, I've heard a lot of good things about that shoe from other folks.

time: 1:45:42
distance: 13.16 miles
pace: 8:02

weather: upper 20's, temperature dropped and wind picked up

Tuesday Nights Faster

2012-01-10T20:30:00.023-05:00

Our Tuesday night runs at Pratt's Brook Park in Yarmouth are getting faster every week. I don't think it's intentional, at least not on my part, but that seems to be what's happening. I guess now that we're all starting to get to know the new route it's easier to move faster.

I was surprised to find that there weren't any significant lingering effects from my previous weekend's running (45 miles in three days) so I was happy to move along at what felt like a fairly quick pace. I've been bringing both my dogs out on Tuesday nights recently, so maybe it's their fault for setting a faster pace. I had run the route with them a few times during the day before taking them out at night in hopes that they would learn the route and spend less time out ahead exploring during our night time runs. They seem to do well following the route, it's the rest of us that need to be on top of things to make sure we go the right way. Despite running there for about two months now we still make wrong turns every now and then.

All in all a great run and I was really happy that the jump up to a 50k didn't kill me.

time: 47:35
distance: 5.35 miles
pace: 8:54

weather: upper 30's

Double Squall, hold the snow

2012-01-08T23:48:00.000-05:00

Following yesterday's 50k I knew I needed a nice easy recovery run to shake out some of the tightness that lingered in my legs. Somehow that's not exactly what I got.

Emma was uncertain about doing the Bradbury Squall snowshoe race in two weeks so she wanted a guided tour of the course. Since we haven't done much trail running together over the past few weeks I wasn't about to turn down an invitation from her to run at Bradbury. After a miserable nights sleep (I rarely sleep well the night after an ultra) and a sluggish start to the morning we got to Bradbury a little after 12:00 and set off at a very crippled looking pace. The first mile is all up hill so it's not surprising that it was pretty slow, not to mention that the single track of Krista's can be hard to follow when there is a dusting of snow on the ground. For the most part conditions were pretty good, a little snow cover here and there, but not much ice.

Once we got to the Tote Road the running was easier but the pace didn't reflect it. Lucky for me Emma was having some stomach problems so she was happy to go at my recovery pace. The downhill on the back side of the mountain helped to loosen things up for me, but some of the steepest parts were covered in ice which forced our pace to be very cautious.

Once we got back on to the Northern Loop trail for the last half mile we were both feeling a lot better and cruised along at a blistering 10 minute pace. By the time we finished the 3.5 mile race course we felt sufficiently warmed up to take another spin around. This time Emma lead the way to see how well she paid attention on the first lap, and not surprisingly she pushed the pace more than on the first lap. That's not to say we were going hard, just that everything seemed to be in good working order for both of us and a slightly quicker pace felt good.

Despite some pretty significant elevation this was just what I needed to loosen up my tight legs. Snow is in the forecast for later in the week but I don't know if it will be enough for the snowshoe race. Ryan has decided to hold the race regardless of the snow conditions which I think is the right decision. If we don't have snow it will be a trail race.

time: 1:20:14
distance: 7.14 miles
pace: 11:14

weather: upper 30's, sunny

First Week of 2012

2012-01-08T23:33:00.002-05:00

2012 is off to a good start for me so I thought it might be a good time to get back in to writing about my running. Things have been going well for quite a while now, but I got out of the habit of writing and have found it difficult to get back into it. Looking back at 2011 I wish I had documented my training better, in hopes that I might be able to repeat certain aspects of it and improve upon others. 2011 was the first year that I documented all of my running, although I did little more that just save the data recorded by my Garmin.

Even though I don't have complete data from any of my previous 12 years of running I'm fairly certain that 2011 was my highest mileage year at 2,122.5 miles. I spent a little more than 402 hours running, which works out to an average of 5.8 miles per day at an 11:23 pace. I guess singletrack, snowshoe and ultra running makes me slow, not surprising really. I only ran 272 miles on road, the other 1851 miles were on trail and I didn't set foot on a treadmill once.

Back to 2012, the first full week of the new year included PRs at both a road 10k as well as a trail 50k. I have to admit that I didn't see either of these coming. I don't do much road running, and even when I do it's not particularly fast and, like most of my training, is pretty unstructured. The Hangover Classic 10k in Salisbury, MA is a race that Emma and I do every year, mostly so we can join the crowd jumping into the ocean immediately after the run. This is the only 10k I have run in the past 4 years and my times have been all over the place depending on obvious factors like training, and then other factors like how late I stayed up on New Year's Eve and how much I had to drink. This year's pre-race alco-loading included moderate quantities of champagne, wine, beer and whiskey, and a bed time around 1:00 AM. Luckily the race didn't start until 11:30 AM so I was still able to get a reasonable amount of sleep. The course is totally flat, but features quite a few tight turns which I actually like a lot. All the single-track trail running I do seems to translate well to making tight turns on the road without losing speed. The temperature was warm for January and perfect for a short race, sunny and high 40's. I didn't look at my watch at all during the race so I really didn't know how I was doing until I approached the finish line and could see 39:xx on the clock. I've never broken 41 minutes in a 10k so I was psyched to cross the line in 39:46. I'm not sure that I've run a 6:23 pace for even one mile of my training on 2011 so I don't know how the hell I managed to do it for 10k. Must be a short course.

Since I had run 19 miles the day before the 10k I took Monday off, I definitely needed a rest day. Tuesday was the regular TMR Tuesday Night Run at Pratt's Brook in Yarmouth. 5.35 miles at a 9:14 pace which felt pretty brisk for that (icy) terrain (in the dark). I blame Nathan for pushing the pace.

Wednesday was another day off, knowing that I'd be running 50k (hopefully) at the GAC Fat Ass on Saturday I wanted to be well rested going in. Thursday morning I took the dogs with me to meet up with Mindy for some exploration on Tryon Mountain, a little bump to the north of Bradbury Mt. We spent close to 2 hours wandering around, getting lost and then found. Although we only covered a little more that 6 miles it was a lot of fun and a nice easy pace to keep things loose.

I'm not sure what got into me on Friday, but I decided to do some hill repeats on the roads. We received close to 2" of snow over night, and I feared that the trails would be treacherously icy, and not that the roads were much better but I figured that running up and down a cul-de-sac in my neighborhood was pretty safe. Seven times up and down seemed like enough, and hopefully not too much to hinder me on Saturday.

For some reason I was on the fence about doing the GAC Fat Ass 50k this year, I guess in part because I hadn't done much long running since the Stone Cat 50 miler in November. The month of November was intentionally my lowest mileage month of the year at 125 miles. I wasn't happy with my performance at Stone Cat and knew that I needed some significant rest time before I got back into training. Even though I was considering the 50k on January 7th and I had a steady month of running throughout December, I didn't have many significant long runs. Only three long runs between 18 and 20 miles, and an average weekly mileage in the high 40's. I felt strong and consistent, but not really what I would consider to be fully trained for a 50k race. The good thing about a Fat Ass 50k is that it's not a race, and with the multi-loop format it's easy to stop early if things aren't going well.

When I eventually decided that I was definitely going to take part I still wasn't convinced that I'd be able to finish the full distance. My goal was to run consistently, and slightly faster than a relaxed pace, but certainly not pushing it. I had pushed the pace early at Stone Cat and paid the price by slowing down quite severely.

With temperatures at the start in the upper 30's and predicted to reach 50 there was a huge group of runners, well over 100. There was a big contingent of Trail Monsters in attendance this year, but everyone had different plans/goals so I wasn't sure if I'd end up running with anyone. This was the first year that I've seen this event without snow cover, and conditions were ideal for allowing good times. Our group stuck together fairly well for the first mile or so before breaking up a bit and I settled in with Jim and then caught up to Jamie. We finished the first lap together in 53 minutes, Jim and Jamie waited while I hit the restroom. We set off on lap 2 together but first Jamie, then Jim pulled off the trail for bio-breaks and by mile 10 I was running alone. But not for long, when I finished the second lap I was in time to meet up with Nate who had been just a bit ahead of me but stopped at the aid station, so we set off together.

The one aspect of my Stone Cat approach that I chose to carry forward was to run with as much food and drink as I could reasonably carry to balance efficient running without needing to stop at the aid station for breaks. This strategy seemed to be working pretty well for me, although in hind sight I think I would have benefited from eating and drinking more of what I had with me.

Lap 3 turned out to be the fastest of the day for both Nate and I, and when we finished he took a few minutes at the aid station while I kept cruising. I figured that I had enough water in my pack to get me through another 10k lap. My pace was looking pretty good at this point, fairly consistent and on track for a good finish time, but I knew that I still had over 12 miles to go and I was starting to feel the miles already under my belt. At this point I felt pretty confident that I could complete the full 50k distance, and I just hoped that I could keep myself from crashing. My energy level was good but there was a lot of tightness in my right side from my glutes through my hamstring and into my calf. This has been on ongoing issue for me over the past two years and I began to realize that the race at the beginning of the week, and perhaps the previous days hill repeats were causing the issue to flare up again.

Luckily that tightness didn't cause much of a slow down on lap 4, and after a quick stop just to add a little more water to my bladder I was off to finish this 50k. I had run all of lap 4 alone, apart from passing a few folks and I was sure that lap 5 would be even more lonely. This was part of my downfall at Stone Cat, after a summer and fall of running with Emma and so many of my Trail Monster friends I found that I lacked the ability to really push myself when I was alone in the later stages of a long run. I let myself mentally quit at Stone Cat, but I was determined not to let that happen today.

My legs were getting tired and the tightness on the right side was getting worse. I felt like I had to work a lot harder just to maintain the pace I had been doing. I felt like I was slowing down, but it was hard to tell. My watch read 3:30 at the end of the fourth lap, so I set myself a goal of running this last lap in under an hour so I could break 4:30 for the full distance. It seemed reasonable but based on how much I've seen myself slow down in the past I knew that breaking an hour was somewhat optimistic.

Even though I didn't have anyone to run with there were still a lot of people out on the course and I frequently found someone to chase down. I picked off a few runners who were ahead of me and started lapping runners who were on their 4th lap. This helped keep me motivated and distract me from the growing discomfort in my legs. With about 1.5 miles to go all the (little) hills and technical terrain (not that there was much of that) were out of the way and I attempted to pick the pace up. I think the reality is that I began to slow down at a slower rate, which is kind of like getting faster.

I didn't check my watch until I was almost at the end, and I was so relieved to see that I was going to beat 4:30. It's not like I had that goal for a very long time (exactly 1 lap) but it was part of my larger goal to run with consistency. I crossed the line in 4:25 which was good enough for a new 50k PR on trails.

Finished 13 out of 80 who completed the full 50k distance. RESULTS

Lap 1: 55 minutes (53 minutes plus a 2 minute bio-break at the end of the lap)
Lap 2: 51 minutes
Lap 3: 50 minutes
Lap 4: 53 minutes (52 minutes plus a 1 minute stop to refill bladder)
Lap 5: 55 minutes

That's about as close to consistency as I can get, granted, it's not a 50 miler but I feel like it's a step in the right direction. And two PR's in one week is a heck of a way to start the year.

Stone Cat 50 Miler

2011-11-19T08:08:00.004-05:00

My first goal for this race was to beat my time of 8:02 from the last time I ran it, in 2009. This was in no way based on my training or how I actually felt I could run on the day, sort of a default goal to try and do better than before. To prove that I’m stronger now than I was then. On the drive down to the race with Emma, Zak and Jeremy we discussed our race plans, and I admitted that my goal was very ambitious, and that I had no idea if I was capable of making it. My time in 2009 was my fastest time for a 50 miler by a long shot, and more than 2 hours better than my time from this race in 2007 (10:10:13) which was my first 50. I realized, only as we were on our way to the race, that the most likely factor contributing to the success of my race in 2009 was that that race was my one big goal for the year. Everything else I did was about preparing for that 50 miler, my training was very specific, and it paid off. This year my goal was a 100 miler, and I expected my fitness from all the training that went into the Maine 100 Mile Wilderness and Virgil Crest 100 to carry me through the Stone Cat 50 miler. In theory that makes a lot of sense, the biggest unknown was whether or not 6 weeks was enough time for me to recover from a 32.5 hour 100 mile finish, get in a little training and then taper for Stone Cat.

With just about every race I do, no matter the distance, I struggle with setting off too fast. More often than not, if it’s a race I’ve done before, I’m trying to beat my previous time, or if I haven’t done the race I’ve set myself an ambitious goal. My typical strategy for this type of goal is to go out hard, if I want to run a fast time then I have to run fast, and why not start that way from the beginning? In a long race I expect to slow down, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I don’t think “normal” people like me can expect to run even splits in an ultra. The question is: what is an acceptable amount of slowing versus an excessive amount?
In my opinion, my 2009 race was a good example of an appropriate amount of slow-down. When I saw my time at the end of my first lap I knew I couldn’t maintain that speed for the next three laps, so I intentionally slowed down for lap 2, then laps 3 and 4 were each a few minutes slower. But I never hit the wall or crashed. My 2011 race was a good example of how not to run an ultra, or any race for that matter, with a completely inappropriate amount of slow-down.

My “training” leading up to Stone Cat didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped, and in hindsight I should have set myself a more realistic goal based on how I was feeling, rather than how I raced two years ago. Following Virgil Crest I took 5 days off from running, took it easy for the next week and then tried to get in a few decent training runs. Less than three weeks after VC I attempted a 20 miler at Pineland, but stopped at 17 because I didn’t have much energy and didn’t see the point of pushing it. I immediately followed that up with 10 and 7 mile runs on the next two days, and a few days later got in in a 20 miler at Bradbury. While my weekly mileage seemed low for 50 miler training I didn’t feel great and I should have seen that as an indication that my body was still trying to recover from the 100 miler. With a two week taper I felt pretty good going into Stone Cat, but I definitely had a lot of uncertainty about what I was capable of. Ultimately I decided that if I wanted to break 8 hours at this race I would have to go out “fast” (compared to 100 miler pace) and try to hang on.

Trail Monster Running had a large contingent of runners representing the group at this year’s race, with 12 of us toeing the line. Most of our runners spent the night at a local hotel but Emma and I drove down that morning with Zak and pacer-Jeremy for the 6:15AM start. The three other times I ran this race it was before the tweakage to daylight saving time so it always started at sunrise, but this year we started in the dark and needed headlamps for nearly the first hour. This definitely changed things a bit, partly in terms of navigation but also being able to get a sense of my position relative to other runners and for overall pacing. Despite having a fair amount of experience running at night I always find it hard to judge pace in the dark. My only other experience racing in the dark is in the context of a 100 miler, and todays pace was significantly faster than that.

The 50 miler is 4 times around a 12.5 mile loop, with two aid stations out on the course and one at the start/finish area where runners also leave drop bags. After much deliberation, and based on previous years experience with this race, I decided to carry my Nathan HPL #020 pack, loaded to the gills with a 2 liter bladder of Nuun, 7 gels, 3 Honey Stinger Wafers, S!Caps and a small bag of trail mix. This sounds like a lot, but my plan was to go as long as possible without stopping at the aid stations or making use of my drop bag. I know that, especially in a 100, I can spend far too much time at aid stations, so I hoped that I could improve my race time by reducing the amount of time that I wasn’t actually running. Since I know a lot of the folks in the GAC who work the aid stations there is a definite risk of spending too much time socializing or doing shots.

I set off at the start pretty fast, worried about getting stuck on the dark single-track trail behind too many people, although most of the first mile was double-track this turned out to be a non-issue. When we did hit the single-track I recognized Amy Lane’s voice behind me talking to another woman, it took me a few minutes to figure out that it was Aliza Lapierre. I was pretty sure I didn’t belong in front of these two talented runners. Amy’s previous times at Stone Cat were similar to my goal, but she’s been having a good year and I didn’t know what she was capable of. Aliza holds the course record of 7:19*, and also has the course record at Pineland of 6:48! I shouldn’t even be breathing the same air as her. The three of us went through the first aid station at 4.2 miles, Al Cat’s Lounge, without even slowing down and shortly after that I let the two of them pass. I asked them what their plans were for the day, to try and figure out if there was any point in me trying to hang on to their pace. I knew this was sort of a silly question, most people tend to be so modest with their goals and abilities that you never know if you’re going to get a realistic answer. They responded with something in the 7:30 to 7:45 range, which I was pretty sure was a bit too far under 8 hours for me, but knowing that they are very consistent runners, and I was going to be slowing down over the course of the race I decided I would probably be OK hanging with them for the first lap.

At the next aid station, Fast Freddie’s Café at 7.5 miles, Aliza and I cruised through again and Amy dropped back just a bit but stayed within ear shot for a while. With about two miles left in the first lap Aliza seemed to pick up the pace a bit and I knew I shouldn’t try to stay with her. It’s also possible, in fact highly likely even, that she remained consistent and I started to slow down. Either way, the result was that I was on my own, and that’s how it stayed for the rest of the race. 39.5 miles is a long time to be running alone, and I hoped that one of the other Trail Monsters would catch up to me and keep me company.

I knew that I would be out longer than the battery life of my Garmin so I didn’t bother with it today, instead relying on my lap times to judge my pace. This was a bit risky because it’s very limited feedback, and doesn’t really give much of an opportunity (only three chances) to make changes to my plan/pace as I go. I could have worked out my pacing based on the aid station mileage but I really didn’t want to be bothered with that, I much prefer to run based on how I feel, which I realize contradicts my overall race goal. Whatever. I crossed the line at the end of the first lap in 1:46:30. This was only a little bit faster than my first lap when I ran the race in 2009, so I thought that I was in good shape. With all that was in my pack there was no need for me to stop at the aid station so I just took off my headlamp and tossed it to Jeremy as I passed by. I had thought I might shed a layer here but it was still pretty cold out, probably only in the upper 30’s. Despite running fairly quickly I was finding it hard to keep warm, my hands were pretty cold and my legs were definitely aware of the cold air. Although my energy level was pretty good my legs felt a bit stiff and inefficient. I usually perform well in cooler temperatures but for some reason I was struggling a bit today. Not that I felt bad, but in hindsight I wonder if the fact that I was struggling to keep warm was an indication that my body wasn’t functioning optimally.

As I headed out on my second lap I got to see a lot of Trail Monsters and other familiar faces coming in as they finished their first lap. Amy wasn’t too far behind me, then Emma, Blaine and Zak, all looking good. I didn’t want to let myself slow down but I hoped that at least one of them would catch up. It never happened, at least not on this lap. I was alone, and without any conversation I didn’t have much to think about except for the trail. Hills that I hadn’t noticed the first time around were making themselves known, and I was surprised by how technical some sections were. It’s amazing how the company of another person can distract you from the trail. I still managed to run the entire second lap without the need for walking or even stopping at the aid stations. So far it seemed that my nutrition/hydration strategy was working well, I was saving a lot of time by not stopping at aid stations and I don’t think the extra weight was a significant burden. My total time at the end of the second lap was 3:40, giving me a lap time of 1:54. Eight minutes slower than my first lap, almost 40 seconds per mile. Not so good, but it looked like I still had a good chance of breaking 8 hours even if I continued to slow down over the second half of the race.

After 25 miles I was finally ready for an aid station break, and I needed to take a few minutes to refill my pack, and adjust my clothing now that it was warming up a bit. With help from Jeremy and Jamie I got my bladder swapped out, emptied some trash, stripped of my long sleeve shirt and put on some Moeben sleeves, then switched my knit hat for a baseball cap. Probably less than a 2 minute stop, which I was happy with. My feet were holding up well, although each lap they got soaked when we ran through a 100 yard section of flooded trail with 12” deep icy water. It took a few miles for my feet to warm up after each time I went through but thanks in part to the Hydropel I applied before the race (thanks Emma) I didn’t have any issues with hot spots or blisters.

I took off on the third lap running pretty fast, I felt good about how the race had gone so far and was confident I’d be able to break 8 hours. That changed a mile into the loop when I turned onto single-track and started to go up hill. All of a sudden my energy was gone and it seemed like an enormous struggle to get up this little hill. For the first time in the race I felt the need to walk. I never expected to run every step of the entire race, but I also didn’t expect to feel this crappy just over half way through. Coming down the other side of the hill I felt fine, but when I got to the next up it was the same story, no energy and I was forced to a walk.

As much as I wanted to stop at Al Cat’s Lounge there really wasn’t any need since I had a full pack of food and drink, so I pretended to feel good and ran past. By the time I got to Fast Freddie’s Café at about 32.5 miles I was feeling pretty low and stopped long enough to grab a few pieces of grilled cheese sandwich. Maybe I wasn’t getting enough to eat and that was contributing to my lack of energy? This was how I felt when I attempted a 20 miler at Pineland a few weeks before with Jeremy. Could it be that I wasn’t recovered from Virgil Crest?

Not long after leaving the aid station I bumped into Jamie who was on his way out to meet Kate. He turned and ran with me for a little while and we chatted. It was a great distraction from the many lonely miles I had been running, but soon enough he turned back to meet up with Kate and I was on my own again.

At the end of the third lap it was time to check my watch again and see the bad news I knew was coming. 5:53, which works out to a 2:13 lap. Damn, I was seriously slowing down. Thankfully there was a big group of Trail Monsters there to lift my spirits and help me get ready for my last lap. Val and Rick helped change the bladder in my pack and Four brought me a big plate of food from the aid station. As I headed out for the final time I felt much better and started thinking I still had a chance of breaking 8 hours. A 2 hour lap wasn’t out of the question was it? Yeah, it was. What a stupid idea. When I hit that hill on the single-track I was walking again, even slower than before. I felt pretty bad. Nothing in particular was hurting, I just felt like I had no energy.
I decided to stop at Al Cat’s on my last time through, just long enough to grab a few pieces of grilled cheese sandwich. I realized there was definitely more to the way I was feeling than a little refueling could take care of. I felt like I was eating and drinking well enough throughout the race, but that doesn’t matter if your body isn’t willing to accept being pushed that hard. By the time I reached Fast Freddie’s my quads started cramping which slowed me down even more. I decided not to stop at the aid station, I had enough in my pack to get me through the last 5 miles, even if it took me a really long time. It did take a long time. I was getting passed a lot on this last lap, and every time I tried to hang on for as long as I could, but I couldn’t keep up with anyone.

When I finally entered the field for the last time and approached the finish I was grateful to be done. My time was respectable but I wasn’t at all happy with how I got it. I finished in 8:17 which meant my last lap was 2:23. That’s 37 minutes slower than my first lap. I knew I was going to slow down, but that’s just embarrassing.

I don’t regret setting off fast, although maybe I should. In hindsight it’s obvious that I didn’t have it in me to hang on to that pace for very long, and I can’t help but wonder if I would have had a better race if I had started out more conservatively. I knew my goal of breaking 8 hours was very ambitious, and I probably should have come up with a more realistic goal based on how I was feeling going into the race. If my goal had been to break 8:30 I would have been very happy with an 8:17, but only if I ran it more consistently. 8:17 is still a good time for me, but I feel like at this stage in my running I should be able to run smarter races and not make this kind of vast miscalculation in my abilities.

The biggest difference between this race and the year I ran 8:02 is that this year I was balancing recovery and training in the 6 weeks leading up to it, and I definitely didn’t get that balance right.

RESULTS

(photos taken by various friends and reused without their permission :)

*Aliza went on to set a new course record of 7:06.

Virgil Crest 100 - Race Report

2011-09-27T05:41:00.001-04:00

“Everyone out here is hurting right now. At this point it’s all about who’s best at managing the pain.”

In the week leading up to the Virgil Crest 100 it rained pretty much every day, on top of ground that was reportedly still saturated from Hurricane Irene a few weeks prior. With this in mind Emma and I made the last minute decision to stay in a hotel the night before the race instead of camping. I’d camped at both of my previous 100 miler attempts, a shitty nights sleep and being “in touch with nature” always seemed like part of the event. But since we didn’t have a crew and we were pretty far from home we decided that a warm, dry bed after the long drive to get there was a good idea.

After an 8+ hour drive we arrived in Virgil, NY around 3:30 on Friday afternoon and found the local fire station where we picked up our numbers and schwag, a long sleeve tech shirt and handmade mug. Good stuff. The finishers buckles were on display, but I warned Emma not to jinx it by getting too close. I had handled the Maine 100 Mile Wilderness buckle before the run and ended up with a DNF so I wasn’t about to make that mistake again. We got checked into our hotel, then returned to the fire station to leave our drop bags and enjoy the pasta dinner. The pre-race meeting was underwhelming, no information that wasn’t already on the website, or found elsewhere by our obsessive research and planning process, so we left early and got back to our hotel before 8:30.

We had a good night’s sleep but the only problem with staying in a hotel a half hour from the start is that I worried about all the things that could go wrong during that relatively short drive to get there. There is something very comforting about sleeping in a tent only a few hundred yards from the start line, you know you’re going to make it on time. The good thing about the drive is that it allowed Emma to play DJ so we could rock out to the Beastie Boys, “because you can’t, you won’t, and you don’t stop.” Finding the start at Hope Lake Park was easy, even in the dark at 5:00AM. We were thankful that the relatively late start of 6:00 allowed us plenty of time. It was cool and rainy, but surprisingly, and annoyingly humid. One of the reasons I had picked this race was because I thought that late September would provide the cooler and less humid temperatures that I prefer. Oh well, it’s not like I hadn’t done most of my training in high humidity.

The race course is a double out-and-back on a 25 mile stretch of trail, primarily consisting of the Finger Lakes Trail, with a little something else thrown in at the beginning and then a sinister double up and down on the Greek Peak ski trails in the middle. 89% single-track, 7% gravel road and only 4% asphalt. Those are my kind of proportions. Although the race website throws out the number of “roughly 20,000 feet” of elevation gain, they also publish elevation details for each section between aid stations, and when you add those numbers up it comes out at 23,410 feet of gain and equal loss. Either way, that’s a lot of hills and way more than anything else I’ve ever attempted. The Vermont 100, the only other 100 I’ve completed, has a measly 14,000’ of elevation gain, and the 100 Mile Wilderness, which I did not finish, has about the same amount.

We made the final pre-race check in, then caught up with fellow Trail Monster George, and found a few other familiar faces (Nick, Ryan and Kristina) to chat with and calm the nerves. It wasn’t long before we all filtered out into the rainy morning, turned on our headlamps and lined up facing an uncertain darkness ahead. With the sputtering blow of a ram’s horn the crowd moved forward between rows of burning tiki torches. After about 100 yards of grass we picked up a narrow paved path that meandered through the grounds of Hope Lake Park and our group of 150 runners stretched out into a single file line of little bobbing lights.

Hope Lake Park to Gravel Pit: 4.4 miles, 990’ gain, 575’ loss.
0:49:47

It was hard to believe that Emma and I were once again setting off together on a 100 mile adventure, just 7 weeks after our last attempt. A year ago at this time we weren’t even able to think about running ultras, a half marathon was our fall racing goal. The plan Emma and I had agreed to was that we’d stick together for the first two aid stations, to 9.7 miles. Then we’d hit the serious hilly section of the race where we both thought I’d be faster, so it would make sense for us to each do our own thing. In the week before the race Emma was having serious foot pain, bad enough to make her and her chiropractor think she might have a stress fracture. And then there were the knee problems that have been plaguing her for the past three years and were the reason she pulled out of the 100 Mile Wilderness. Less than a mile into the run I had already started to doubt our plan, wouldn’t it be much more enjoyable to just run the whole thing together?

I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself so I just enjoyed where we were at the moment. It didn’t take long for the sky to begin to lighten, but under the heavy tree canopy we needed to keep our headlamps on. Emma and I caught up with Kristina who was running the 50 miler and we stuck together for the first few miles, and went back and forth with a few other friendly folks. It became immediately clear that it was pointless to try to keep our feet dry, the ground was just too wet, not to mention that it was raining. The trail was mostly double-track in the early miles which was good for allowing us all to settle into our appropriate pace. The first aid station seemed to come pretty quickly so we just grabbed a quick drink and moved through without really stopping. We were less than an hour in and my breakfast was still churning over in my stomach, no need to refuel yet, but I did remind myself to eat early and often.

Gravel Pit to Lift House 5: 5.3 miles (9.7 total), 730’ gain, 1320’ loss.
0:59:16 (1:49:31)

After the mostly uphill first stretch this next section felt pretty fast, and now that the sun was up (although still behind clouds) we were able to pick the pace up a bit. The terrain soon turned more technical with genuine single track, roots, mud, tight turns and numerous gullies that crossed the trail. Apparently the downhill running helped move my breakfast along and I felt the need for a bio-break, which I hated to do while we had such a good pace going and were amongst such a good group of runners. Emma and I both pulled off the trail but each found our own private spots.

Shortly after our pit stop we came out to the only section of paved road on the course, a mile long downhill with what we could only imagine were great views beyond the clouds and fog. This brought us in to the next aid station, Lift House 5, that we would see 8 times during the course of the run. Emma filled up her bladder while I searched for our drop bag. We left our headlamps here, not because we needed them on the previous stretch but this is where we thought we’d want to pick them up before it got dark on our way back through. Not having a crew required a little additional planning but this was what we wanted, to do it all ourselves.

photo courtesy of Nick Tooker

Lift House 5 to Lift House 5: 4.2 miles (13.9 total), 1450’ gain, 1450’ loss.
1:03:29 (3:01:00)

By the time we started the climb up the Greek Peak ski slopes on the east side of Virgil Mountain I had already decided I would stick with Emma through our first pass of the “Alpine Loop”. She’s always been better at pacing herself than I am and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet. The trails up the mountain were a combination of access roads, steep ski slopes and insanely steep single-track. Some runners got out trekking poles, and others found branches to help out on the climb. We just went for the classic hands-on-knees approach. The only good thing about the steep hills is that they shed water pretty quickly so this was one of the driest parts of the course, and by now the rain had stopped.

After about a 600’ climb (with a stretch at 21% grade) we dropped back down, then faced another 600’+ climb to what most of us thought was the highest point. A 50 miler who had run the race last year warned us to hold off on the celebrations because there was one final climb before we were really on our way down. Once we did finally hit the high point of the loop we had a drop of about 800’ in 1.5 miles to get back to the aid station at the bottom of the mountain. This section of the course reminded me a bit of the Loon Mountain and Mt Cranmore races, except in this race we didn’t dare go all out on the downhills since we knew we had to run it 4 times, with many miles in between.

Once back at the Lift house 5 aid station (you hit it at the beginning and end of the Alpine Loop) I refilled the bladder in my Nathan pack, we both grabbed some food and an Ensure to drink on the next stretch.

Lift House 5 to Rock Pile: 6.1 miles (20 total), 1570’ gain, 1120’ loss.
1:21:00 (4:26:00)

I knew there was a climb coming up but failed to look at any of the information I had with me defining how much of climb. Turns out it’s actually the biggest climb of the whole race, going back up Virgil Mountain, this time all the way to the summit. At least it was a little more gradual, but then it was also more muddy. Oh well, no one does 100 mile trail races because they’re easy.

After summitting Virgil Mt we had one of the most runnable and enjoyable stretches of the race, a very gradual downhill over the next few miles on tight single track. We did pop out onto a dirt road for about a half mile where we caught up to and passed a few runners, then back into the woods for more muddy single track. In places it was hard to tell the difference between the trail and one of the many streams that crossed it, but Emma and I never really had any trouble finding our way. There was a short and easy climb up to the Rock Pile aid station where Emma filled her bladder again, we grabbed some goodies from our drop bags and food from the tables and got moving as quickly as we could.

Rock Pile to Daisy Hollow Rd: 5.1 miles (25.1 total), 1250’ gain, 1250’ loss.
1:03:30 (5:35:30)

Shortly after leaving the aid station we started to hear the famous dog barking. He lives at the bottom of a valley and gets a bit agitated with runners going by. It was going to be a long day for him too. After a very enjoyable downhill run we passed the dog’s house and began another climb on fairly technical terrain. There were actually ropes coming down the hill in a few places to help pull yourself up with. Once we reached the top of this short but steep climb there was another fairly flat and easily runnable stretch. The terrain was technical in spots, plenty of mud and quite a few logs across the trail to step over (mtn bike control).

A few miles before the turnaround at the next aid station we started seeing the lead runners coming back towards us. The first place woman in the 100 miler was 3rd overall, Acidotic Racing’s Ryan was in 5th, and Kristina was in 2nd or 3rd in the 50. When we saw Nick, who had passed us on the Alpine Loop, he told us we were about 1 minute from the aid station. I had counted about sixteen 100 milers ahead of us but there were a lot of people at the aid station when we arrived and keeping track of who was ahead became much less important than just looking after our own needs and getting moving again. I filled my bladder, but we didn’t have a drop bag here so we made this stop a quick one.

Daisy Hollow Rd to Rock Pile: 5.1 miles (30.2 total), 1250’ gain, 1250’ loss.
1:14:40 (6:54:11)

Hitting the turnaround was a major milestone. ¼ of the way done, we were having fun and feeling good. Despite having made an elaborate pace chart with various predicted finishing times based on our arrival at each aid station I didn’t feel compelled to look at it. I was content running with Emma at whatever pace felt right for the terrain we were on. By now we had decided that we’d stick together for the rest of the race, no matter what happened. Sharing this experience together was much more important than trying to beat a specific time or another runner.

Our way back to the Rock Pile was slower than on the way out, in part due to having to negotiate the trail with all the runners coming at us. The other factor was an increase in pee breaks, which I mention because both of us seem to have some issues balancing fluid and electrolyte intake in the right proportions. Since we were both soaked from the morning rain it was hard to tell how much we were sweating and neither of us were taking S!Caps (although we were carrying them), instead relying on the Nuun we were drinking, GU and various salty foods to get our electrolytes.

Shortly before reaching the Rock Pile we bumped into George who was coming down the hill towards us, with his usual big smile. We stopped to chat for a minute, I mentioned my suffering feet and George told me he had blister treatment stuff in one of his drop bags that I was welcome to use. By now I had wet feet for almost 7 hours and was ready for some dry socks so we planned to make this a somewhat longer stop. We both filled our bladders with help from Nick’s crew, changed our socks, Emma applied more band aids to her heels, and we grabbed some food from the aid station. What a difference a change of socks can make. I could feel some hot spots developing on my feet, but the dry socks seemed to make them feel a lot better.

Rock Pile to Lift House 5: 6.1 miles (36.3 total), 1120’ gain, 1570’ loss.
1:23:35 (8:26:51)

The biggest heartbreak of the race came less than 10 minutes after leaving the Rock Pile aid station: a 20’ wide stream crossing. Normally I wouldn’t mind a stream crossing, but I had just changed my socks. What a waste. I don’t know why I hadn’t remembered that this was coming up. With freshly soaked shoes and socks the hot spots on my feet continued to flare up and I was pretty sure blisters were forming. I was looking forward to changing my shoes but didn’t want to do it too soon since I only had one spare pair. I had 3 more pairs of socks to get me through the rest of the race but I knew I needed to be smarter about when I changed them.

By the time we got back to Lift House 5 I was ready for the change, the big descent from the top of Virgil Mt to the aid station really messed up my feet and I needed to assess the damage. Much to my surprise I couldn’t find any significant blisters amongst the white wrinkled mess that was my feet. With a little more help from Nick’s crew we took care of things as quickly as possible, I put on another pair of dry socks and switched to my Roclite 295’s. If I’d had another pair of X-Talon 212’s I probably would have put them on, but at this point anything dry was a treat. Emma took a few minutes to apply BioFreeze to her foot and knee, and we both applied muscle rub to our quads in preparation for our second trip around the Alpine Loop. Emma had told me before we started not to ask her about any of her aches and pains during run, that topic of conversation was off limits. Although she hadn’t mentioned that anything was bothering her I suspected that she was attempting to treat pain rather than prevent it.

Lift House 5 to Lift House 5: 4.2 miles (40.5 total), 1450’ gain, 1450’ loss.
1:22:59 (9:56:53)

We set off up the hill with the “Orange Shirt Guy” with whom we had been leap-frogging all morning. We were moving slightly faster than him but he was much quicker in and out of the aid stations. We soon decided it was time for another bio-break and he moved ahead, but it wouldn’t be the last time we saw him. Our pace was definitely slower this time around the loop, mostly due to the way we ran down the hills. With the way Emma’s knee and my feet were feeling the downhills were definitely the most uncomfortable and we were unable to take advantage of the potential for faster miles here. Our climbing was still pretty strong and we focused on having fun and the things that weren’t hurting. Generally speaking we were in good shape and everything was going well. By now the clouds had started to break up and we were rewarded with some great views from the ski slopes.

Back at Lift House 5 again I needed to reassess my feet. I looked for George’s drop bag but couldn’t find anything for treating blisters, and as it turned out there wasn’t much that needed to be done to my feet. They looked and felt pretty bad but there weren’t actually any blisters that needed to be drained. We grabbed our headlamps here, even though darkness was still a few hours away we knew we’d need them before we returned to this spot. The aid station crew was getting the hot food going and we enjoyed a few perogies before heading back out. By now the aid station volunteers were starting to recognize the runners, and the race director was making the rounds as well so it was great to get support from them. We were recognized as the married-couple-running-together and we definitely got a boost every time we came through an aid station.

Lift House 5 to Gravel Pit: 5.3 miles (45.8 total), 1320’ gain, 730’ loss.
1:25:46 (11:33:40)

Now we got to “run” the paved section in the opposite direction, this time up hill. We were mostly walking it. Back into the woods we settled into a comfortable running pace and were able to cruise along pretty well, but there seemed to be a lot more mud than on the way out, clearly the result of all the people that had churned things up throughout the course of the day. As we approached the Gravel Pit aid station we started to see the lead runners coming out for their second half of the race, this was a fun part of the double-out-and-back format. When we arrived at the Gravel Pit we were looking for more Ensure but for some reason didn’t have any in our drop bags. A cup of warm tortellini hit the spot though and after a quick chat with the #4 runner and his pacer about Pineland we were on our way to finish up the first half of the race.

Gravel Pit to Hope Lake Park: 4.4 miles (50.2 total), 575’ gain, 990’ loss.
0:57:26 (12:37:14)

There was a nice long downhill stretch coming out of the aid station, but thankfully not too steep so we were able to run it well. In fact, we ran very well all the back to Hope Lake Park, fueled by the excitement of almost being half way done with the race. The sun was getting low and I was glad that we’d get the first half done before dark, but I was also looking forward to running through the night, the change of scenery – or lack thereof – would help make the double out-and-back seem less repetitive.

On the paved path just before we reached the half way mark we once again caught up to “Orange Shirt Guy” and we finally introduced ourselves. We also met up with two young kids, presumably children of the aid station volunteers, who were very excited about running us in to the aid station. We didn’t have a drop bag at this aid station so we attempted to make it a quick stop, but the reality was that after 12+ hours of running all our stops were taking a while. It was dinner time so we mowed down a few spicy hummus wraps, drank some Mt Dew and chatted to the volunteers and few 50 milers who had just finished.

When one of the volunteers asked what we thought of the course I responded “It’s a course so nice you have to run it twice!” With that we headed out into the sunset for the second half of our 100 mile adventure.

Hope Lake Park to Gravel Pit: 4.4 miles (54.6 total), 990’ gain, 575’ loss.
1:12:17 (13:59:16)

A huge sense of relief came over me now that we were more than half way through the race, even though we still had a very long way to go it all seemed manageable. Of course we were beginning to get tired, and we had a few aches and pains but the finish seemed like it was within reach. Over the next 45 miles that feeling faded substantially.

Shortly after leaving Hope Lake Park we turned on our headlamps, we were each carrying one on our head and one around the waist. The bellylamp, as I like to call it, is great for illuminating the ground immediately in front while the headlamp works for spotting further up the trail. The climb back up to the Gravel Pit was slowed by the slick mud that reduced the efficiency of every step. Tortellini was still on the menu when we returned to the Gravel Pit so we each grabbed another cup and ate while we accessed our drop bags. We took the dry socks from our drop bags with us, and decided to save them for a time when we really needed them. Emma was still in a t-shirt at this point but I had switched to a long sleeve top. I also had a hat and gloves, which weren’t needed while we were running but standing around at the aid stations got chilly pretty quick.

Gravel Pit to Lift House 5: 5.3 miles (59.9 total), 730’ gain, 1320’ loss.
1:28:13 (15:34:17)

About 20 minutes after leaving the aid station we bumped into George who was not looking happy. It turned out that one of the aid station volunteers had sent him the wrong way and he ended up running a few extra miles. Major bummer. This made Emma and I even more glad that we had each other as we went later into the night. The next few miles of technical, muddy terrain were a lot of fun even though we were starting to slow down a lot. Slowing was to be expected given the distance we had already covered and the fact that it was now dark, but the fact that we were having fun and still enjoying each others company was a treat.

Back at Lift House 5 for the fifth time, and about to set off on our third trip around the Alpine Loop we took an especially long break to get ourselves ready. We both changed our shorts, 15 hours in the same pair of wet shorts is long enough. I also decided it was finally time to take care of my feet so I sat next to the fire and borrowed some blister treatment supplies from another runner. I drained 3 or 4 blisters, but put the same wet socks back on. This was one of the times when I wished we had a crew, we must have spent well over 20 minutes here. Oh well, I had long since given up worrying about how long this was going to take us. We had to do what we had to do to get it done.

Lift House 5 to Lift House 5: 4.2 miles (64.1 total), 1450’ gain, 1450’ loss.
1:49:43 (17:44:00)

Messing with my feet actually made them feel worse. The ups weren’t too bad but the steep descents on the ski slopes were killing me. I knew Emma was in pain but she wasn’t talking about it so I kept my discomfort to myself and just tried to focus on getting through this section. Emma pointed out the clear night sky, and the stars helped to provide a much needed distraction. I really was a perfect night to be out on a mountain.

Lift House 5 to Rock Pile: 6.1 miles (70.2 total), 1570’ gain, 1120’ loss.
2:29:00 (20:33:00)

It was around midnight as we made our way up the long climb to the summit of Vigil Mountain, fatigue was starting to set in but our spirits were still high. Despite the painful issues we were both having we spoke of them very infrequently. We caught up to and passed another runner on the way up, while he was treating his own blister. He then got us back while we were taking another bio-break. We leap-frogged with him several more times over the remaining miles, but never actually ran with or even spoke to him since he was wearing headphones.

At the Rock Pile aid station I had lentil soup and Emma ate chicken noodle. All the aid stations had a great selection of food, and the hot stuff was very much appreciated at night. I changed my socks again here, since we went through that 20’ long stream crossing shortly before reaching the aid station. I was finally starting to remember the layout of the course.

Rock Pile to Daisy Hollow Rd: 5.1 miles (75.3 total), 1250’ gain, 1250’ loss.
1:57:30 (22:36:08)

Much to our surprise the famous dog was still barking as we descended into the valley, although he was clearly getting weary from a full day at it. He wasn’t the only one, tiredness was really starting to set in and we were seriously slowing down. When we arrived at the turnaround at Daisy Hollow Rd it felt like another major milestone, and I wanted to celebrate by taking a nap by the fire. I had perhaps gotten to the point of not caring enough about time, had I been on my own I surely would have given in. I did sit down but Emma wouldn’t let me sleep.

Daisy Hollow Rd to Rock Pile: 5.1 miles (80.4 total), 1250’ gain, 1250’ loss.
1:52:05 (24:41:50)

Once we started moving again I was glad we hadn’t stopped for any longer. With every step we knew that we were covering this ground for the last time. Running became less and less common as the mud was at it’s best and our coordination was at it’s worst. There were numerous downed trees along this stretch, which were barely noticable 20 hours early but now destroyed any sense of rhythm we had each time we had to step over. Just as we’d get the momentum back up we’d have to slow back down to step over another log.
On the way down into the valley of the barking dog we passed George again. The smile was still missing from his face, you know it’s a tough course when George isn’t smiling. We said goodbye to the barking dog and headed up the hill to the Rock Pile as the sun was rising. This time we were greeted with grilled cheese sandwiches at the aid station. Perfect.

Rock Pile to Lift House 5: 6.1 miles (86.5 total), 1120’ gain, 1570’ loss.
2:13:28 (27:03:00)

Emma started to point out to me that my running pace was at times equivalent to her walking pace but far less efficient. I appreciated the advice but was annoyed that I couldn’t get myself to move quicker. Our conversation became focused on survival. We had every reason to believe that we would finish this race, but in our delicate, exhausted, aching state we feared that pushing too hard could lead to a disaster that would prevent one of us from finishing. Downhills were killing both of us in different ways, and we knew there were a few big ones coming up. Not to mention a few big climbs that would continue to drain what little energy we had left in us.

When we reached Lift House 5 for the seventh time, before starting our fourth and final time around the Alpine Loop we took another long break while I tended to my feet. I drained some new blisters, redrained some old ones, and changed into dry socks for the last time. I also made sure that we both ate and drank plenty. At this point it was too easy to forget about fueling up, but the reality was that we still had anywhere from 4 to 6 hours to go before we finished and it was time for breakfast.

Lift House 5 to Lift House 5: 4.2 miles (90.7 total), 1450’ gain, 1450’ loss.
2:01:01 (29:19:01)

For the last time around the Alpine Loop we pretty much walked the entire thing, especially the downs. The ups were exhausting and the downs were excruciating. We tried to stay positive and encourage each other, but we both feared that something could go terribly wrong and end the race for us. At least the views were nice. The sun was out and it was warming up. In fact, it was starting to get hot on the exposed ski slopes and it was only 9 in the morning. Near the top of the ski mountain we started to see the 50k runners coming towards us, they started at 8AM on Sunday. It was strange to see people moving so fast and effortlessly, everyone else we had come across looked like a zombie.

The final steep descent to the aid station just about killed us, I think it would have been less painful and a lot quicker if I had curled up into a ball and just rolled down the hill. We eventually got into Lift House 5 for the last time and we were grateful to be done with the Alpine Loop. I put my wet t-shirt back on since it was getting pretty hot, and we made sure everything was packed back into our drop bag.

Lift House 5 to Gravel Pit: 5.3 miles (96.0 total), 1320’ gain, 730’ loss.
1:56:06 (31:19:30)

I wanted to run out from the aid station since it was an easy stretch of dirt road, but it took a long time to build the momentum up to what could be considered a running pace, and it was a lot more painful than I thought it would be. The hard surface of the road was not good for my tenderized feet. Soon enough we reached the long climb on Carson Road and it was like a death march going up. Mid way up the hill there was a guy with a camera and he asked “do you think you could kick in the run for the camera?” I responded with “only if you give me a dollar for every mile I’ve run so far, and that’s more than 90.” He was there for the 50k runners and didn’t realize that we’d been at it for close to 30 hours at this point.

Near the top of the hill we heard a buzzing coming from the nearby bushes, bees apparently, but even a few stings couldn’t get Emma running again until we’d crested the hill. Back in the woods we wanted desperately to run consistently, but every little dip in the trail, mud hole, downed tree and rocky or rooty section forced us to a walking pace. This section was so much fun the first few times through but was now taking forever, with the mud factor made worse by all the 50k runners who had recently come though with their fast moving blender-like feet that chopped up the ground and made a big soupy mess.

This stretch was definitely the lowest point of the race for both of us. We wanted so desperately to be done, we’d had enough of “enjoying the experience” and just wanted to get off the trail. I knew we could finish, but being relatively close doesn’t actually make it any easier to get there. Every time I thought “the next aid station is right around the corner” it wasn’t. There was another little hill, or more trail that didn’t look like anything we had run before. I started to think that maybe we’d gone off course because nothing looked familiar, but periodically a 50k runner would come up from behind and give us some encouragement, and helped to let us know that we were on the right track.

As we eventually neared the Gravel Pit aid station we started to recognize where we were and a huge sense of relief came over us. In an instant we went from thinking “this nightmare will never end” to “we’re going to get this done”. This was our last aid station of the race and we were all business as we prepped for the final stretch. By now the temperature was into the 80’s so we made sure we had enough fluid to get through the last few miles, but we emptied anything extra from our packs. Emma changed into a fresh Trail Monster singlet and donned her saltire buff.

Gravel Pit to Hope Lake Park: 4.4 miles (100.4 total), 575’ gain, 990’ loss.
1:01:46 (32:27:00)

Before now Emma was unwilling to accept that a finish was guaranteed, but once we left the final aid station the realization that we were definitely going to complete this 100 mile run almost overwhelmed us. Fueled by our excitement we broke into a run and when we looked at each other we both had tears in our eyes. We hit the muddy sections head-on and negotiated the trail with a speed that didn’t belong at this late stage of the run. The pain wasn’t gone it became insignificant, the pride and joy of our accomplishment together displaced the discomfort.

When we emerged from the woods onto the paved path that leads circuitously to the finish we could see the end, and hear the volunteers cheering. George’s wife Ann was there and her voice carried across the lake. After nearly 32 and a half hours we put on our best impression of a sprint and crossed the line holding hands. It wasn’t my plan to run the entire race with Emma, but the further we got the more I valued her company and by the end it was clear that I wouldn’t have been able to get through it without her.

photo by Ann Alexion

The race director was there and he immediately presented us with our belt buckles.

Place: 15 out of 28 finishers, 54 starters
Complete Results
Race Photos

Maine 100 Mile Wilderness Run

2011-08-11T21:12:00.000-04:00

Maine 100 Mile Wilderness - Abol Bridge to Monson - August 5-6, 2011

The story of my training and preparation for the 100 Mile Wilderness is an essay in and of itself, suffice to say that I went into this adventure feeling confident, prepared, and looking forward to the time I would spend with Emma, Jeremy, and the nine others taking part. Emma and I were being crewed by our friends Mindy and Pete, we drove up to Abol Bridge together on Thursday afternoon and set up camp that evening. Never having been there before we thought it wise to at least locate the trail head, which turned out to be only about ¼ mile from our campground.

Emma and I woke at 3:30 AM, had a quick breakfast and got suited up for the day with 12 pound packs and headlamps. For food and drink I was carrying with me 3 liters of diluted Nuun, a 16 oz handheld bottle, a bottle of Ensure, 2 GUs, a few S!Caps, 1 Honey Stinger Wafer and a bag of trail mix. My additional gear consisted of a first aid kit, map, compass, toilet paper, digital camera and video camera. I was anxious to get going and the time passed quickly until our group of 12 met at Abol Bridge at 4:45 AM. After introductions I went over a few details for the runners and their crew, and we all walked across the bridge over the Penobscot. In what little light there was at 5:00 AM we could just barely see each other on the road, but the trail was a black tunnel leading into the unknown. I counted down from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 we stepped off the pavement and into the Wilderness…

0 miles Abol Bridge (588’) START
For some reason I felt like the other runners were holding back waiting for someone to lead the way, so I went to the front and set the pace for the first ¼ mile. Jason Smith (7:16 @ Pineland 50 mile) was right behind me and we chatted for a few minutes, it was obvious he was taking a different approach to this run than me and I knew I didn’t belong out front so I pulled over to get a video shot of everyone running past. I had tried to make it clear to everyone that this was not a race, but everyone is entitled to approach it however they like. I feared for anyone who had a racing mentality going into this. Even though none of us knew the terrain I felt like I had a more realistic expectation than some of the others and knew that going out hard was not a good plan.

3.5 miles Hurd Brook Lean-to (710’)
Roger was telling a story and I had to tell him to keep quiet as we went past the lean-to so as not to disturb the sleeping hikers. I was cognizant not to allow our adventure interfere with anyone else’s enjoyment of the Wilderness. Roger is a very accomplished road marathoner, and will be the first to admit that trail running is not his strength, but in these early miles he was moving well. Emma and Jeremy weren’t far behind, but I found myself moving at Roger's pace rather than theirs so I let him go and settled in with my fellow Trail Monsters.

6.0 miles Rainbow Ledges (1,517’)
Looking at the elevation profile there is apparently a climb up to Rainbow Ledges but it doesn’t stick out in my mind. It was too early in the day and we were feeling too good to take notice of a small, gradual uphill. Emma, Jeremy, Joe and I stopped briefly for a photo, had hoped to catch a view of Katahdin but the air was thick with fog and there was no view to be had. The weather forecast called for maximum humidity in the morning, one of my biggest fears, but at least the temperature was low enough for relative comfort.

7.8 miles Rainbow Lake (east end)
Views of the lake were filtered through the trees and although there could have been views towards Katahdin the fog and cloud cover was still thick enough to prevent us from being distracted. In an attempt to warn Emma about an upcoming hazard Jeremy called out “teeter totter” after stepping on a pivoting bog bridge. Unfortunately in Scotland they don’t use the word “teeter totter” so Emma had no idea what he was talking about and almost wiped out when she hit the log.

11.2 miles Rainbow Spring Campsite
The four of us stopped here to grab a bite to eat and Joe went down to the spring near the lake to refill with water. The terrain along the side of Rainbow Lake was very wet, muddy and rooty and it was very hard to get in any kind of running rhythm. Finally the humidity was starting to break, the temperature was still relatively cool and although I was pretty much wet from head to toe the air at least felt better. I drank an Ensure, it seemed a bit early but I didn’t have a big breakfast and I didn’t want my stomach to forget that it needed to work today too. My eating strategy has become to eat early, and consistently throughout the long run and try to minimize the large, one-off intakes of food.

13.0 miles Rainbow Lake (west end) Side Trail
During this first section there were several opportunities to divert from the trail and take in scenic views but we were focused on keeping our heads down, sticking to the trail and trying to cover as much terrain as efficiently as possible while we all felt good. That’s not to say that we were trying to get miles in the bank, the pace was easy but focused.

15.0 miles Rainbow Stream Lean-to (1,020’)
There was a dramatic river crossing here across a couple of too-thin logs above fast moving water and a rocky riverbed. Emma took off ahead to find a spot for a pee break, Jeremy and I followed shortly thereafter and Joe and Julian weren’t far behind. I assumed that Jeremy and I had surely passed Emma squatting off-trail, so we started walking to allow her to catch up, but all of a sudden we spotted her coming out of the woods about 50 yards ahead. It was lucky we saw her when we did because if we had been a little bit further back she would have assumed we were off in front and ran to catch us, while Jeremy and I would have kept moving slowly to allow her to catch up resulting in us splitting up for the rest of this first leg. Once we regrouped we found ourselves in a stretch that was a bit more consistently runnable which felt good for a change.

17.4 miles Pollywog Stream (682’)
By now we’d settle into as good a rhythm as could be expected. Overall the terrain was technically pretty nuts, although mellow in terms of elevation. We were having fun telling stories and making jokes and I thought “yeah, I can do this all day and night… and into the next day.”

18.8 miles Crescent Pond (west end)

It was along this stretch that I captured what would turn out to be my favorite photo from the whole run. There was a gradual climb of a few hundred feet over the last few miles to the first crew checkpoint, the terrain was becoming less rooty and more rocky, with a high tree canopy and lush ground cover of ferns and moss. Large boulders were scattered across the hillside, glacial erratics topped with toupees of fern. Absorbed in the terrain, time became unimportant, almost irrelevant. I was beginning to realize that moving at a comfortable pace was more important than beating the clock, enjoying the experience was more important that finishing faster than the guys who did this last year.

20.0 miles Pollywog Gorge CHECKPOINT #1
As we approached the first crew stop we could here voices up ahead so we gave a few shouts to let them know we were coming in. When we arrived there were chairs set up with our drop bags in the seats, our gear boxes nearby and the crew, Pete & Mindy, moved quickly to take care of our needs. There wasn’t much room for parking on this stretch of dirt road but luckily it was a very quiet area so we didn’t have to worry about logging trucks going past. While we were getting socks changed and bladders refilled Joe and Julian came along, paused very briefly and moved across the road to continue along the trail. Since both of them were running without crew there was no reason for them to stop here.

Pete told us we were doing good on time, I think it took us about 5 hours to cover the first 20 miles, but I really wasn’t paying attention to time. For the sake of record keeping and planning another attempt I can see the value of keeping track of time in and out of each of the crew stops, but in the moment all that mattered was making sure I was prepared to take on the next section. I drank another Ensure, ate a few mouthfuls of mashed potatoes, restocked my supply of gels, S!Caps and Nuun, took another bag of trail mix, changed into dry socks and shirt, but kept the same wet shoes and shorts on.

21.2 miles Nesuntabunt Mountain (1,520’)
The second leg of our journey started out with a steep climb up Nesuntabunt Mountain, about 550’ in just over 1 mile. The fog was finally clearing, humidity dissipating and the temperature rising, but under the dense tree cover it felt very comfortable. The views from the top were good, but distant cloud cover obscured some of the mountains so we didn’t linger.

23.1 miles Wadleigh Stream Lean-to
After the steep descent from Nesuntabunt the terrain leveled out and became somewhat runnable again. We passed a lot of hikers through this stretch, most of them smelled like section hikers but there were definitely a few through hikers. Most were very friendly, several seemed confused as to why there would be so many people moving so quickly out here and with no camping gear. Several seemed to think we were racing and attempted to tell us how far ahead the next runners were.

Just as we started to feel the temperature warming up we were rewarded with a stony beach on Nahmakanta Lake where we stopped for a quick cooling off. The water right at the shore didn’t feel as cool as we had hoped but it felt great to rinse our faces and hands. Emma went in up to her knees and found the deeper water to be very refreshing.

25.7 miles Nahmakanta Lake (south end) (650’)
From the lake we followed Nahmakanta Stream along very level ground that had a few good opportunities for running, with the occasional root cluster or bog bridge thrown in to make sure we didn’t get too carried away.

28.9 miles Nahmakanta Stream Campsite
Shortly after passing the campsite Jeremy and I discovered we were both extremely low on water, and realizing that the next spring was about 4 miles away we decided to get water from the river. I filled my bladder about ¾ full, dropped in 6 iodine tablets and finally got the chance to use the handheld bottle I had been carrying for the first 30 miles. I drank from the handheld for the next half hour until the iodine had done its job, then put the empty bottle back in my pack.

32.6 miles Pemadumcook Lake (southwest shore)
After leaving Nahmakanta Stream we hit a very wet section of trail that was either slippery bog bridges or root infested trail. I hate bog bridges, they look easy, but are more often than not half rotten and slick as shit. Early on we started calling these “wonky logs” because in Scotland they don’t use the term “teeter totter”. Anyway, there were a lot of wonky logs in this section, so many that we had to start abbreviating the term to just “wonk.”

33.2 miles Potaywadjo Spring Lean-to (710’)
By now Emma was dangerously low on water, but just in time to refill at the spring where we found Julian refilling his bladder and Joe looking for the trail. The spring is only a short distance off the trail and is very easy to access, with the freshest water filling a shallow pool before flowing down into Pemadumcook Lake. Joe and Julian took off ahead, Emma, Jeremy and I were just a few minutes behind but in no hurry to catch up.

35.0 miles Sand Beach, Lower Jo-Mary Lake
Just as we could start to notice that the temperature was maxing out for the day we came across the most beautiful, white sandy beach on Lower Jo-Mary Lake. The three of us dropped our packs on the beach and waded into the lake to cool off. We were already soaked from sweat and the wet trails so a little additional water didn’t make things worse and actually did a great job perking us up. Within a few minutes of getting back on the trail we were greeted with another fantastic surprise, Mindy running down the trail towards us! It was wonderful to see her and we were grateful that she hadn’t gone past while we were cooling off in the lake. I’m not sure that I gave her the warmest welcome though, I think my exact words were: “it will be so nice to hear someone else fart.”

Mindy reported it was 5.67 miles back to the road she had come from and Checkpoint #2, which sounded like an incredibly short distance but seemed to take a long time to cover. She also reported that she had seen all the other runners ahead of us in this section, which made it seem like we weren’t that far behind, but we were.

36.7 miles Antlers Campsite (500’)
The trail got a little confusing through here as we couldn’t see any white blazes, but plenty of blue ones on the trails to the lean-to, lake and privy.

38.0 miles Mud Pond (outlet)
There were a couple fun river crossings here, not quite the drama we were hoping for but nice to cool the feet off. Mindy’s company provided a mental boost to all three of us and put us in a good frame of mind to tackle the next section where we knew the terrain would start to get a little more difficult.

40.9 miles Jo-Mary Road CHECKPOINT #2
After being wet for most of the last 11 hours I felt the effects of trench-foot and swamp-ass and couldn’t wait to make a complete wardrobe change. The combination of Hydropel on my feet and the roomy toe box of my Roclite 295’s meant that my forefoot was slipping around inside my shoe with every uneven footfall (which was pretty much every one). I was also starting to get some chafing on my undercarriage from the wet compression shorts and around my waist from pack. Clean, dry clothes never felt so good.

Apart from the dead body on the ground it was a like a little party at Checkpoint #2, everyone was in good spirits with lots of stories to tell. The body belonged to Jason, apparently he wasn’t dead, but had knackered his knee about 10 miles before the checkpoint and had no choice but to destroy it as he struggled to make his was to the checkpoint. Roger was also there and had decided to drop, this kind of terrain was not his cup of tea. The third member of their group, Hogan, had gone on ahead some time before and was hoping to meet their crew for the first time at Checkpoint #3, but Roger had to call the crew back to pick him and Jason up. When Hogan arrived at Checkpoint #3 his crew wasn’t there and he had to rely on other crews for support. This situation is the perfect example of why I said, long before we started, that every runner needs to have their own crew.

Mindy, Pete and Alison (Jeremy’s crew) moved like pros to take care of our needs and get us back on our way as quickly as possible. I ate more mashed potatoes here, a few mini bagel pizzas, and drank a Mt Dew, then refilled my food supplies with the same as before, this time taking 2 bottles of Ensure. I changed into my glasses and also made sure to pack my headlamp, we realized that we were starting to slow down and it was beginning to look unlikely that we would finish the next section before it started to get dark. Joe had already come through before we arrived, Julian was there when we arrived and left right behind us. Even though Julian was attempting to do this unsupported his wife was still there to meet him at the checkpoints in case there was a change of plans. After a quick plank in the middle of Jo-Mary Road Emma, Jeremy and I took off with heavy packs but a renewed sense of energy and enthusiasm for the section ahead.

44.6 miles Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to (880’)
Somewhere around here I saw my first hallucination of the trip, a little winged frog flew right in front of me across the trail. I was surprised that my mind was playing tricks on me so early on, and quite disappointed that I had not discovered a new species of avian amphibian. Turns out it was just a falling birch leaf.

46.9 miles Crawford Pond (outlet)
The decision to bring our headlamps on this section brought about the realization that we were moving very slowly. We ran every chance that we had, but overall our pace was slower than I had expected. At this point I had no doubt that we would finish, but I was trying to come to terms with the fact that it was going to take much longer than I had anticipated.

49.2 miles Little Boardman Mountain (1,980’)
The stretch of trail between 40 and 57 miles is pretty much all uphill, with Little Boardman Mountain making up the next appreciable climb. The sun was getting low as we climbed and I had hopes of great sunset views from the top but there was too much tree cover to really enjoy the scenery. Coming down off Little Boardman we turned our headlamps on. There was still plenty of light in the sky but under the tree canopy we needed the additional light to see the rocky terrain on the steep descent.

50.5 miles Spring
By now it was officially dark, and we were lucky that Jeremy spotted the little sign mounted above eye level on a tree indicating the side trail leading to the spring. It was about 1/10^th mile down a steep trail to the spring with a pitifully weak flow. We were all low on water, having covered almost 10 miles since the last Checkpoint, and it took a while for all three of us to fill our bladders from the trickle. It was also at this point that we realized we had covered more than 50 miles and Emma was now in uncharted territory both in terms of time and distance covered.

52.4 miles East Branch of Pleasant River (ford)
After a short but very steep drop on rocky terrain we hit the East Branch of the Pleasant River and crossed with the aid of rope strung across. Even though we hadn’t covered as much ground before night set in as we had hoped there was a certain sense of adventure that came with the darkness, and the river ford helped amplify the feeling that what we were undertaking was definitely a remarkable expedition.

52.7 miles East Branch Lean-to (1,225’)
Once we passed the lean-to I knew we were getting close to the next checkpoint and we all got excited with the anticipation of seeing our crew again. It was hard to gauge distance in the dark but when I thought there was a chance of being within ear shot of the checkpoint I put on my best Nick Palazzo impression and shouted “WHERE’S MY FUCKING SOUP?” Five seconds later we turned a corner and saw a tent pitched just off the trail. I felt so bad, but in our frame of mind it cracked us up. It was a few minutes longer before we saw glow sticks in the trees ahead and we knew we had arrived.

54.7 miles Logan Brook Road CHECKPOINT #3
BEST. CREW. EVER. Glow sticks, warm ramen noodles, Beastie Boys. Everything I asked for was right there when I needed it. We were lucky to have such a dedicated crew. Pete remembered how much I enjoyed the mini pizza bagels from the previous checkpoint and made sure I got a few more this time.
I refilled my pack with the usual items, changed into a t-shirt with a long sleeve on top and packed another layer in case it got cold over night at the higher elevation coming up. My feet had remained dry over the previous section, but due to the saturation from the first 40 miles they were in a pretty delicate state and I was starting to develop blisters and hot spots. In fact, my whole forefoot felt like a hotspot. I drained two blisters at this checkpoint, greased my toes and changed my socks.

Julian came into Checkpoint #3 a few minutes behind us and decided he’d had enough of the Wilderness. I realized we were actually moving at the same pace as him so I offered for him to join us over the next stretch and promised his wife we wouldn’t leave him, the reality of us “outrunning” anyone at this point was null. Something about traveling back to the US from Africa the day before had left Julian feeling understandably jet-lagged.

With glow sticks attached to our packs we set off on the 2000’ + climb up White Cap Mountain.

56.3 miles Logan Brook Lean-to (2,480’)
I expected the lean-to to come about halfway up the climb and I was actually surprised how quickly we reached it, but was then surprised at how long the second half of the climb took. Much of the climb was made up of large stone steps set into the mountainside which allowed for a fairly regular hiking rhythm, albeit slow. My feet didn’t feel the significant improvement I had hoped for after changing socks and treating the blisters, the hot spots were spreading thruoghout my entire feet and every step burned. It was also during this climb that Emma started feeling a pain in her knee that was significant enough to cast doubt on her ability to finish. She brought this up but I was quick to dismiss it, in hopes that ignoring the problem would make it go away.

57.7 miles White Cap Mountain (3,650’)
Shortly before reaching the summit of White Cap there was a clearing just off the trail with a steep cliff drop-off allowing expansive views to the north. We turned off our headlamps and sat down to enjoy the midnight scenery. I first noticed the Big Dipper, and then tipped my head back and nearly fell over backwards. The starry sky was three-dimensionally enveloping. Rather than a distant black layer dotted with stars there was depth and sense of space in the sky above and for the first time while looking at the sky I felt like we were part of something much bigger. When I brought my eyes back down to the horizon I could see the aurora borealis streaking up into the sky from behind the distant mountains to the north.

A cool breeze reminded us that we’d been stopped long enough for a chill to start setting in and we needed to keep moving. The final push to the summit was all boulders and we were anxious to get back down into tree cover and out of the wind. I was encouraged that the next 10 miles were mostly downhill, but knew that the terrain wouldn’t allow those miles to come quickly enough.

59.4 miles Hay Mountain
Following White Cap there are three smaller peaks on the way down to Gulf Hagas, and it was coming down Hay that the reality of our situation started to sink in. We paused for moment on the trail and I felt compelled to sit and give my burning feet a rest. Emma stretched her aching knee, and Jeremy, who had been battling a headache, sat behind me and was the first to vocalize what was eating away at each of us. There was now a good chance that we wouldn’t finish this. I wanted to reserve judgment until after the sun rose in hopes that the sun would bring new life. Regardless of what decision we ultimately made we still had 9 miles to go to get to our next checkpoint, and that’s a long way when you’re coming down a mountain in the middle of the night after being on your feet for over 20 hours. We sat and thought about the situation, and ended up closing our eyes and sleeping for a few minutes.

Apart from wanting to sleep, and my burning feet the rest of my body actually felt pretty good. The biggest problem I was dealing with was that I had gone into this adventure with the expectation of finishing between 30 and 34 hours, but it was clear that if I was to try and finish that it would take me well over 40 hours, and that was something I hadn’t prepared for. Nor had our crew.

61.0 miles West Peak
The next little up on our way down was steep on both sides and we found ourselves frequently pausing to stretch. Every time I turned back to make sure my quiet partners were still with me my equilibrium was skewed and my head would spin. I continued to call out “blaze” to confirm that we were on the trail and as a way of making sure there was some form of communication happening, even if limited to single syllables.

61.7 miles Sydney Tappan Campsite (2,425’)
After dropping down West Peak we approached a spring a realized we’d need to refill our bladders for the final stretch. By now we all knew that finishing was not an option and getting to Gulf Hagas safely was the priority. The idea of napping next to the spring was brought up, but I really didn’t want to drag this out any longer than necessary. As we filled our bladders from the small, shallow pool of the spring the first rays of daylight were starting to filter through the tree canopy.

62.6 miles Gulf Hagas Mountain
As we started our last climb up Gulf Hagas Mountain we were able to turn off our headlamps, but the daylight didn’t bring with it the second wind I had hoped for. The exhaustion was more mental than physical, the intense focus on the terrain for so many hours left us longing for anything that would allow us to move without having to think about where we placed each foot.

Gulf Hagas Mountain was a cruel little lump of rock with a series of mini summits that all look identical and almost had us convinced that we were running in circles before we finally started to make the descent. When we knew we were finally headed off the mountain we had to take a break, and the three of us removed our packs and laid down right in the middle of the trail for a 10 minute nap. I was rudely awoken by a biting ant, and that was enough to get me up and moving again, if not for myself than at least for our crew who would soon be expecting us at the next checkpoint.

63.5 miles Carl A. Newhall Lean-to (1,860’)
When we passed the lean-to I knew there were only 6 miles left, and it was all a gradual downhill, on terrain that was significantly easier that most of what we had covered in the previous 64 miles. We should have run this section with reckless abandon, but none of us were capable of doing any better than a walk.

67.0 miles Gulf Hagas Cut-off Trail
After the longest 3.5 mile stretch of trail I’ve ever walked we finally saw a sign up ahead indicating the Gulf Hagas Cut-Off Trail. It was critical for us throughout this journey to break it up into manageable sections. 2.5 miles left, lets get this over with. After one of my many pee stops (they were coming every 20 minutes at this point) I attempted to run to catch up with Emma and Jeremy. It wasn’t pretty, but did serve to confirm that I had no right thinking about continuing on.

69.0 miles West Branch of Pleasant River (ford)
At the sight of the Pleasant River we realized we’d pretty much made it to where we were going to end this adventure. We waded into the middle of the knee deep river and sat down with our backs reclined against boulders, cold water washing away the dirt and the doubt. A sense of relief filled each of us and we began to realize the positive aspects of what we had accomplished. Nearly 70 miles on some of the gnarliest terrain Maine has to offer is still something to be proud of, and the time spent with Emma and Jeremy on the trail will stay with me forever.

69.5 miles Gulf Hagas CHECKPOINT #4
After a few minutes in the river two familiar faces appeared on the far river bank. Pete and Alison had walked down from the last checkpoint with emergency supplies on their backs prepared to find us on the trail and carry us out if needed. I felt guilty about letting them wait and worry, but in true selflessness they just wanted to hear the stories of our journey through the night. We chatted away as the five us covered the last half mile up to Katahdin Ironworks road and Checkpoint #4, our finish line.

My dad was there waiting with Mindy, our chairs and gear boxes were laid out with everything ready for us to restock and keep moving. It was a little sad to admit that we weren’t continuing on, but we had many hours to come to terms with this decision and we knew it was the right one. There were hugs, and the smiles that had been missing for the last few miles finally returned.

First half flat, second half hills

2011-04-16T18:19:00.001-04:00

The plan for today was 20 miles, 10 on either side of the road at Bradbury, but I knew from recent weeks that my plans don't always work out. The last few "long" runs have ended up being shorter than planned, partly due to shitty spring conditions making 17 miles feel like 22, partly due to just not feeling like I wanted to go that long on the day. I was feeling particularly motivated today since earlier in the week I signed up for the Virgil Crest 100 in September, this was just the kick in the ass I needed to make sure I start to step up my mileage.

We had an unusually large group today with lots of new folks, or old folks who haven't been around in a while, joining us. It might have something to do with the new TMR website I launched earlier in the week, I didn't actually ask anyone. I set off at what I thought was a fairly conservative pace for a long run but immediately found myself in the lead of a group (Stephen, Brent, George, Kevin, Steve) that pulled away from the other 10 or so people.

For the first half of the run we started out on the east side and ran the 'Reverse Bruiser Minus the O-Trail' loop. I was surprised to find the single track trails in pretty good condition with very little snow and not too much mud. There was one flooded area but apart from that the feet stayed relatively dry. I had forgotten how slow single-track can be, but it was a lot of fun running these trails again.

We finished the east side loop in about 1:40 and had a distance of 9.75 miles, close enough to the planned 10. I was feeling good and didn't think I'd have any trouble continuing along as long as my second loop worked out in terms of distance. For the second half of the run I wanted to get some decent hills in. No matter which direction you run the Bruiser course it's pretty flat. Stephen and Brent joined me for the first 1.5 miles of the next part of the run but headed back since they had already been out for an hour before the rest of us showed up this morning.

After taking the Terrace Trail almost all the way up to the summit of Bradbury we dropped back down to the Boundary Trail where I turned off and headed along the Bradbury-Pineland Corridor towards Tryon Mountain. Up Tryon, down to Lawrence Rd, over the new bridge that crosses Chandler Brook and eventually coming out on the power lines. I ran the power lines for about 2.5 miles through a mix of mud and dry grass. Some of the mud was really quite spectacular:

I noticed that when I hit 15 miles I had been out for 2:36 and was on some of the same power line trails as the Beautiful Loop, a 15 mile loop on snowmobile trails that I was able to run faster than this. I guess snowmobile trails are a lot easier to run than technical single-track.

From the power lines I turned onto dirt road and passed some highland cows, then back onto snowmobile trails where I prepared myself for the last, but biggest climb of the whole run. Part of what I like to do to help mentally prepare for a long race is plan training runs that have particularly difficult challenges right at the end so I can try to re-create that end of race feeling when I want to stop but push myself through it anyway. I actually enjoyed the long climb this time, moreso than some of the other times I ran it this past winter. 350 vertical feet in 1 mile may not sound like a lot, but at 18 miles into a run it felt like a pretty serious hill. when I topped out at the summit of Bradbury I was at 19.5 miles and very relieved that I could easily get over 20 without having to do laps of the parking lot at the end. I took the Terrace Trail down which is a blast to run fast on, although at this point I wasn't moving all that fast it certainly felt that way after my long climb. Funny how a 9 minute pace can feel fast, but that's what happens after a 12:19 mile.

I felt pretty good at the end, especially after the downhill finish. I'd like to think I could have kept going, but I was satisfied to finally finish a long run feeling good.

time: 3:30:14
distance: 20.21 miles
pace: 10:24

weather: upper 30's, breezy

conditions: everything imaginable

gear: Inov-8 X-Talon 212, wool socks, shorts, long sleeve shirt (removed), t-shirt, gloves (removed), hat (removed), Nathan HPL #020

Local Exploring

2011-03-09T18:39:00.002-05:00

This winter I've been doing a lot of my mid-week runs from Hardy Rd heading north on snowmobile trails, but never really considered taking the trail in the other direction. Today Emma did some exploring on the southbound snowmobile trails and came back with a good report so I went out after work and attempted to follow her tracks.I studied the map of her route before heading out, and I thought I had it in my head pretty good, but once the sun set I pretty much lost all sense of direction and ended up going entirely in the wrong direction just after a mile into the run. Once I realized my mistake I got back on course and did pretty well for the rest of my run, although I didn't get as far out as Emma had.

Emma's Route - My Route

Recent warm weather with rain, then a few cold nights has left the snowmobile trails in pretty good shape, hard packed and a little icy, but not a problem with Ice Spikes in my shoes. There was a lot of running water along this route, with bridges across small streams, but it was a reminder that the snow is on the way out for the season. I have to admit that I'm a little sad to see it go, I love running snowmobile trails and I'm running out of time for exploring this one that we just found. Looking at the map I figured out that I'd be able to make an 8-9 mile loop on these trails, and the whole thing could be connected up to the Jungle Run to make a big 18 mile loop. I hope the snow lasts long enough for me to give it a try.

I was pleasantly surprised with the pace for this run, not terribly fast, but anything under a 9 minute mile on icy snowmobile trails at night seems pretty good to me.

time: 1:02:36

distance: 7.28 miles

pace: 8:36

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280 with Ice Spikes, wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve shirts, 2x thin gloves, buff

More Bloody Running

2011-03-08T20:44:00.018-05:00

Conditions were good for this week's TMR TNR, except for a few booby traps created by the recent warm weather. The plan was to take our regular winter route out to Val Halla, but things got sketchy shortly after we crossed the RR tracks on the way to the golf course. I was running slightly ahead of Blaine, and Jim was right behind him. I headed straight for an icy patch on the trail but when I hit it my left foot broke through and dropped a few inches. To keep myself from falling I got my right foot out in front of me but it came down hard enough to punch deeper through the ice and push my ankle into the rough edge of the broken ice. Jim saw what was happening and in an attempt to avoid the same fate went off trail, which turned out to be an even bigger mistake as he double post-holed up to his knees, with both feet in icy water. His momentum carried his body forward and when he tried to catch himself both his arms post-holed through the snow and into the water below.

We immediately decided to turn around, and thought Jim would be done but once we were back on solid trails he was fine. Just a little cold and wet. I forgot about my ankle until I got home and changed and was surprised at my bloody sock. That explains why my ankle was a bit sore on the way home. Spring running is dangerous.

time: 48:44

distance: 5.39 miles

pace: 9:03

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280 with Ice Spikes

Bloody Late Winter Running

2011-03-06T19:23:00.017-05:00

I had an idea for a modification of the Jungle Run that I wanted to try out today, hoping to find more consistent snowmobile trails that would avoid the long unpacked uphill through Blackstrap Preserve and replace it with a section of power line trail (with a hill just as good). I found the route I was looking for but it certainly wasn't easy.

The first 1.5+ miles of the loop are on road, but as soon as I hit trail things were in rough shape. Too much warm weather and rain recently meant the not well traveled trail was deep slush. This went on for half a mile, slow going but tolerable because I knew there was snowmobile trail ahead. But when I hit the snowmobile trail things took a turn for the worse. The section of trail along the gas line is wide enough that snowmobiles don't have to ride single-file so the trail doesn't get well packed, and the recent weather left the trails with 2" of slush over 1/2" of crispy-ice-snow over 12" of slush. My pace was slowed to just under a 16 minute mile as I post-holed along for a mile, and every time I broke through my forward momentum pushed my shin into the rough broken edge of the crispy-ice-snow layer. Why can't snowmobiles just ride in a single-file line?

Once I finally got off the gas line and into the woods the trails were in great shape. Actually they were pretty shitty, but compared to the horror show of the previous mile they felt great. At least I was moving at a sub 12 minute mile pace now. Instead of turning left and climbing up through the Blackstrap Preserve I turned right and continued down hill to the snowmobile picnic area (complete with fire pits and empty beer cans). I then began an excellent climb up the "Expert" snowmobile trail that gains 250 feet in half a mile. This climb is part of Jeff's Hell course and was just as much fun today as it was during the race.

The rest of the run was pretty much the regular Jungle Run route. Conditions were slow but I was happy just to be getting a decent workout in and it was nice to run in shorts again, at least as long as I wasn't post-holing.

time: 1:52:13

distance: 10.32 miles

pace: 10:52

gear: Inov-8 X-Talon 190, wools socks, shorts, long sleeve top, t-shirt, gloves, cap

Beautiful Loop - Seasons Best

2011-03-05T20:04:00.069-05:00

After two weeks of missing the Beautiful Loop (not for lack of running though) I was anxious to get back at it. My plan to run it every week didn't work out but this would be my 7th time around in 9 weeks this winter. Excuses: two weeks ago I did 21 miles at Linda & Val's Fat Ass, and last week there was 8" of fresh snow on the route one day and a snowshoe race the next.

I was surprised to see a relatively small group at the park this Saturday. Stephen and Jeremy were there to run the BL with me and Jim and Andy came along for 5 miles out and back. I set off with Andy and we compromised at a pace that was faster than I wanted to run for 15 miles and hopefully not too boringly slow for him. We cruised along at a good clip (for this loop) in conditions that were less than ideal but really pretty decent, about 2" of sugary snow over a packed base.

At 5 miles Andy and I stopped to let the others catch up, Jim turned around and Andy decided to keep going with Jeremy, Stephen and I. For the next 6 miles Jeremy chased Andy-the-Rabbit while Stephen and I ran at a slightly more comfortable pace. We'd periodically re-group when Andy was uncertain of the route, and then he'd pull Jeremy along the straightaways.

Shortly after turning from the power lines into the woods at 10 miles we bumped into Mindy and Val coming towards us, half way through their 10 mile run. They turned and joined us for a little while, but we were anxious to get out of the headwind and pushed on at a pretty quick pace. Andy soon disappeared ahead of us and Jeremy dropped back to run the last 3.5 miles with Stephen and I. We definitely slowed down in these last few miles, a later comparison of splits from when I ran this loop with Emma three weeks prior showed that although my time with Emma was about 6 minutes longer than today's our last three mile splits were actually slower today.

Regardless of the fact that I started out too fast and slowed down quite a bit towards the end I was pleased to run this route in my fastest time this winter, and in what was definitely not the best conditions of the season. I consider anything under a 9 minute pace on snowmobile trails to be a pretty quick pace for me, and for this distance on these hills I was psyched to average just under 9's.

time: 2:15:44

distance: 15.14 miles

pace: 8:58

weather: mid 30's, rainy, windy

conditions: sugary/slushy snow over firm packed trails

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280 with Ice Spikes, wool socks, 3/4 tights, long sleeve top, t-shirt, gloves, buff, Nathan HPL #020

Jungle Run + Highland Lake

2011-02-21T19:16:00.049-05:00

After the 21 mile run on Saturday I needed a day off. I usually like to get out for some sort of recovery run the day after a long run, but I was feeling pretty beat up all over. It wasn't just my legs, in fact my legs weren't even the worst part, it was mostly in my back and core muscles that I felt it. But by Monday I was feeling fine and since I had the day off from work I decided to go out for an "easy" run on the local snowmobile trails. Easy means I wasn't pushing the pace, but the terrain was anything but easy.

Emma has been running Jimmy's Jungle Run (9 mile loop from home) a lot lately and I thought I'd see if I could remember the route having only run it once or twice before, and without any snow on the ground. The first 1.7 miles is on road, that was easy, then the route turns onto snowmobile trail along a power line and then onto singletrack in the woods. The snowmobiles had gone one way and I was pretty sure that the correct way to run this loop went the other way so I turned off onto a snowshoe trail. Big mistake. Postholing hell for 1/4 mile until I rejoined the snowmobile tracks on a gas line trail. Once on the gas line it was a good fast downhill for almost a mile before turning into the trails of the Blackstrap Preserve. Then began the incredibly long climb up Blackstrap Hill, about 300' in 1 mile. Midway through the climb I made the mistake of branching off onto a smaller trail and again had at least 1/4 mile of postholing hell.

Once I reached the top of the hill I ran along Blackstrap Rd, then Mast Rd for a short distance until I got back onto snomo trails under the power lines. Conditions were perfect here and it was a nice gradual descent for over a mile. Before heading back up hill I decided to take a quick detour out to Highland Lake. Once again I considered running out onto the middle of the lake, but I already had over 7 miles done at this point and didn't want to make this run too long. So I headed back via Bitch 1 of the 3 Bitches to the top of Leighton Hill, down the Tricycle Trail and back home along about 1.7 miles of road.

I'm quite sure I made a few mistakes that varied from how Emma has been running this route, along with a few deliberate diversions. Still a great run despite a few nasty sections and I was really pleased that there were no significant lingering effects from Saturdays long run.

time: 1:52:49

distance: 11.4 miles

pace: 9:54

Hills and Highland Lake

2011-02-17T19:11:00.050-05:00

Spring races are starting to creep into my consciousness, big hilly ones like 7 Sisters so I'm trying to get plenty of decent hill running in. I got out of work a little early on Thursday afternoon and headed over to Blackstrap Hill to run the snowmobile trails and see if I could find the one that goes out to Highland Lake.

From Hardy Rd I took the Tricycle Trail up to the top of Leighton hill (Bitch 1 of the 3 Bitches), along the ridge and then down through the Skillin's Tree Farm. Up 180' and down 210' in the first 2 miles. I wasn't sure where the snomo trail to Highland Lake started but I knew it was somewhere along the power line trail that runs along the bottom of the tree farm. I headed north until I hit Mast Rd, no sign of the trail I was looking for so I cut over to the gas line trail that parallels the power lines and headed back to the south.

Just before the gas line rejoined the power lines I found the trail I was looking for that turned west into the woods. This narrow snowmobile trail ran through a few backyards, crossed Mast Rd and shortly thereafter came out at the southern tip of Highland Lake. I was tempted to run out onto the middle of the lake, but I didn't have a lot of time so I turned back. This brought me out at the base of the 3 Bitches, 215' up over 1/2 mile, then 160' down on the Tricycle Trail back to the car.

Excellent trail conditions for a relatively quick pace considering the hilly terrain.

time: 1:01:08

distance: 7.09 miles

pace: 8:38

Bradbury White Out - Race Report

2011-02-13T19:06:00.167-05:00

In my 4th consecutive week of snowshoe racing I returned to home turf for the second installment of the Bradbury Mountain Snowshoe Series: Bradbury White Out. After helping Ryan mark the course on Saturday I went out and ran the whole thing, partly to check up on the marking but mostly to think through my race strategy. I wanted to remind myself how it felt to run up the Terrace Trail which makes up most of the first mile of this race, and to figure out just how fast I could go down the South Ridge.

On race day I went out on the course early to help Ryan put out the final course marking and then get things set up at the picnic shelter for registration and post race activities. With a plethora of volunteers we got things set up quickly and there was plenty of time to sit back and chat with the other runners. Before I knew it it was time to get ready to race and I barely had enough time to get a warm up in, not quite as long as I would have liked but enough to get the blood flowing.

photo by Don Penta

There were a few more people in attendance than there were at the Squall, despite a handful of people not making return appearances. Based on my performance at the last two races I thought that I had good reason to start in the front row, I even thought I might be able to hang onto Ryan for a while... I had asked Ryan before the race if he planned to take off crazy fast, he said he didn't have a plan, but he did end up taking off crazy fast and that's how he ran the whole race. I lost sight of him after 1/4 mile and never saw him again until I got to the finish and I think he had already changed his clothes and had a cup of soup by the time I got there.

photo by Don Penta

I tried to set off at a sensible pace, since I didn't get much of a warm-up in I thought I'd take it easy for the first 1/3 mile so I didn't hit the Terrace Trail too out of breath. I figured that if I started the long climb gasping for air I'd be dead before I reached the top. I was a little surprised to find myself back in 8th place going up the hill, but it was still early in the race and I had hopes of picking up the pace. There was someone right on my heels going up the Terrace Trail so it was good to have a little incentive to work hard. As soon as we reached the top and turned towards the Northern Bluff I caught a glimpse of Blaine up ahead and set my sights on catching him. Unfortunately Blaine wasn't feeling his best so he stepped off the trail to let me pass.

For nearly a mile I was on my own, no one in front of me was in sight to chase down and no one was right behind me applying any pressure. I thought I did a good job of picking up the pace on the gradual downhill of the Tote Road but it wasn't long before Chuck and Jeremy caught up to me. Chuck had been complaining about feeling tired before the race, following the previous days long run, but he certainly wasn't running like he was tired today. I was supposedly relatively fresh since I had done my long run on Friday but I had all I could do to keep ahead of Chuck and Jeremy.

Chuck is an incredible downhill runner, and knowing that the last 1/2 mile is all downhill (with one tiny exception) I wanted to try and put some distance between us before we got there, but it just wasn't happening. My only hope was that my knowledge of the course would give me some advantage. I'd been up and down the South Ridge Trail at least half a dozen times in the few days leading up to the race so this was bound to count for something. Shortly after starting down the South Ridge we ran into Andy coming up the hill after having made a wrong turn. He fell in place behind Jeremy and now there were 3 people right behind me and any one of them was capable of catching me.

Running the South Ridge in these conditions required the perfect balance of speed and control. The descent is steep enough to allow you to build up incredible speed, but there are enough sharp turns along the single track trail that force you to reign in your speed or else go off trail and punch through the crusty top layer of snow into the deep powder beneath. My knowledge of this trail seemed to pay off a little bit, but not much as you can see in the photo:

photo by Don Penta

The finish of this race is one of the cruelest out there. In any other context this tiny uphill wouldn't seem so bad, but after nearly half a mile of super-fast downhill your legs just don't want to transition back into uphill running. And the soft snow just makes it so much worse. Not much of a sprint finish, but luckily everyone seemed to be struggling just as much as me and I was able to hold on to my position to finish in 6th place.

RESULTS

PHOTOS

time: 37:55

distance: 4.25 miles

pace: 8:55
place: 6/35

weather: mid 20's, overcast

conditions: firm packed snowshoe trails, crust over deep powder off trail

gear: Atlas Run snowshoes, Saucony Grid Sinister, sock liners, wool socks, tights, long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt, gloves, hat

Beautiful Loop - Week 6

2011-02-12T19:01:00.024-05:00

A little retrospective report on this weeks run of the Beautiful Loop since I'm falling behind on blogging:

BEST. CONDITIONS. EVER.

With virtually no new snow over the past week the local snowmobile club was able to get out and groom almost the entire loop. Anything that wasn't groomed was at least ridden over enough to be well packed. Conditions were the epitome of snowmobile trail perfection.

Emma and I ran the loop in the clockwise direction, setting off at a pretty easy pace and keeping it consistent throughout. The perfect conditions allowed for pretty quick time, my fastest of the year by more than 10 minutes.

time: 2:21:29

distance: 15.17 miles

pace: 9:20

weather: mid 20's, sunny

conditions: nirvana

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280 with screws, wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve top, buff, gloves, mittens, Nathan HPL #020

Beautiful Loop - Week 5

2011-02-06T20:31:00.081-05:00

I was going to run the Mid-Winter Classic road race this Sunday, but it was postponed due to mid-winter-like weather the night before. I totally get it, you can't have 800 runners on the road when the town's plow trucks need to be out there clearing snow. I'll just add this to my list of reasons why trail racing is better than road racing. Road races get canceled because of the weather, trail races get better because of it.

I was actually quite relieved that the race got postponed, because that meant that I'd be able to go out and run the Beautiful Loop this weekend. And it turned out to be the most beautiful spring-like day with temperatures pushing 40 degrees, bright sun and no wind. The other nice thing about not doing the race and doing this run instead is that it meant I was able to run with Emma, this would be her first time doing this loop and her longest run in about a year and a half. She picked a good day and a good route to make a return to running long.

Since we had received a few inches of snow the night before we decided to wait until the afternoon to set off for our run to be sure the snowmobiles had a chance to get out and pack the trails for us. We set off at an easy pace, with some uncertainly about whether or not Emma's knee would be up for the distance. Conditions were pretty sloppy in general, pretty awful in some places, but the warm sunny weather seemed to make up for deficiencies of the conditions. Although postholing always sucks and there was plenty of that.

Emma kept wondering of this was the worse conditions I'd seen on these snowmobile trails. Hard to say because the the good weather was such a positive influence on the overall experience, but it was definitely sluggish out there. We just kept the place slow and steady and the miles ticked by.We saw a handful of snowmobilers out there, all seemed intrigued by what we were doing. We tried not to be too obvious in sticking up our noses as the stink of their machines, after all, we are grateful for the trails they create.

We chose to run the loop on the clockwise direction today (opposite from the usual way) meaning we got the roller coaster hills out of the way early, and had a long gradual uphill at the end of the run. That approach seemed to work well for Emma's knee which fairs better on the ups. Not sure if it makes sense to beat the knee up early in the run or after it's tired, but the good news was that it wasn't a problem. If a recovering knee can cope with nearly 3 hours of hilly, slushy, snowmobile trail running then I think it's doing pretty well.

I think we were both a little surprised at how well this run went, especially considering the effort we put into the yesterday's snowshoe race. My only complaint was a tight right calf, which didn't seem to slow me down but never fully loosened up during the run.

time: 2:50:40

distance: 15.24 miles

pace: 11:11

weather: upper 30's, sunny, calm

conditions: super soft, squishy snowmobile trails

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280, wool socks, capris, singlet, long sleeve shirt, hat, gloves, Nathan HPL #020

Exeter Snowshoe Hullabaloo - Race Report

2011-02-05T21:39:00.230-05:00

The Exeter Snowshoe Hullabaloo is exactly what a snowshoe race should be like. No snowmobile trails, no groomed ski trails, just sweet single track packed by a handful of snowshoers before the race.

Since I'm new to the snowshoe racing scene I didn't know what to expect from this race, turns out that no one really did since this was it's first year, but I was surprised to see such a big field of almost 100 runners show up. With the number of runners and the fact that I knew nothing about the course, except that is was all single track, I was cautious about starting too close to the front. I took a place behind acidotic's Chris Dunn, and he quickly called me out as a sandbagger, but I really wasn't feeling very confident about this race. Of course, the downside of taking a conservative start on a singletrack race is that you really have to work to pass people. The other downside is that there are a lot of people who seed themselves too far up the field for fear that they'll get stuck behind slower runners, but it turns out that they are the ones slowing people down.

The first 1/4 mile (or less) was packed out wider than the rest of the course to alleviate some of the pressure at the start, but it was still pretty chaotic when the "Go" call was given and at least one runner went down while jockeying for position. By the time the trail narrowed to true singletrack I found myself somewhere in the back of the top 20, a few places behind Chris Dunn and Steve Wolfe, moving along at what felt like a very comfortable pace. Not a race pace.

photo by Daniel Budak

It wasn't long before we came along one of many "passing lanes" that were created by one person walking a parallel track for about 10-15 paces alongside the course. This was a helpful way of giving runners an opportunity to pass without going fully into the deep untrodden powder, but it wasn't a lot better and still required significantly more effort than the regular course. Since the leader of our snowshoe train was going slower than I wanted to it meant that I had the energy to put in a good burst of speed and work my way up the field when the opportunity came.

At the second or third of these passing lanes the runner ahead of me made a move and I followed. Unfortunately his speed petered out before merging and in an effort to keep a few of the places I was attempting to take I lunged through the powder and back onto the course picking off a few runners, and nearly taking out a couple others as I struggled to keep my balance. The result of this got me in between acidotic's Chris and Amber, a little bit further up the field than I wanted to go in one move, but the pace of our train was still quite reasonable so I was able to recover quickly and settle back into pace without feeling like I was going to be the one slowing the train. Moments later Chris made a move to pass the runner ahead by veering off into the powder, big mistake. All his momentum was instantly stopped and this gave me the chance to surge ahead and take the place where he had been.

Eventually the guy in front realized that he had indeed set off in a place he couldn't hold so he graciously stepped aside and let a few of us pass. Better to admit your mistake than get yourself run over. I was now pulling a train with Amber Ferreira right on my heels, Chris Dunn on hers and a few others right behind. I picked up the pace to the upper limit of what I thought I could sustain on this terrain and wasn't surprised to find that Amber and Chris didn't have any trouble matching me. I wasn't confident that my place here was safe, but I wasn't going to give it up without a fight. Each time we got to another passing lane I'd put in a surge of speed to fend off any possible attempt by anyone to pass, and then ease off the pace to catch my breath.

Eventually we caught up to another runner who obviously went out a little too fast and was now slowing down, but this kid wasn't about to step off the trail just to let me pass, if I wanted his place he was going to make me work for it. No easy opportunities to pass presented themselves and the now somewhat slower pace allowed Amber and Chris to get right onto my heels. I was worried that one of them might make a bold move and take both me and the kid in front, or that if I stepped off trail to pass that I'd end up stuck in the powder and lose my place to both of them. Finally I saw my chance to make a move, a tight corner with a small tree on the inside. I grabbed hold of the tree and pulled myself around the inside of the turn, just barely making it past the kid. I then kicked it up a notch to try and put some distance between us.

Amber and Chris didn't take long to get past the kid, before I knew it they were right back behind me and the pressure was on again. I continued to surge each time we got to a passing lane and I began to wonder how much longer this race was going to go on. The course description said "The Snowshoe Hullabaloo is run over almost 4 miles of tight and twisted, packed single track" which I took to mean less than 4 miles. Apparently "almost 4 miles" can also mean more than 4 miles. When my Garmin said we'd covered 3.75 miles I decided it was time to try to put some distance between myself and the acidotic runners behind me. At 4 miles I began to wonder where the finish line was, but I didn't let up. Finally the finish line came into sight and I still had enough in the tank to put in a good sprint to the line. 45:57 was good enough to get me a 10th place finish.

photos courtesy of Tim Lindsey

Emma came in "almost" 10 minutes later which was good enough for a 5th place female finish. No prizes for the Trail Monsters this week, but we were both happy with solid performances in a good sized race. Post race festivities featured plenty of fire, hot soup, chili and hot drinks. Definitely a fun race on a great course.

RESULTS

PHOTOS

time: 45:57

distance: 4.23 miles

pace: 10:51

place: 10/97

weather: low 30's, cloudy, calm

conditions: barely packed snowshoe singletrack

gear: Atlas Run snowshoes, Inov-8 F-lite 301 PK, Inov-8 Debris Gaiters, sock liners, wool socks, tights, long sleeve shirt, singlet, hat, gloves

Blizzard Running

2011-02-02T18:52:00.094-05:00

Since I'm planning to run 2 races this upcoming weekend I knew I wouldn't have the opportunity to run the Beautiful Loop, but since I'm trying to run it every week this winter I decided to give it a shot mid-week. Of course, the only day I had time to run it in the middle of the week was during the massive snow storm that caused my office to close for the day. I knew that running this 15 mile loop with snowshoes, during a blizzard was a bit ambitious so I brought along another ambitious Trail Monster, Red Meat, who's training for The Barkley Marathons.

I knew the trail conditions were going to be tough, that didn't bother me, but I did decided to head out in the opposite direction from how I normally do this route to get the steep hills out of the way before too much snow fell. I also decided to mix things up a bit at the beginning by heading up the Terrace Trail and tagging the summit. When we arrived at the park there was about 5" of fresh powder in the ground and the snow was falling fast. The running was slow, and we had to walk at times on some of the steeper climbs, but it really wasn't too bad.

Everything was going fine until we hit an open field at about 2.75 miles and we were faced with a chilling cross-wind. The temperature really wasn't that cold, but with the exposure of the field we started to feel the wind chill. After a another half mile we were into the woods again and out of the wind, but then just a quarter mile later we came out onto the power line trail and turned north. Directly into the wind. This is when I realized that I really hadn't come prepared to deal with these blizzard conditions. It wasn't the amount of fresh snow covering the trail that was the problem, it was the 20+ MPH wind directly in our faces. Snow and ice quickly built up on my face and started to encase my eyes. A balaclava and goggles were what I really needed, but they were at home.

After a half mile on the power lines we reached the Elmwood Rd crossing and paused for moment. I knew that we still had 5.5 miles of power line running to do, there would be no escaping this wind, and given the rate that the snow was falling I knew that our pace was going to continue to slow. The first 4 miles took us about 55 minutes, I figured the next 5.5 could take us an hour and a half in these conditions. That was just too long to be out there dealing with the wind. Facial frostbite was not something I wanted.

So the decision was made to turn back. The quickest and easiest way back to the park would have been to take off our snowshoes and run down Elmwood Road, but we didn't head out for a hilly 15 mile snowshoe run in a blizzard because we were looking for an easy run. So we headed back on the trail exactly the way we came. With the wind on our backs the running was actually quite enjoyable again. Even the massive climb back up the west side of Bradbury was fun, about 350 vertical feet in just over a mile. Unfortunately when we hit the summit we were faced with the same unpleasant headwind again which made the usually fun run down the Terrace Trail a lot less enjoyable. Ice cream headache.

I was disappointed not to get in a 15 mile run this week, but I still got in a solid 2 hour workout, and was grateful to come out of the woods alive and without any frostbite.

time: 1:57:29

distance: 8.0 miles

pace: 14:41

weather: low 20's, heavy snow, strong wind

conditions: 5" of fresh powder at start, heavy snow throughout adding up

gear: Atlas Run snowshoes, Inov-8 F-lite 301 PK, OR gaiters, sock liners, wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve shirts, 2x buffs, gloves, mittens, Nathan HPL #020

Hebron Hills Snowshe Classic - Race Report

2011-01-30T16:29:00.196-05:00

This was my second consecutive weekend of a Saturday long run on snowmobile trails followed by a snowshoe race on Sunday. This combination seemed to work OK for me last weekend (i.e. didn't kill me) so I thought I'd try it again. This week's race was the Hebron Hills Snowshoe Classic put on by our friends at acidotic Racing. I didn't really know what to expect for attendance at this race because this was it's first year, but since it was an acidotic event I knew there would be at least a few strong runners. I managed to assemble a full team of Trail Monsters to attend the race, including Emma who was making her snowshoe race debut. Four rode up to Hebron with us, Chuck and Jeanne made up the rest of the team.

Before the race I thought I might take the strategy of pacing off Chris Dunn for most of the race and then seeing if I had it in me to kick it up at the end. But as soon as we started running I realized that was a totally lame strategy, so I just went out at as hard a pace as I thought I could sustain for 3.5 miles. Of course, having no idea what the course was going to be like I really didn't know if I'd be able to maintain that pace.

video of the start by aussiegtl

In the video you can see Chuck, Emma, Four and I lined up at the far left of the start line, kinda looks like we picked the wrong end to start on... It took me about 30 seconds to settle into 4th place, but I wasn't very comfortable here. I knew there were a few people behind me who usually beat me in races and I figured it was just a matter of time before one or more of them caught me. The first mile was pretty much all downhill allowing for a fast split of 8:02, which still felt like hard work given the relatively soft snow. Sounds weird, but an 8 minute mile really feels like flying when I'm on snowshoes.

The course was a mix of groomed XC ski trails, much like Pineland, and sweet single-track snowshoe trails, much like Bradbury east side. The course description used the phrase "short steepies" to describe the hills, and that's definitely what it felt like, except for the last hill which felt like a long steepy. Most of my running these days has been taking in just this kind of hill so I felt very comfortable racing on this terrain. Comfortable in the sense that I was well prepared, uncomfortable in the sense that I was working my ass off because I was being chased by Chris Dunn the whole time. I knew that Ryan had beaten Chris by a mere 3 seconds the day before at Sidehller so I suspected that Chris was out for revenge. I just hoped that yesterdays long run left me feeling less tired than Chris felt after his race (although I was out there like 4 times as long as he was).

For most of the race I don't think I ever got more than a few paces ahead of Chris, and at times it seemed like he was about to step on the tails of my snowshoes. I could see Scott Hornney, in third place ahead of me, off and on throughout the race but there was no way I was going to be able to catch him. The course was frequently switching between single track and wider ski trail and I made sure that each time we came to a section of trail where Chris might have enough room to pass that I ran fast enough to prevent him from doing so.

Most of the last 1.1 miles was a fairly gradual uphill, but there were a few steep sections and one particular hill that Chuck later referred to as being "really special". It delivered a special kind of hurt, but I was determined to run the whole thing. Even when I could tell that the footsteps behind me were walking, and possibly even gaining on me, I was determined to run every step of this race. I crested the hill with Chris right on my heels but it was the following descent where I really put the hammer down and finally began to pull away from him for good. The last 1/4 mile was all uphill and no doubt incredibly slow, but I was giving it all that I had. If anyone had been watching I'm sure they would have wondered why it appeared to take so much effort to move so slowly.

Eventually I could see the trees thinning out ahead and knew that I was approaching the field with the finish at the far end. The last few feet of the final climb was some of the softest snow on the whole course and I was nearly reduced to a walk. Once up on level ground it was a balls to the wall 100 meter sprint to the finish. 28:59

photo by Gianina Lindsey

It was quite unusual for there to be only 3 people waiting at the line when I came it, but then again, most races that I do have more than 23 participants. I congratulated the other finishers who came in ahead of me and turned around to see Chris coming in to the finish and then Chuck not too far behind him, then ran slowly back along the course to find Emma. I found her about 3/4 of the way up the final climb, working hard and not exactly happy to see me. I offered some encouragement but she made it clear that she wanted to push through this last part alone. I stepped back and watched her finish her first ever snowshoe race in first place.

photo by Gianina Lindsey

A few minutes later Four came up the hill, seconds behind aR's first female runner. Anyone who has seen Four race knows that he always has one hell of a sprint finish, and I felt just a little bit bad for the woman who became the victim of his heroic sprint. But not that bad since she was running for another team. Jeanne came in a couple minutes later to round out the Trail Monster team, finishing 3rd female and first female masters runner.

This was a fun course, well marked, on a good mix of challenging terrain. Excellent INDOOR facilities provided by Hebron Academy, and overall top quality management by our friends at acidotic Racing.

RESULTS

PHOTOS

time: 28:59

distance: 3.15 miles

pace: 9:12

place: 4/23

weather: upper 20's, cloudy, calm

conditions: soft groomed XC ski trails, gently packed snowshoe single-track

gear: Atlas Run snowshoes, Inov-8 F-lite 301 PK, Inov-8 Debris Gaiters, wool socks, tights, long sleeve shirts, singlet, hat, gloves

Saturday Routine - Week 4

2011-01-29T18:00:00.049-05:00

Another weekend of a long run on the Beautiful Loop followed by a snowshoe race. I was expecting the trail conditions at Bradbury to be pretty good since there was more than 1 days worth of snowmobile traffic, but the trails proved to be pretty soft, still an improvement over last week though. This week's group included Valerie, Mindy, Sara, Christine, Mary and Erin, with Erik and Jim intending to join me on the 15 mile loop. Thankfully this week was significantly warmer than previous weeks and I even had to shed one layer within the first mile.

I was feeling really good, but Erik and Jim weren't as used to the snowmobile trail running so by about 8 miles Erik dropped back and then at 10 miles Jim opted to take a shorter road route back to the park. I made a theoretical increase in intensity over the last few miles, but the hilly terrain and soft snow meant there was no actual improvement in my pace.

After crossing Elmwood Road at about 13 miles I decided to take in the big hill on west side of Bradbury Mt instead of the lower snowmobile trail. From this climb I then diverted onto a snowshoe trail that continued to climb and eventually made it's way to the Boundary Trail on the west side of the park, then followed the Boundary trail to the summit. 350 vertical feet in one mile. That'll be the giant spike at the end of the elevation profile above. From the summit I took the Terrace Trail down, few things in this world are as much fun as hauling ass down that trail when it's covered in snow.

time: 2:34:22
distance: 15.0 miles*
pace: 10:17

*I stopped my watch at a road crossing about 8 miles into the run and forgot to start it again until half a mile later which is why the elevation profile only indicates 14.5 miles.

Bradbury Squall - Race Report

2011-01-23T17:46:00.233-05:00

I've never been able to write race reports for my own races, but the Bradbury Squall is Ryan's race and I was glad just to be a "volunteer" today. Of course, as a Trail Monster event I had a little more at stake than a typical race volunteer, but I had complete confidence in Ryan's ability to put this race together and he didn't disappoint. The 11:00 race start time meant that most of the course marking and all of the set-up could be done the day of the race. Ryan was out marking the single-track Krista's Trail on Saturday while I was out running an incredibly slow 15 mile run on super-soft snowmobile trails. Definitely not the best preparation for a race, but my long term goal is to get back into ultra-running shape for the spring/summer/rest-of-my-life... so doing a long/hard run the day before a race is actually great preparation for my long-term goals.

On race day I arrived at Bradbury at 8:00 along with James to help Ryan mark the course, we set off in opposite directions and met in the middle of the loop course and then finished together. I got in about 3 miles of easy snowshoe running as we marked trail, just what my legs needed to get them loosened up after the previous day's slog. By the time we finished marking the rest of the volunteers had arrived and soon after the racers started showing up. I know very little about the history of snowshoe running in the area, I suspect that's because there isn't much of a history, so it felt like we were breaking new ground with this event and there was a lot of nervous excitement going around. There was a very solid contingent of Trail Monsters, most had never raced in snowshoes before, some had never even run in them. As far as I could tell everything was running smoothly and before I knew it it was time to line up for the start. It was nice to have someone else leading the pre-race meeting for a change, a few quick words from Ryan and we were off!

photo by Don Penta

The start and first half mile of the course are on packed snowmobile trail so the running was easy, and fast. Apparently Ryan was trying to prove that his trail name - Snowman - is justified, and not just because of his pasty white skin, he was running alongside Judson Cake and a kid who looked like he could give Judson a run for his money. It wasn't long before they were out of my sight and I found myself in 7th place right behind David Roberts. I began to worry that I had done my usual go-out-too-fast thing because as we entered the single track at 0.6 miles there were a lot of strong Trail Monsters behind me who were probably running much smarter races. David set a good pace through the tight, twisty Krista's Trail, I thought a few times about trying to pass him but this was definitely not the place to do it. One step off the packed trail and I would surely sink into an abyss of powder. Someone was right on my heels but I didn't dare take my eyes off the trail to see who it was, and there was no way I was going to sacrifice any of my lung capacity by trying to make conversation. Krista's took us to the high point of the course, 200 feet above the start over the course of 1 mile. That may not sound like a lot but it sure felt like it in snowshoes, my lungs were completely tapped out. I eventually recognized the heavy breathing of the person behind me (does that sound wrong?) as Stephen Wells and I knew that my place wasn't safe.

Once the trail turned back onto the Tote Road we were on a gradual downhill and I kicked it up a notch to pass David, then set my sights on James. Although he may remember it differently, I recall James taunting me to come get him and I worked hard to close the gap between us. I wasn't putting much distance between me and David, and Stephen was still right there behind me. I was actually grateful to have a few of my teammates right there to help push the pace and keep this a serious race. I eventually caught up to James and put on a big surge to get passed him, giving him a slap as I went by, a second later he pulled off my hat and threw it down behind me. I guess this meant we weren't taking the race too seriously. I put in another surge to get ahead on a short, steep uphill and then really opened it up on the long downhill ahead. There was more than a half mile of downhill along the Boundary Trail, very steep in some places and I knew the course well enough to be able to pick a good line a go full speed. Stephen was still right on my heels, I wasn't able to pull away from him and we exchanged a few words about what fun it was cruising downhill.

The fun ended about 1 mile from the finish with a climb steep enough to require walking. This is where Stephen passed me. Had it not been for yesterday's long run I may have had the strength to run up this hill, and I'm sure Stephen would have run the whole thing had it not been for the 4 hours of nordic skiing he did the day before. He certainly walked less than me and was able to get away from me pretty quickly. When we crested the hill Stephen transitioned into a run much more quickly than me and the gap between us grew. There were a series of small ups and downs over the next half mile and each up seemed to take more and more out of me, and picking the pace back up again got harder. With about 0.4 miles to go we came back out onto the groomed snowmobile trail of the Northern Loop and this is when David finally caught back up and passed me.

photo by Don Penta

I really didn't like this at all, losing two places in the last mile of the race, so I somehow managed to fight the fatigue in my legs and kick it back up a notch to pass David. I then set my sights on closing the gap on Stephen and managed to close in a little bit, but this was just in time for his final sprint to the finish and the gap remained as it was. I was happy to finish in 6th place with a time of 34:04.

RESULTS

PHOTOS

time: 34:04

distance: 3.5 miles

pace: 9:44
place: 6/32

weather: sunny, calm, 16 degrees. absolutely beautiful

conditions: mostly snowshoe packed trails, groomed at beginning and end

gear: Atlas Run snowshoes, Inov-8 F-lite 301 PK, Inov-8 Debris Gaiters, wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve shirts, t-shirt, hat, gloves, mittens

I didn't have much to do after I finished, other than hang out with the other runners by the fire and enjoy some amazing soup from Frontier. Ryan and the other volunteers did a great job with the timing and getting the results together quickly. Eventually it was time to pack up and then go pick up the race course. Ryan and I headed back out on the course, again each going opposite directions until we met in the middle. This time around I got in about 3 miles of snowshoeing, but there was a lot of walking and by the time we finished picking everything up I was totally spent.

It was great to see a total of 18 Trail Monsters come out for our first ever snowshoe race, as well as all the other participants. Ryan did a great job running the show - and the race. Can't wait for the next one.

Saturday Routine - Week 3

2011-01-22T21:07:00.056-05:00

This was my third week running the Beautiful Loop this winter and by far the most difficult conditions. We had received about 8 inches of snow throughout the day on Friday which meant there was limited time for snowmobiles to get out and pack things down for us before we set off at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning. I wouldn't say the soft snow made the run much less enjoyable, it was just a lot more work getting through it, resulting in a much slower time than previous weeks.

I arrived at the Brad a little before 8 to hand off course marking materials to Ryan who was going out to find the right way through Krista's Trail and mark it for tomorrow's snowshoe race, the Bradbury Squall. Chuck and Nate showed up to run the big loop with me, and Joe was there for a shorter run in snowshoes. Although not quite as cold as the previous week, the temperature was still below zero. I quickly realized that running fast to keep warm wasn't an option, but trudging through the soft snow was hard enough work it didn't take long to warm up. Unfortunately it also didn't take long for my the hose of my hydration pack to freeze up. I didn't make any progress with the revisions to my heated hose sleeve so today I duct taped a few handwarmers to the hose. This also was ineffective at preventing freezing. I guess there's not much you can do when it's this cold.

About 5 miles into the run I took off one of my long sleeve shirts and put it back on over my Nathan pack in an attempt to trap some of my body heat and thaw the hose, but it was another 6 miles before the ice in the hose finally melted.

I discovered on this run that snowmobilers don't like to ride single file. In the woods or most of the way along the powerlines the snowmobile trail gets pretty well packed, but any opportunity to break off of the established trail and they seem to take it. This was frustrating for us each time we got to a field or somewhat open area and the track we were on would split into three or four different tracks and the snow in these sections was not packed at all.

Despite the extra effort this run took I felt pretty good throughout, and when faced with the option of bailing out at 14 miles I felt strong enough to turn it down and keep going to get in the full 15 miles.I certainly didn't feel energetic at the end of the run but didn't think that this run took so much out of me that I wouldn't still be able to race well at the Squall tomorrow. The only problem was that the little bit of frostbite I got on my toes the week before seemed to be getting worse, and was pretty painful after the run. Hopefully that doesn't effect my snowshoeing.

time: 2:41:30
distance: 15.01 miles
pace: 10:46

weather: very cold -5 to +15, mostly sunny

conditions: soft snow, not well packed

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280 with screws, sock liners, wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve shirts, t-shirt, 2x buffs, thin gloves, mittens, Nathan HPL#020 hydration pack

Snowshoeing The Brad

2011-01-16T15:13:00.083-05:00

My original plan for Sunday was to run - in snowshoes - all three courses of the Bradbury Mountain Snowshoe Series races. I guess I forgot how hard work snowshoeing can be.

I got to Bradbury at 9 and met Ryan, James, Jeff, Sara, Christine, Mary, Julia and David, a pretty solid crew considering we don't have much of a snowshoe running history around here. After Ryan handed out a few loaner pairs of Dion snowshoes and helped people get fitted we headed out on the Northern Loop Trail where the Bradbury Squall race starts. This year the park is allowing snowmobiles to take the Northern Loop Trail to the summit of Bradbury Mt so the first 1/2 mile was on well packed snow. On the way out we passed Kevin who was returning from a run he had started earlier.

Once we turned off onto the Tote Road trail there had only been foot traffic, but enough to make the running still pretty easy going. But then we turned onto Krista's which is a single track trail that hadn't received any traffic whatsoever since the snow fell. That's not entirely true, there were some deer and rabbit tracks on the trail, but they weren't going to same way we were. After getting half way through the "trail" we completely lost it under the snow. Befuddled by the snow covered Krista's trail we decided to turn around and backtrack the trail to the Tote Road and approach Krista from the other end. It didn't take long to reconnect to where we were a few minutes prior but no one was sure if we'd actually run the trail correctly, in fact most of us were sure that we hadn't. Either way, we ended up creating a loop in the general area of Krista's that was about the right distance.

Once back on the Tote Road we cruised along a pretty good pace, it was nice not to have to break trail. When we hit the Boundary Trail we had a nice long downhill stretch that got crazy fast at times with a few wipeouts barely averted. The last half mile was back on the "groomed" portion of the Northern Loop trail which makes a nice way to finish the race. The time and distance for the run on the Squall course was messed up since we got lost on Krista's Trail, making the whole run about 3/4 mile too long and factoring in a few minutes of head scratching.

time: 58:52

distance: 4.30 miles

pace: 13:42

That was enough for everyone except me and Ryan (James had got an earlier start than the rest of us), after a short break we headed back out to run the White Out course. The first half mile was again on the Northern Loop trail which was very easy going, but then we turned up the Terrace trail which isn't steep but is the longest sustained climb in the park. It was running up this trail that reminded me to ask Ryan if he had an EMT for the race, I was beginning to think that I might need one.

From the top of the Terrace Trail we took in the Northern Bluff, then looped around to the summit. I like the fact that this race course takes in the places on the mountain where you can actually get a view, not that there was much of one today, but it's still nice to pop out of the woods once in a while. Ryan and I settled into a good pace as we made our way around the Tote Road again, this time in the opposite direction as before, also the downhill direction. By the time we hit the Boundary Trail I was beginning to notice the effects of yesterday's run catching up with me and the uphills got to be more of a struggle. Ryan pulled away a bit but was nice enough to wait for me to catch up until we got to the next downhill.

Running down the South Ridge trail is one of my favorite things to do in this world, and running it in snowshoes is even better. The trail drops about 200 feet over the course of 1/2 mile and has a handful of steep drops that put you right on the edge of losing control. The only bad thing about the South Ridge trail is that it brings you out at a lower elevation than the main parking lot (start/finish) and the slight climb back up, although gradual, always feels worse than any other climb in the park.

time: 49:28

distance: 4.13 miles

pace:11:58

This seemed like enough snowshoe running for one day, neither Ryan or I were ambitious enough to take on the Blizzard course which would have taken us up to the summit (or nearly there) four more times.

Saturday Routine

2011-01-15T20:49:00.113-05:00

After last week's run on the Beautiful Loop I decided I wanted to try to run it every week until the rivers thaw and I can't get across. This was week 2 and I hoped to complete the loop a little faster than last week, but of course that would largely be dependent on the trail conditions and weather. When we arrived at Bradbury the temperature was about -10, but luckily there wasn't any wind.

This weeks group was a little bigger than last week, Jim, Jamie, Valerie, Rick, Alan and Andy joined Emma and me. I set off in the lead and was moving at a pretty quick pace, partly because I knew I wanted to run the loop faster this week, but also because I figured that moving more quickly would help me keep warm, which it did. The Link Trail was pretty soft but as soon as we hit the Snowmobile Trail conditions improved dramatically and running was pretty easy.

Jamie and Andy kept me company for the first 4 miles when I realized that we'd gotten pretty far ahead of the rest of the group so I took us on a little out and back detour which left us at the back of the pack. At this point Emma was leading the chase group of Jim and Alan who hadn't realized that we cut off from the regular route and were moving pretty quickly themselves to try and catch us. After about a mile of chasing them down we finally caught up and ran together (somewhat) as one group.

Our group paused briefly on Chandler Brook, the only good thing about sub-zero temperatures is that it helps make the ice on rivers a little thicker. It seemed a bit funny for the six of us to be standing on the ice in the middle of a river, until we heard a few cracks and quickly made it to the other side. I guess 900+ pounds was a bit much for that ice. Shortly after the river crossing Emma, Jim, Andy and Alan turned off onto Pownal Range Road to take the quicker way back to the park (10+ miles total), while Jamie and I continued on the snowmobile trails under the powerlines.

By now it had warmed up into positive numbers but was still pretty cold. Last night I went to Cabela's and bought a pair of battery heated socks, stripped the wiring out of the sock along with one of the two battery connections and attempted to make a heated sleeve for my hydration pack hose. It all worked pretty well at home but didn't last long on the run, I'm not sure if the battery connection was bad or what, but it didn't keep my hose from freezing. I'll continue to tinker with this and see if I can get it to work...

The last few miles of this run have the worst (or best?) hills. Nothing terribly long, but enough steep ups that really slow you down and drain your energy. Last week we skipped out on one of the bigger hills on the west side of Bradbury Mountain, but this week there were good tracks going up so we had to do it (it's the sharp spike between 13 and 14 miles on the elevation profile above). 250 feet of vertical in 1/2 mile, then back down again, then climbing another 250 feet over the course of the next mile.

We reached Rt 9 about 1/4 mile from the park and had about 14.25 miles done at that point, I told Jamie I was OK running back on the road and getting in a little less than 15, but he insisted on continuing on the trails so we could reach at least 15 miles. So we crossed Rt 9, ran Knight Woods to the Snomobile Trail and back along the Link Trail and finished with 15.4 miles. Slower than last week but that has something to do with being more than a mile longer and throwing in a few extra hills. Great run.

Following the run we headed to Edna & Lucy's, Trail Monster's new favorite place for post run refueling.

time: 2:33:41

distance: 15.4 miles

pace: 9:57

weather: -10 to +15, sunny and calm

conditions: well packed snowmobile trails, a little soft in some places

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280, wool socks, sock lines, tights, 2x long sleeve shirts, t-shirt, 2x gloves, 2x buffs, Nathan HPL #020

Post run note: Although I wasn't aware of having particularly cold feet during the run I discovered after the fact that I got frostbite on a few my toes. Ouch.

10 miler

2011-01-09T19:56:00.037-05:00

After a month of pretty unmotivated running during the month of December I finally feel like I'm getting back into a more serious training routine. I still haven't figured out what I'm training for yet, but no doubt it will require me to get into better shape than I'm in right now so I've got some work to do. I ended up bailing on the GAC Fat Ass 50k, but I still wanted to get in two solid runs this weekend. Saturday was 14.2 miles on snowy/icy trails at Bradbury, and on Sunday Emma and I went out for a 10 mile road run from home.

It had been a while since the two of us had been out for a run together from home so it was nice to sleep in, have a good breakfast and head out mid-day. We started out pretty easy, or slow, which made sense since the previous days run was pretty long for us and the first two and a half miles were up a pretty good sized hill.

After the third mile we settled into a somewhat faster, but still quite comfortable pace and enjoyed the good weather.

Oh yeah, I suppose there is that 10 mile race in Cape Elizabeth to train for, I guess I should get a few more road runs in and start working on my speed.

time: 1:22:16

distance: 10.26 miles

pace: 8:01

weather: low 30's, sunny

gear: Saucony Grid Sinister, wool socks, short tights, long sleeve shirt, t-shirt, thin gloves, baseball cap

My Favorite Winter Loop

2011-01-09T09:40:00.000-05:00

Although I didn't know what the conditions were going to be like for this Saturdays run I knew exactly the route that I wanted to run. Two winters ago I figured out a 14+ mile loop from Bradbury on the snowmobile trails, a loop that can only be run when the small rivers freeze so I look forward to it each winter. Last winter I referred to this as The Beautiful Loop and gave a pretty good description of it on this blog. While the conditions weren't beautiful today it was still a great run.

Today's group started out with Jeremy, Alan and Mindy, along with myself, Emma and out dog Kip. We each arrived with a different plan in mind but set off together on Bradbury's East Side trails. The pace was pretty slow, which was good considering this was going to be a long run for me. The group stuck together pretty well until 4 miles when Emma, Mindy and Kip turned back. 8 miles is a long run for Kip, he got through it just fine but we're careful not to build up his mileage too fast.

Trail conditions up to this point were pretty rough, much of the snow we've received this winter had melted last weekend, and then froze again. The trail surface, despite having received previous snowmobile traffic, was pretty rough with a mixture of hard packed snow, ice and bare ground. Alan, Jeremy and I continued another mile to the power lines, then headed west. I thought the trail conditions might improve once we were under the power lines but they didn't, just more ice.

At about 8 miles into the loop Alan peeled off onto Lawrence Road and planned to take a shorter, but somewhat unknown route back to the park. He needs to get his own Garmin so we can all see where he goes. Jeremy and I continued on the power lines for another 3 miles before heading back into the woods on some more pleasantly proportioned trails.

My weekly mileage hasn't been where I'd like it to be over the past month so this was feeling like a pretty long run for me. I think we did a pretty good job of maintaining a consistent pace, but it's so hard to tell on terrain like this when the conditions are constantly variable and there are good hills to contend with. Luckily I never felt like I was burning out and I finished the run feel like I could have kept going if I needed to, but also glad to finish while still feeling good.

I was wearing my Inov-8 Oroc 280's today, which I've been doing most of my winter running in so far this year. At some point I may get around to doing a real review of the shoe, but here are a few key things I've noticed: Same upper construction as the X-talon 212 (my favorite shoe). The combination of the sparsely lugged outsole and relatively thin midsole means you can actually feel some of the lugs when your foot hits the ground. This is not a good thing when the lug also has a steel stud embedded in it and is applying pressure directly to the part of your foot that hits the ground. The 9 embedded studs don't actually provide enough traction on ice so I have had to supplement the shoe with 7 sheet metal screws each. On soft surfaces I don't notice the lugs, but on hard surfaces like rock and ice I feel it. It surely doesn't help that I bruised my foot a few weeks ago.

time: 2:16:05

distance: 14.2 miles

pace: 9:35

weather: cloudy, 32

conditions: sparse crusty snow coverage, lots of ice

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280, Smartwool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve top, thin gloves, hat, Nathan HPL #020

Running with Dogs

2010-10-15T19:47:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago Emma and I got a second dog, Kip, to keep Bolt company. Kip is about 10 months old and is full of energy so we've been easing him into running with us. Friday was a very rainy day and although the dogs had been let out a few times during the day they didn't get much exercise so by the time I got home from work they were ready to release some of that pent up energy.

I've only run with both dogs once before, and that was on trails so they were both off leash, but since it was 6:00 PM, dark and rainy I decided to stick to some of the quiet roads in my neighborhood and keep the dogs on leash. I was a bit worried that the dogs would just take off and leave me standing there with two bloody stumps where my arms were once attached, but after the initial yank they settled into a reasonable pace pretty quickly. Since the sprints at the TMR TNR seemed to set me back in my recovery from the Mtn Epic I was hoping this would be a nice slow run, but the first mile was 7:35 which felt a little too quick for recovery, especially after spending all day sitting down. I guess I let the dogs get carried away with the pace too much.

The remainder of the run was at a more sensible "recover" pace and I was impressed that the dogs did a good job understanding that the purpose of what we were doing was to run in a straight line (more or less), at a consistent pace that was dictated by me and that they weren't supposed to be jumping around and playing games. I think we all had fun, but I'm sure it would have been even more enjoyable if we'd been on trails unleashed.

time: 32:09
distance: 3.98 miles
pace: 8:05

weather: mid 50's, drizzly

gear: Brook Cascadia 3, shorts, long sleeve top, reflective vest, hat

TMR TNR

2010-10-12T19:39:00.010-04:00

The TMR TNR (Trail Monster Running Tuesday Night Run) is run on a 5.5 mile loop on trails built for X-C skiing at Twin Brook Recreation Area in Cumberland. We run the same course every week until snow falls. The trails are wide, non-technical with few natural obstacles, a fairly soft surface and lots of small rolling hills. Apart from one short stretch of a perpetual mud pit leading to a stream crossing the trails are dry. Great for trying out minimalist footwear which is what I was doing tonight, but I can't say too much about that right now...

The hills really aren't that big.

This week I was recovering from the Mtn Epic race at Sunday River, a crazy 12 mile mountain run that absolutely trashed my quads. For that race I wore my Inov-8 Mudroc 290, I needed something with good grip and just a little cushion under the heel for the many miles of downhill running. My plan was to take it easy this Tuesday night, but once I got going things loosened up and I felt good. Our average pace was right around a 9 minute mile until we hit the first of 3 sprint lines. I initially had no intention of sprinting tonight but after about 2.5 miles I felt really good so decided to go for it. I won the first sprint, about 2/10th of a mile up a gradual hill, probably because no one else was trying, I don't usually win sprints.

By the time we reached the second sprint line at 4 miles it was very dark in the woods and I took off despite not having a head lamp. I won this sprint too, this time because I'm probably the only one who knows the trails in the dark well enough to run fast. By the time we reached the third sprint line which finishes up the final 1/4 mile of the run on dirt road I had pretty much run out of quick leg turnover and the others could actually see well enough to run fast so I finished further back in the pack.

time: 49:05

distance: 5.5 miles

pace: 8:56

conditions: mostly dry trails except for the usual mud hole

weather: mid 50's, dark

gear: can't say what I had on my feet, shorts + t-shirt

Laudholm 5k - Race Report

2010-09-26T18:11:00.182-04:00

I don’t know the first thing about Dwarf Tossing Competitions, which is why I don’t organize them.

This was supposed to be a race report on the Laudholm 5k, but it's turned into a bit of a rant. When writing I have often bitten my tongue and held back opinion because I don’t want to piss anyone off. But I’ve decided that I should be able to say whatever I want on my blog, if you don’t like it, don’t read it. Or tell me what you think. Whatever. I may not be right, but it’s my opinion. So here's the first in what I hope will be a more open and honest representation of some of my thoughts about trail running.

In the world of trail running I think the 5k distance is totally lame.

1) 5k is just too short

2) 5k is an arbitrary distance

I’d much rather string together a handful of beautiful trails that make for a logical sequence and let the distance be what it is. I hate to see courses that are contrived to meet a specific distance, especially a really short distance. In trail running you can’t really compare times from one race course to another, because of the variety of terrain you’ll find from one course to the next. Coming up with an exact distance matters less when there’s no comparison. Trail runners accept this as part of the sport. There’s no question in my mind that the Vermont 50 is a more difficult race than the Stone Cat 50. I got my 50 miler PR at Stone Cat, but I know it’s an easy course, and I don’t compare the two on an even level.

There’s also the question of accuracy in trail racing distances, how do you accurately measure down to the 1/10^th of a mile on a trail? In my races I like to make sure that the course is at least as long as the advertised distance, and if it’s going to be off it better be long. One of my biggest disappointments in running was finishing a long race, setting a then PR for that distance and later finding out from the RD that the course was short that year. Most runners won’t complain if they find out that they ran 12.5 miles instead of the advertised 12, it just makes you more of a badass. But if you find out that the course was 48 miles instead of 50 there will be a lot of pissed off runners.

Yet another aspect of the complexities of trail racing distances is how any one course may vary from one year to the next. Things like erosion, fallen trees, beaver dams, flooding, access permission… can all cause a race course to be changed from one year to the next making comparisons within the history of one event difficult. Weather is also a factor in trail conditions, a dry course vs. a wet course can make all the difference in a trail race.

Trail racing is really about you and the course, not so much about the other runners. It’s one person pushing himself against the terrain. Of course in any race runners will find motivation from others, to push a little harder or plan a strategy, but at the end of the day I think most trail runners will agree that it’s a very personal experience based on how you feel you did against the course regardless of how many people finished in front of or behind you.

My point is that everyone and their mother is putting on a 5k race these days, trying to capitalize on the popularity of running to make money for some worthy cause. While the cause may be worthy I feel like I’m being used. I run because I love to run, I don’t run to support charities. Sure it’s nice to know that a portion of my entry fee is helping to protect the delicate habitat of the arctic tern, but that doesn’t motivate me to run. What motivates me is the thrill of running fast through the woods, splashing through mud, navigating through rocks and roots, feeling my heart pound and my legs burn as I push my way up a big hill, speeding downhill on the verge of losing control… Growing up in Maine I spent a lot of time outdoors and trail running as an adult captures that feeling of the freedom of youth that is often missing from our lives.

TRAIL MAP

But what really pisses me off is when a race is held at a location with miles of great trails, but the course doesn’t take advantage of this, and appears to be set up for the ease of the organizers instead of the enjoyment of the participants. If you’ve got 4 miles of trails, why would you set up a course that’s only 2.5km long, contains more than ½ mile of paved road, and then make runners run the course twice to get in the 5k distance? Because that’s the easiest course to set up. But it’s the least fun to run, especially when you run past half a dozen trail heads that look like they lead to places much more interesting than where you are at the time.

I’m not trying to suggest that every race should be a Bruiser, but part of the joy of trail running is exploring new places and challenging yourself, and I hate to see missed opportunities for this kind of enjoyment. There is definitely room in the trail running world for “shorter” and “easier” races, I have no problem with that. I’d be satisfied if I came away from the race knowing that I saw the best of the terrain that there was to offer, but instead I left feeling like I missed out on the opportunity to really connect with the place, and that I was being used for my willingness to pay to run.

I’m sure that the organizers of this event had no malicious intent, I’m sure they have only limited understanding of the world of trail running, but that’s the problem. I don’t know the first thing about Dwarf Tossing Competitions, which is why I don’t organize them.

If the organizers of the Laudholm 5k don’t lynch me, I’d actually be very interested in talking with them about how to make the best of what they have to offer. They have a spectacular location, beautiful trails, great facilities and infrastructure, plenty of volunteers... It’s clear they know how to organize a fun event, and I think they could have a great race.

So on to the race itself...

This summer Emma has been on the lookout for short distance, small, low key races to help her along the way as she recovers from a seriously long-lasting knee injury. I've come along to a few of these, and the latest of her discoveries was the Laudholm 5k at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. My first impression of the event based on a flier that Emma brought home was not particularly good, they were offering a 5k run and 2.5k walk, "mostly on the trails of the Wells Reserve at Laudholm." I immediately became suspicious that the 5k course might be 2x around the 2.5k course. It was a last minute decision for me, but Emma was already signed up and I do like going to races together, it's something that was missing from our relationship for a while since she was out of commission for many months.

We arrived at the site of an old coastal farm which is now the headquarters for the WNERR, the location is beautiful and it immediately became clear that this organization knows how to put on an event. We picked up our numbers, used the bathrooms and had time to run a few miles to get warmed up. The course markings were sparse but after about 1/2 mile of exploring we found the start and then followed the course, but before we knew it we were back at the start again. That confirmed that this was going to be a 2 lap course, and my heart sank a little as I realized that I had already seen everything this race course had to offer and I wasn't impressed.

We joined a crowd of about 80 runners and walkers (inappropriately interspersed) at the start line, at the top of a small hill, and tried to listen to the RD give a description of the course as the wind blew his words out to sea. There was one reference to a second lap, but I think what I heard best was other runners saying "we can't hear you back here".

The first few hundred yards were a gradual down slope on a grass path and I immediately regretted taking a conservative start position as I was weaving through the people who didn't belong at the front of the pack. The course then made a 90 degree turn onto a paved road and continued the downward slope for another few hundred yards before flattening out. I continued to work my way through iPod wearing runners who were already starting to slow down. My original plan was to run the first lap conservatively, then run hard on the second lap, but for some reason I hate running behind people with iPods so I pushed a little harder in that first mile.

We passed a few trail heads along the road and I wished we had been given the opportunity to turn off. My X-Talon's were craving dirt. After about 3/4 of a mile we finally did turn off the pavement and followed a path along the edge of a field. At this point I was probably in 15th place but once we hit the trail I made a little more effort to pick off a few runners who seemed a little less prepared to deal with the slight irregularities of terrain that the trail offered. We passed more inviting trail heads that headed deeper into the woods, but the course kept us on the short cut grass path of the fields. At about 1.25 miles we turned onto a gravel road and made a slight climb back near the start area and began our second lap.

Top marks for having the biggest carved pumpkin I've ever seen.

I forgot to bring a watch with me so I wasn't able to get my lap split, but no big deal, I knew what lie ahead and I just had to run hard for another 10 minutes or so. I picked up my speed as I headed down the little paved hill and set my sights on the few runners ahead. I could see Christine Reaser up ahead and new better than to try to catch her, but though I may be able to keep her in my sights. I passed the second place woman and another guy just as we hit the 2 mile mark. I attempted to increase my speed as I turned back onto the grassy trail but didn't have much left to give. It didn't help that I was now catching up to the walkers on the course and when you get two double Bobs side by side it doesn't leave much room for anything else on the trail. The few runners ahead of me were getting harder to catch but I continued to make progress passing someone every couple of minutes.

When we reached the gravel road I knew there was only about 1/4 mile left and it was all ever so slightly uphill. Not enough of a slope to justify slowing down, but enough that I felt it hard to pick up the pace for a fast finish. The last thing I wanted was to get passed this close to the end after running a pretty good race, I have no idea what my splits were but no one had passed me yet during the race and I certainly didn't want it to happen here. One final turn onto the grassy trail lead to the finish and then I was done. I heard the RD call out my time as I crossed the finish line, 19:35.

I was really happy with how I ran this race, I have a tendency with a race of any distance to go out too fast and slow down but I don't think that happened today. Even though I don't know what my splits were I think I ran fiarly consistently considering I continued to catch other runners throughout the race. Emma wasn't too far behind me, finishing in 21:01 which was good enough for third place female overall. We haven't seen the overall results yet, and I have a feeling we may never see them but I did find out that I finished in 6th place overall.

Emma and I grabbed a water and headed out for a cool down run, we wanted to check out some of those trails that were skipped during the race. We followed a nice loop, a little over a mile long that followed a field for a short distance before heading into the woods. There were several wooden bridges crossing small streams, enough roots to keep things interesting and a very tranquil atmosphere. It was a shame not to have included these in the race.

We finished our cool-down and made it back to the finish in time for the awards ceremony where Emma received a medal and coffee mug. Post race refreshments included fruit, bagels and water, all of which was greatly appreciated. On our way out we spent a few minutes checking out some of the other activities going on as part of the larger Eco Sports Day, there were surfing and golfing demos set up, crafts and BBQ and a band was getting ready to play. There is definite potential to turn this race into something special and I hope the folks at the Laudholm Trust can come up with something that takes advantage of all this place has to offer.

PARTIAL RESULTS

time: 19:35

distance: 3.1 miles

pace: 6:18

weather: overcast, 50's windy

conditions: dry, grass, gravel, pavement

gear: Inov-8 X-talon 190, shorts, singlet

GOOGLE MAP OF THE RACE COURSE

Is this Fall?

2010-09-25T18:16:00.000-04:00

Now that the Bradbury Mountain Trail Running Series races are over for the year we're mixing things up on our Saturday runs. This week we decided to return to Pineland, I don't think I've run here since competing in the Barefoot 5k back in May. To be honest I could quite happily run at Bradbury every weekend, I can't get enough single track.

I decided to run the 10k course, lots to do this weekend so I couldn't afford to spend too long running, although if I spent as much time running as I did hanging around talking after the run I could have got in another 6 miles. Oh well. We had a good sized group today including Emma, Jeff, James, Blaine, Erin, Mike, Jeremy, Mary, Erik and first-timers Matt and Steve.

It was unusually warm and humid for an early fall day, this pissed me off a little bit, I hate humidity and I thought we were over it for the year. Despite running in humid conditions all summer long I never seem to get used to it. It's fall now, time for the humidity to bugger off.

I started out a little quick and then slowed down, but looking at the elevation profile it's not surprising that would be the tendency. Emma was planning to race on Sunday so we ran together (at least for the second half of the run) and intentionally took it pretty easy.

time: 57:21
distance: 6.32 miles
pace: 9:05

weather: overcast, mid 60's humid

conditions: wet grass, a little slick in places

gear: Inov-8 X-Talon 190, shorts, t-shirt

FIRST IMPRESSION - Inov-8 X-Talon 190

2010-09-21T19:52:00.014-04:00

Some things just look better with a coating of mud. The Inov-8 X-Talon 190 are one of those things. They're maybe just a little too red, but one trip along the TMR TNR took care of that.

This was my first time trying a 1 Arrow shoe from Inov-8, and the 3mm differential was noticable right away. Most of my trail running lately has been in the X-Talon 212 which is a 2 Arrow shoe (6mm differential) and prior to that I was wearing the Roclite 295 which is a 3 Arrow (9mm differential). What I noticed was my achilles being stretched just a little more than usual as I ran, not in a bad way, just an awareness.

Twisty shoes. OK, so my feet don't move like that, is it a good thing that the shoes wouldn't stop my foot from moving like that?

Speaking of awareness, one thing that I love about these shoes is the way you can feel the ground beneath your feet. Not only is there a minimal differential between the heel and midfoot of the shoe, but overall the midsole is very thin and made from a lightweight material that allows for a natural response of your foot to the ground. I've come to realize that there is a reason the human foot has 26 bones, it's to adapt the variable terrain you encounter while running. A shoe doesn't need to control the way you move across the ground, it should allow your feet to do what they were meant to do.

"Sticky Rubber" and wide lug spacing make for a grippy outsole.

Tonight's run was on pretty mellow terrain and at a fairly casual pace. A few small, gently rolling hills, mostly soft trail surfaces, a little mud, a little gravel and some grass, nothing technical. It will be interesting to see how these feel on more technical terrain, with rocks and roots and pointy things to step on, but I suspect they'll feel much like the X-Talon 212 and I haven't had any trouble with them. I wore the 212's at all three of the Bradbury Mountain Trail Running Series races this summer and it doesn't get much more technical than that around here.

This is a seriously flexible shoe. My feet certainly don't bend like that, but if I ever need to roll up my shoes and stick them in my pocket I can.

The uppers of the 190's are mostly a lightweight fabric mesh, which means they should drain well, but since I managed to jump the stream at Twin Brook this evening I didn't get them saturated. These definitely aren't going to be as durable through rough terrain as many Inov-8's are, but that's the price you pay for a 6.7 ounce shoe.

First Run

location: Twin Brook Recreation Area, Cumberland
time: 48:09
distance: 5.5 miles
pace: 8:45

Bradbury Mountain Breaker - 9 Mile Trail Race

2010-06-27T22:06:00.001-04:00

Today I ran the Scuffle course and then Blaine helped my shoot some video on the Breaker course:

Bradbury Mountain Breaker video

2010-05-06T08:42:00.003-04:00

After many months I finally remembered that I had a lot of video footage from last years Breaker that Susannah shot during the race. Last night I decided to put together a little video of the descent on the South Ridge Trail:

Most of my weekend trail running these days has been at Pineland and now I'm starting to suffer from Bradbury withdrawal...

Pineland Barefoot 5k

2010-04-26T21:08:00.005-04:00

Following a run on the first 10 miles of the 25k race course Blaine and Four helped me shoot this video of the Barefoot 5k course.

Blaine was running proper barefoot, I was in my Vibram Five Finger KSO's.

March Summary

2010-03-31T23:59:00.002-04:00

February killed my running mojo and as a result March was my lowest mileage month in a few years.

Total Miles: 80.51
Total Time: 12:04:26
Average Daily Distance: 2.6 miles
Average Pace: 9:00

I realized that despite my tendency to offer up advice to others I'm not very good at following it, there's still a lot that I don't know about running smart, avoiding injury and dealing with injury. I'm continuing to learn things about myself and what running means to me. I've often said that I run because it's fun, and when it's not fun I won't do it. Running wasn't much fun in the month of March so I barely did any.

At the end of February I decided that there was no way I could continue to train for the 95 mile West Highland Was Race so I officially withdrew. That was tough. Since 2006 I've been free from any significant injury and my running has consistently improved, so this is the first time in years that I've really had to pull back and rethink how I do things. My achilles problem really isn't a significant injury, but it's an ongoing pain that has definitely been holding me back.

That said, my achilles has started to improve thanks to the help of Dr. Jamie. He got me to the point where I should be able to complete the recovery on my own, my problem is that stretching and doing strengthening exercises isn't fun, and I don't like doing things that aren't fun. So it's my own fault that this has dragged on longer than necessary.

Another thing I've learned is that when I don't do much running I get out of shape. When I'm out of shape running becomes less fun and I'm less inclined to go out and remind myself how out of shape I am. It's a vicious cycle.

At the end of this month I feel like I am definitely making progress with my achilles problem, I'm starting to get more enjoyment out of running again and I am determined to get back to where I was before. It's going to be quite a while before I'm in ultra running shape again, but there are plenty of shorter distance trails to be run around here.

February Summary

2010-02-28T23:59:00.001-05:00

February kinda sucked. I had a few good runs, actually a few very good runs. TMR Saturday runs are the best. But my stupid achilles thing has really messed up my training this month as well as my overall enjoyment of running.

Here are the numbers for February

Total Miles: 111.52
Total Time: 16:54:07
Average Daily Distance: 4.0 miles
Average Pace: 9:06

Much worse than January. My plan for the year was to ramp up mileage each month as I train for the WHW, but things are going in the wrong direction. Early in the month I told myself (and a few other people) that if I wasn't 100% pain free by the end of the month that I didn't think I would have any reasonable chance of training for and running the WHW the way I want to, and would therefore not do it. I only ran once in the last week of February and it wasn't pain-free.

Return to the K9 Loop

2010-02-14T22:23:00.002-05:00

I was pleasantly surprised to wake up Sunday morning feeling pretty good, Saturday's run definitely didn't make things worse. I had a busy day and wasn't sure if I'd make it our for a run before sunset but did get out of the house around 3:45, it was just too nice out, I actually wore shorts. Although I had originally thought about getting in 10-15 miles today I didn't want to run after dark and I didn't leave the house prepared for night running so I knew I only had time for about 10. I decided to run the K9 loop, which is a little under 10 but I thought I could bump it up a little.

The ankle was feeling pretty good and wasn't really bothered by the hills. My energy level was good but I didn't want to push the pace too much for fear that I might set myself back if I went out too hard. Apart from an emergency bio-break everything went well. Nice to be wearing shorts, but I honestly hope that winter returns and I'm forced to cover my legs for a few more weeks.

time: 1:16:17
distance: 9.75 miles
pace: 7:49

weather: mid 30's, windy

gear: Inov-8 F-Lite 301, Smart Wool socks, shorts, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, gloves, baseball hat

Bradbury Run Cut Short

2010-02-13T22:07:00.003-05:00

Saturday I was a little apprehensive about what I'd be able to run given how I felt on Thursday. Friday night I did a lot of stetching and rolled my calf/achilles, but despite this I woke up feeling pretty tight. By the time I started my run with Jim and Lily I was feeling okay and things loosened up over the first mile. Conditions were pretty rough and I was surprised that my ankle wasn't irritated by the terrain. of the Beautiful Loop.

Things were going well, albeit a little slower than last week, until Lily made the unfortunate discovery of an underground cavern hidden beneath a thin layer of ice. She fell in up to her knee and then things got wrenched around a bit. Not good. We decided to take the shortest way back to the park from here, but we were already 8 miles out and the short way was still over 5 miles. We got off the rough trails as soon as we could and ran the last 4 miles back to the park on the roads.

Although I was the tiniest bit disappointed not to complete the whole 15 mile loop I was relieved to finish the run without causing any additional pain. My ankle felt a lot better than it had on Thursday.

time: 2:03:05
distance: 13.33 miles
pace: 9:14

weather: low 30's, sunny, breezy

conditions: hard packed snow, lots of ice, bare ground

gear: Inov-8 Roclite 315 with screws, Smart Wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve shirt, gloves, mittens (off), buff, Nathan HPL #20

Slipping Off The Schedule

2010-02-11T21:39:00.003-05:00

Not that I really have a training schedule, but if I did I'm afraid I'd be falling behind. This ankle thing that I didn't think anything of back in December is really starting to hold me back. I had a few good runs last weekend but this week didn't start so well.

Monday was a planned day off, Tuesday I was too busy with work to get out for a run. Wednesday I had a meeting out of town, got dropped off at home after work and then ran back to my office to get my car. There was some definite tightness in my achilles for the first mile, it lingered into the second mile which was all uphill, but then eased off over the next mile which was gradually downhill. After that second mile I had a nice progression of increased speed: 7:47, 7:32, 7:28, 7:22, 7:05. It helped that I had a tail wind.

Unfortunately it seemed that pushing the pace a bit, and then immediately getting into my car and driving home, followed by sitting on my ass eating dinner lead to my achilles tightening right back up again.

time: 46:27
distance: 6.21 miles
pace: 7:29

Thursday I decided that I needed to get in a short/slow run. I realized that there probably isn't enough of that in my training plan. Earlier in the day I had another session with Dr. Jamie Raymond, he identified a long chain of tightness running from my right glutes to hamstring to calf to achilles. I didn't come away from this visit with such a noticable improvement in my ankle, but I did feel like a few related areas were addressed that will help the ankle.

I set off for my run around 6:00, and about 3 minutes into the run I stopped and considered turning around and walking home because the pain in my achilles was so bad. I stretched for a minute or so, walked a little and then resumed thee run, that seemed to be enough to reduce the pain to a very tolerable level, but it didn't make me feel very good about my long term long distance running goals.

time: 34:39
distance: 4.08 miles
pace: 8:29

Road Miles

2010-02-07T18:13:00.001-05:00

I wanted to get in at least 10 miles today, since I wasn't running the race in Cape Elizabeth I wanted to do my 10 mile "recovery" run following yesterday's 15 mile trail run at Bradbury. I opted for roads to give my ankle a break from the abuse of icy/snowy trails.

I couldn't resist picking a route that got in some good hills which did aggravate my achilles a bit, but most of the uphill was out of the way by 3.5 miles.

I had originally planned to do this race, but when I realized I didn't have much of a chance of improving upon last year's time I didn't think it was worth it. Different races have different meanings to me, and this one is about running as fast as I can and trying to improve upon my previous time. If I had really wanted to I'm sure I could have focused on shorter, faster runs over the past few weeks and come close to last year, but I'm trying to stay focused on the big picture here of running 95 miles through the Scottish Highlands in June. I don't need a lot of speed for that.

time: 1:21:22
distance: 10.74
pace: 7:35

weather: mid 20's, windy

gear: Saucony Grid Sinister, Smart Wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve shirts, buff, gloves, mittens (off/on)

Sweatsicle, IceSpikes, Ankle Recovery

2010-02-06T16:06:00.009-05:00

After the recent climax in ankle pain last week I was a little skeptical about being able to get in a decent run this weekend but things worked out better than expected. I took three days off after last weekends 21 mile run, then did an easy 4.25 miles on Thursday which felt okay. Not great, but okay. On Friday I went to see Dr. Jamie Raymond, a chiropractor and runner who has treated a handful of Trail Monsters. He did some manipulation, ART, scraping and kinesio taping, just the right combination to get my ankle feeling a lot better. Not 100%, but much better than when I walked into his office. I'll go back for another treatment or two and that should get me back to normal.

So not knowing exactly how I was going to feel today I set off with the goal of completing the 15 mile Beautiful Loop but had prepared myself mentally in case I needed to turn around early. Jamie, Lily, Sara, Blaine and Erin made up today's group, but by 5 miles it was just me and Jamie, and luckily we were both feeling good (Jamie had also been suffering from an ankle sprain). Up to this point the trails were mostly hard packed snow with a little ice, very runnable and we managed to keep most miles under a 9 minute pace. Actually each mile from 2 to 11 was sub 9, that doesn't sound fast but but it felt like we were moving along pretty quickly over the hilly terrain.

Along the 6 mile stretch of power lines we encountered a lot of ice, stretches of 100 feet or more at times and I was grateful for the IceSpike s I was wearing. A few weeks ago Erik hooked up a bunch of Trail Monsters with free sets if IceSpikes he had acquired and I've now had the opportunity to get in some good miles with them. For years I've been a fan of good old fashioned screw shoes and at first was skeptical of what seemed at first glance to be little more than sheet metal screws in a fancy package with a jacked-up price. But God is in the details:

The deep groove in the head of the IceSpike definitely provides better grip than an ordinary sheet metal screw, I found today that I was able to run across ice, up and down icy hills without any worry of slipping. Today's conditions were actually more icy than I'd ever seen before, and for today's conditions I don't think ordinary screw shoes would have been good enough. The only thing I haven't really tested with these is how they hold up on roads, if they can last through a few road miles on a regular basis without wearing down then I really think they'd be worth the money.

It's also worth mentioning that I put the IceSpikes into a pair of shoes that I had screwed last year and the result is that they didn't stay in place quite as well as I assume they would have if I had screwed a virgin pair of shoes. In three runs totaling about 30 miles I think I've lost a total of 12 IceSpikes. That's my own fault, I suspect the same would have happened if I'd used sheet metal screws.

I made the rookie mistake today of not protecting the hose of my hydration pack, within two miles it was frozen and it took another 10 miles for me to get it thawed by shoving the hose down my shirt and wearing my vest over the pack. It was a funny kind of cold today, at times it felt pretty warm and I was sweating pretty heavily, but it was cold enough that my sweat was freezing. Most interesting was the sweatcicle that formed at the edge of my buff, I didn't even notice it until Jamie pointed it out:

It felt like Jamie and I were moving along at a pretty quick pace for this run, and I was surprised to find that it was only a few second faster than when we ran it 3 weeks ago. We did make fewer stops along the way, so while our running pace wasn't significantly faster our overall time was a few minutes better. I was really happy that my ankle wasn't in any significant pain and certainly didn't slow me down today, even with some of the gnarly terrain we came across.

time: 2:13:18
distance: 15.06 miles
pace: 8:51

weather: 9-16 degrees, mostly clear sky, light wind

conditions: crusty packed snow, sheer ice, bare ground

gear: Inov-8 Roclite 295 with IceSpikes, sock liners, Smart Wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve shirts, windbreaker vest, gloves, mittens, buff, Nathan HPL #20

January Summary

2010-01-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

For the first time in my life as a runner I've actually documented every run for an entire month. Probably not a big deal to most runners, but I've never really cared that much. So what changed? I'm not sure. It may have something to do with training for a big race (WHW) and wanting to better than just finish. But that doesn't totally explain it.

Whatever the reason, here's my stats for the month

Total Miles: 181.21
Total Time: 28:26:16
Average Daily Distance: 5.8 miles
Average Pace: 9:25

What does this mean? Since I've never tracked a whole month of running before it doesn't mean much, but as go through the year it will definitely give me something to compare to if I keep up with it. For now, it's just a starting point for the year.

A few reflections on the month:

Following a good run at the Stone Cat 50 miler in November I really slacked off for the rest of the month and through December, so in January I was determined to kick off my ultra training with a solid month.

Unfortunately I started the month with a very minor ankle sprain, chose to ignore it and it turned into something a little more significant. Not that it slowed me down or held me back much, but it's just not good to start a year with any kind of injury, even a minor one.

One of my goals for the year is to run a marathon or longer distance run at least once every month, I got it in this month in some very difficult conditions at the GAC Fat Ass 50k.

a few cold runs and a messed up ankle

2010-01-31T21:44:00.008-05:00

It seems that all the hills and rugged icy trails I've been running lately haven't been too good for my ankle. I've been having minor pain since rolling my right ankle in late December, didn't think much of it at first but now that it's been 5 weeks and it's not getting better I guess I better do something about it.

Here's a little summary of my last few runs:

Friday night I wanted to get out and make sure the local trails were in good enough shape for the Saturday morning run. I was going to just do about 5 miles (round trip) to the top of Leighton Hill and back home but when I got there I decided to mix it up a little bit and make a loop out of the run. I was feeling good and it wasn't as cold as I was expecting, and the trails were in pretty good shape. There was some running water in a few places and it was interesting trying to find good routes across the thin ice at the stream crossings, but I managed to keep my feet mostly dry.

It was a beautiful night to be out running, full moon and a clear sky, still enough snow on the ground to catch the light and allow me to run without my headlamp on for a little while. My right achilles was sore at the beginning of the run but it loosened up and felt fine for most of the run.

time: 53:19
distance: 6.0 miles
pace: 8:53

Saturday morning Jim was the only one to show up for the group run. It was cold, like 5 degrees or something. I think everyone else was saving themselves for tomorrow's Fat Ass run at Blaine's. I had originally hoped to get in close to 10 miles but neither Jim or I were feeling particularly ambitious so we decided to save the effort for Sunday and just did a short run.

The trails were in okay shape, everything was firmly frozen but there were a lot of icy irregularities that were taking a toll on my ankle. Things never really loosened up and I was glad to stop when we did. No significant pain but it just didn't feel that good to be running.

time: 43:44
distance: 4.59 miles
pace: 9:31

On Sunday Blaine was hosting a Fat Ass 50k to cap off the 1 More Mile For Sunshine challenge he'd been running all month. Each day of the month he was running one more mile than the day before, and made it all the way to January 24th before nasty conditions and the possibility of injury kept him from finishing the last week of the challenge. Luckily Blaine was able to bounce back after taking a few days off and planned to run the whole 31 miles on January 31st, I hoped to join him for the full distance but suspected before I even started that my troubled ankle wouldn't hold up for the more than 5 hours it would take to run 50k.

There was a good turnout of Trail Monsters for the event and we planned to collectively run the 196 miles that Blaine was unable to finish in the last week of his challenge. Between 18 of us we were able to cover 229 miles. Blaine, Jamie, and Danielle wrote up reports of the run, and as i write this (4 days after the run) I don't have the enthusiasm to elaborate. I ended up getting in 21 miles in some very cold weather, on trails that weren't always easy so I was pretty happy just to get the mileage in. I stopped (far) short of the 31 mile mark, mostly because of lack of energy, my ankle wasn't that bad, although it was tight the entire time and I did worry that if i pushed myself much further I would end up doing some real damage.

It was a good run, with great company. Thanks to Blaine and Erin for hosting a great event.

time: 3:28:25
distance: 20.94
pace: 9:57

Following Sunday's long run my ankle and achilles were sore enough that I decided to take three days off and to take a more aggressive path to treatment. I'd also been having some plantar fasciitis-like pain so Jamie let me borrow his night splint. I've been wearing that in the evenings, the strassburg sock overnight, icing, ibuprophen, stretching... I've finally decided to pay a visit to Dr. Raymond to see if he can sort me out.

Better than expected

2010-01-27T21:59:00.004-05:00

The Leighton Hill Lollipop is becoming my favorite route to run from home these days, tonight was my third time running it in 8 days. I've finally refined it to 1.7 miles of road at the beginning and end with a 4.3 mile trail loop in the middle.

It was still unseasonably warm this evening which made for very comfortable running, and despite the rain we had earlier in the week the trails were in very runnable shape. I knew there was going to be ice on the trails, but the roads were dry so I set off from home wearing road shoes and carrying my screwed trail shoes in a backpack. This was my first time running with Ice Spikes in my shoes instead of sheet metal screws, I must say that I was very impressed. I'll give a full review once I've had a chance to get a few more miles on them, but for the 4.3 miles I ran in them tonight they provided incredible grip on hard ice on steep hills.

Despite postholing a dozen times or more, and having frozen ledges of ice breakaway beneath me I still managed to move along at a pretty good pace. The downhills were very fast, at least for icy night time running, and I was able to run the flats at a consistently quick pace between the convulsive interruptions of postholing. As long as it stays cold enough this loop should remain runnable until we get another decent snowfall and more snowmobile traffic on top of that.

As nice as it is to be able to run with a little exposed skin this time of year and not have to worry about frost bite this springlike weather is a terrible tease, because we're still only in the first half of winter and surely there will be a lot more snow to come.

time: 1:05:50
distance: 7.71 miles
pace: 8:32

weather: upper 30's, cloudy

conditions: dry road, packed snowmobile trails, ice, dirt, puddles, mud

gear: Saucony Grid Sinister, Inov-8 Roclite 295 with Ice Spikes, Smart Wool socks, short tights, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, buff, gloves, Camelbak (for carrying shoes)

Shorts in January?

2010-01-26T21:41:00.003-05:00

Yup. It was that warm tonight.

After a crazy amount of rain (for late January) I knew that the conditions would be pretty nasty at Twin Brook, but I hadn't been able to make it to a TMR TNR in many weeks so I wasn't about to let bad conditions hold me back when I finally had the time to make it there. Erik and Jim were the only others to show up, and we tried to make the best of it despite the conditions. We started out by heading towards Val Halla with the intention of running the snowmobile trails, but one of the Brooks was severely flooded and it didn't seem like a good idea to try crossing it. We realized that the ski trails were completely trashed (for skiers) so decided just to run them. Turns out they weren't any good for running either, lots of deep slush and icy water.

About two miles into the run, just after exiting the A loop I looked up and had absolutely no idea where we were. I've run these trails so many times, I always know where I am but for some reason I was completely disoriented. I guess I'd been away for too long. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into making it there every week.

time: 45:15
distance: 4.5 miles
pace: 10:04

Sunday Double

2010-01-24T21:17:00.002-05:00

Sunday I decided to join Emma for a run, wrapping up her first week of post "stress reaction" recovery which included four 15 minute runs. Whooppee! Having been injured since Pineland in May I don't know how she has managed to stay sane, and now that she is running pain free I don't know how she manages to hold herself to just 15 minutes at a time. Anyway, it was nice to run with her again, even if it was just a short one around the neighborhood. We did manage to work a little hill into it:

time:15:57
distance: 1.75 miles
pace: 9:08

Later in the day, after it got dark I went out for another run, this time hoping to get in a few more miles on the local snowmobile trails before the rain hit. Although I could have got the run in during daylight hours I purposely waited until after dark, as park of my training for the WHW I want to get in a fair amount of night running on rugged terrain.

I decided to run pretty much the same route as I did on Wednesday, but do the loop portion in reverse so I could run up the Three Bitches. 2 miles of road, 1/4 mile of dirt road then a 3 mile loop on snowmobile trails. On the way back I discovered an alternate route that replaces 1/2 mile of road with more snowmobile trails. Sweet.

There are some excellent hills on this route and a nice variety of terrain, although it's pretty much smoothed out by the snowmobiles. When I reached the top of Leighton Hill on the way out there were three snowmobilers there, just cracking open some beers and I think I caught them by surprise. I thanked them for making such nicely runnable trails, but being dressed in tights I decided not to hang around too long.

The rain started before I finished the run but it was still in the mid-30's and very comfortable winter running weather.

time: 1:06:05
distance: 7.45 miles
pace: 8:52

weather: mid 30's, a few rain showers

conditions: wet roads, nicely packed snowmobile trails

gear: Inov-8 Roclite 315 with screws, Smart Wool socks, tights, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, gloves, buff