So – here I am, 54 days out from my 100 miler. Just started hitting the heavy mileage back
to back weekends a couple weeks ago with a couple of 30/15’s. There are only 2 weeks with heavier mileage,
where the day 2 BTB hits 20 instead of 15 – but by and large, I’m just about at
peak training. And (knock wood), nothing
is broke, hurt, bent, or otherwise nonfunctional.
In order to shake things up and add in interest, support,
and cool venues, I threw a couple of races into the training plan. Last weekend (6/11) was the Cooperstown
Marathon, and then a couple of days ago was the Vegan 50K in Pittsfield, MA.
The Race That Wasn’t – The Cooperstown Marathon
A couple of days prior to the Cooperstown Marathon, I got a
text from my buddy Ed – a friend from my Lactic Acid Droppers Ragnar team. The first time I met Ed was last year in
March – I had gone to Connecticut to meet the team for the first time, and
before the team get together that night, I met Ed in the morning for an 18 mile
run. Ed told me that he and Sen, another
teammate, were coming to Cooperstown to join me for the race. Ed was going to run the full, with me, and
Sen was going to run the half. Both Ed
and Sen had been at the Burlington marathon a couple of weeks earlier, and Ed, as
a full marathoner, had gotten pulled off the course along with most of the
other marathoners because of the extreme heat.
So he was looking forward to actually completing a spring marathon,
having trained for one.
I was thrilled to hear Ed and Sen were coming – both because
they are great company and I wanted them to meet my family and see Cooperstown,
and for the chance to actually run 26 miles something other than alone. Although
I’m pretty used to my own company by now, it is nice to have conversation on
long runs every once in a while!
Prior to race day the forecast was for clouds in the
morning, and then possible thunderstorms in the afternoon. Looked to be a fine race day.
Ed and Sen arrived Friday evening and we headed out for a
pre-race carbolicious Italian meal. Got
a good night sleep and woke up bright and early to… a newly rainy forecast. As opposed to the race-friendly forecast of
the day before, the Weather Channel App was now predicting 100% chance of rain
by 10 with possible thunderstorms.
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| Amy & Sen - pre-race |
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| Ed and Jasper making friends |
The Clark Sports Center race directors were extremely
accomodating, announcing the chance of inclement weather and offering
refunds. I don’t believe anyone took
them up on it. We said goodbye to Sen,
sending him off on his trolley ride to the half marathon start (scheduled for
9), and Ed and I waited around for the race to start.
This was only the 3rd year of the Cooperstown
marathon – I had done the first one when the marathon field was only 39 runners
strong. That race 2 years ago had a
special place in my heart, as it was the first marathon where I ran the whole
race as opposed to using the Jeff Galloway run walk method I’d cut my teeth on,
and by so doing, I cut 21 minutes off of my time and had achieved a 4:20 or so
race time along with being the 3rd woman in. Probably the last time that will ever happen
to me in a marathon! The first Cooperstown marathon had a number of
locals and I knew a good chunk of the runners.
It felt strange this time looking around at the field and seeing almost
all unfamiliar faces.
And… we were off.
Although it was tough to run a marathon and not try to “race”
it, I knew that for my training I would be best served by not pushing too hard
on this effort and just making it a long supported training run. Our goal pace was 10-10:30 minute miles,
which we achieved pretty easily. Alas,
at 8:20, almost 2 hours earlier than predicted, the rains started. We were prepared, and ran on. Didn’t start to get concerned until a great
big crack of thunder hit, probably about 8:45.
As soon as I heard that crack, I started waiting for the race to
end.
We actually managed to get to mile 9.5, through a bunch of
rain and an hour of electric storm before the end actually came. The Cooperstown trolley, normally the
transportation for tourists getting to town from the distant parking lots,
pulled up in front of our group of runners and the sports center staff rustled
us onto the bus, indicating the race was over because of the storm.
Met some cool people on the bus - Maria, who I will see again at Beast of Burden, and Andrew. Once we stopped running, I started getting
cold, and by the time we got to my car I was shivering uncontrollably. The half marathoners hadn’t gotten any run in
at all, so poor Sen had come all the way to Cooperstown and hadn’t gotten to
race. Another thing that was weighing on my mind
was the fact that this was supposed to be a heavy training weekend – 28 miles
Saturday, 15 on Sunday. I had only
gotten in 9.5. Solution? Get in another 5.5 with Sen, so he could get
a run in, and then do the long run on Sunday.
A little bit mentally tough, since I’d already given up half a Saturday
for the marathon, and now would be giving up half of a Sunday too, but really
the only solution.
The run with Sen was great – one of the things about Ragnar
is that although you ride around in a van with a lot of cool people, you do
your runs solo. So it was really a treat
to do the 9.5 with Ed, and then another 5.5 with Sen. The other thing about the Sen run is – since we
weren’t focused on going long anymore, we got in a couple of tempo miles. So, ended the Saturday with 15.
Sunday came and I decided to essentially do the “Race the
Lake” marathon loop from my house. The
coolest thing about Sunday’s run was how I felt at mile 28 – which was, good
enough to push for 30.
And just like that, another long training weekend was done.
Vegan 50K – the Race that Was
Originally I was supposed to be doing a 70.3 (Half Ironman
distance) triathlon in Syracuse on June 19.
A few months ago, I gave myself permission to let go of the idea for
training for both that race and the 100 mile ultra, although I had still pondered doing
the race as I was supposed to have company coming up to do it with me. When the company decided they weren’t doing
it either, I completely bailed on Syracuse and went and signed up for my second
50K Trail – the Vegan 50K in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on June 18. I’m
not a Vegan, but the race was open to carnivores as well and it got great
reviews. This was going to be my last 30
mile run before I headed off to a European vacation for 10 days.
I headed out to Pittsfield on Friday night and got myself
checked into my EconoLodge. A bit
dismayed to find I had accidentally booked myself into a smoking room although
it turned out to not be as bad as I feared.
(I’m a former 2 pack a day smoker so I was, kind of disgustingly, a
little bit nostalgic at the smell of stale smoke.) I then drove over and spent a bit of time
trying to find the actual entrance to Pittsfield State Forest where the race
was scheduled to start. After a few
false starts, I found the entrance – and knew I was in the right place when
Ana, one of the race directors, pulled up behind me and confirmed. She was so welcoming and friendly I found
myself again grateful to be a part of this running community.
As I drove around, I was stunned by the beauty of the
place. Having gone to school in
Williamstown, also in the Berkshires, and having spent many childhood weekends
at my grandmother’s house in North Adams, you’d think the beauty of the area
would have already been known to me.
However, this appears to be something I took for granted and never even
saw growing up. It reminded me of the
first time I went to Seattle as an adult, and even though I’d be there many
times as a kid, it wasn’t until the adult trip that I became aware of just how
remarkable the landscape was.
This was like that.
Just driving through this beauty brought a sense of contentment and
happiness that made me incredibly glad I’d come out to do this race.
As anyone who is following my blog knows, this was not an “A”
race for me – rather, it was just a chance for a long supported training run in
a beautiful place. Since I’ve done a
bunch of 28 and 30’s already, the distance didn’t phase me, and having already
done a couple of trail races, I wasn’t super nervous about the terrain. As a result, I slept fine without any
pre-race jitters, and was just looking forward to the day.
Race Check-in on Saturday morning was non-eventful; I did
actually get to see Rudy Shepherd, who is an ultra runner I met at the tail end
of the NJ Ultrafest. I’d known from
Facebook he would be volunteering. He is
also training for a 100-miler, so even though he may not be aware, I have a
sense of kinship with him as I see his training posts on Facebook. There were no other runners I recognized,
although there was a woman with a fantastic crocheting tattoo (cool ball of
yarn) on her calf.
I debated strongly about whether to bring my
phone/music. I didn’t see many other
runners with headphones or iPods, and I ddidn’t want dirty looks – I know there
are strong feelings out there about using music on trails. However, 50K is a long time to be alone in
your head, so ultimately I strapped my phone on my arm and just didn’t put the
earbuds in my ear, holding on to them with my left hand. (I never did end up listening to the music and ultimately put the headphones in my pack.) With just a few pre-race announcements, we
were off.
Ironically, the only real hill in the entire race that was
substantial was at the very beginning of the race – mostly on pavement. I’d say the first 1/8 to 1/4 of a mile was
pure climb. As we started out, everyone
ran it. I took my usual hill approach,
which has become short quick steps. This
first round was the ONLY round I saw anyone running that hill, and in future
go-rounds it became the place to walk and re-fuel.
What can I say about the course aside from the beauty of the
forest? Without a lot of trail running
under my belt, I don’t have a lot to compare it to… only Mendon Ponds
(completely non-technical and my first 20K trail race), my local 3 mile trail
loop (moderately rooty and with a couple of little nasty climbs) and NJ Ultra
Fest (a course that I felt was pretty much out to kill me with pointy rocks, loads of
elevation, roots and many many water crossings).
This course had elements of all of those. The thing that it DIDN’T have was either
significant climb or water crossings.
However, there were many many roots.
So – elevation wise, there were never any sections I had to walk –
however, I was always, ALWAYS looking forward for the next root. In a way, it was a bit harder (though faster)
than New Jersey, because I ran pretty much all of it except the aid
stations. NJ had many built in required
walking sections – so I had many chances to rest my running muscles and
exercise my walking muscles. Vegan 50K
was all runnable – but all technical.
At the end of the day, I only took 2 spills where I actually
hit the ground. The first was relatively
graceful, with a gentle roll that broke my fall. The second one was more of a splat – landing kind
of face first with my hands in front of me.
I guess there was kind of a third where I went splat onto a downed tree –
but the tree broke my fall to the actual ground, so I’m not counting that. In addition to the actual falls, there were
many (10-15??) almost falls – which in a way, were almost worse. They invariably happened as I had been
running along for a while, thinking “OK – now I’ve got the hang of this – this is
going smoothly” and then I’d catch my foot on a root (almost always my left
foot), and something (hamstring? Knee? Glute?
Ankle?) would pull and feel very
bad for a bit and I’d catch myself thinking “that was close”. There were a couple where I was really amazed
I didn’t actually hurt something – and probably at least 4 or 5 where I yelped
or otherwise called out in pain. Comic
to watch, I’m sure.
I did catch myself in a bit of a bad mental game – I think
sometime at the end of loop 1 or in the middle of loop 2. It was a feeling a little bit like despair –
like “why do I choose to do this to myself”, knowing I had hours of root
hopping to go. I let myself feel a
little bit miserable, and feel like I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing. (At the moment I wasn’t). I
think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I was on a trail – and at the
moment, I’m still not very good at it. Fortunately,
that feeling went away, and the feeling of “flow” (recently described very well
on an Ultra list thread) came to me where I found my pace, I found my groove,
and I just ran. And ran. And ran.
The whole competition thing – this was a training run for me
– but I also have this feeling of wanting to do well. I was spoiled at NJ by being the 3rd
woman in. A complete surprise, but there
it was. I was second woman in at BPAC,
so there is a part of me that feels like if I’m not doing really well, I’m
failing.
I knew I wasn’t going to be among any of the top finishers
when I started seeing some folks lapping me.
There were folks doing their 6th loop as I was completing my
5. And – well, this makes sense. Because at the end of the day, I’m a pretty
brand new trail runner. The pace I can
do on a technical trail without much elevation appears to be a good 3-4 minutes
slower per mile than I can do on the road.
Which was good enough to get me 7th woman in. And run the whole way. And perhaps learn some more technique. And this, too – after my first trail ultra, I
hurt for DAYS. It was almost as bad as my first marathon – I’d
bruised both my big toenails, and my quads were just shot. After this race, I was… fine.
I went home, slept, and went out the next day for my next training
run. I had some residual wonkiness in my
left hip yesterday, but that only lasted for a day. So my recovery was better.
The last mile of the race seemed pretty long – just because
a lot of the trail looked the same to me and I was expecting the end to come
sooner that it did. But it wasn’t bad –
just long. I think I was pretty much
doing the same pace at the end of the race as I was at the beginning. Got to the finish line, got some applause,
got myself some tasty Vegan pizza. And
got on the road, after giving myself a thorough baby-wipe shower.
I feel in some ways like morally, I should like trail
running more than I currently do. The
trail runners I know are passionate about trails – they LOVE trails, and hate
roads. Me… well, I’m working on it. I love hiking trails. I love being out in nature. I am starting to feel better about letting go
of road pace and letting the forest guide me.
However, as with all new things, there is a learning curve, and let’s
face it – I don’t like not being good at stuff.
And I’m just not as good at this yet as many other trail runners. Plus, it feels like the chance of injury is
just much, much greater. I can’t just
zone out and focus on the run – I have to constantly be vigilant about my next
steps – and still, I wrench and bruise and scrape parts of my body that, if I
were road running, would be just fine. I
have to say, though, the beauty and the people are both compelling reasons to
continue this trail journey.
Training week epilogue – the next day
This weekend was originally supposed to be a Back to Back
30/15. Because I was concerned about how
I’d feel after the long trail, I actually did 9 miles on Friday which was
supposed to be a rest day, so I’d only have to do 6 on Sunday to get to my
planned training mileage. It was also
giving myself a chance to sleep in.
However, at the end of the day, my OCD training brain (and my body which
is a bit hooked on endrophins at this point) wouldn’t let me NOT do a long-ish
run on Sunday. I ended up doing 14
instead of 6, closing out the week at 76 miles.
And, as is often the case, the Sunday run worked out a few of the kinks
from the Saturday.
So – that’s the update.
I’m headed off to Europe for a Mediterranean Cruise the day after
tomorrow. Of course my OCD brain is
trying to figure out how to mostly keep up with my training on a cruise
ship. I have already dumped the idea of
trying to get in a 30, but I think on the 2 “At sea” days I will try to get in 2
20-milers. I’m sure I will get some
funny looks. When I get back, I’ll have
3 long weekends, and then start to taper.
This thing is getting real.
