I signed up for this race the week after I finished my 100
miler in August. The goal of running
this 26.2 was as my last “long” training run in between my 100 miler on August 13
and my CanLakes 50 miler on October 8.
Although generally I’m pretty comfortable doing long runs solo, I have
found it adds interest and comraderie to throw in some races as training runs. I picked this race because I saw it was going
to be held in the Pittsfield state forest, where I had a really good experience
running the Vegan Power 50K back in June, training for my 100. (I’m not a vegan but they let me in
anyway). The venue for that race was
stunningly beautiful and the terrain was all runnable – not much elevation and
not horribly technical – though relatively rooty. It wasn’t until after I signed up for “Free
to Run” that I saw that, even though the race was in the same park (Pittsfield
State Forest), it was NOT the same trail.
THIS race had 3000 feet of elevation per 12.5 mile loop and the race was
billed as “very challenging”.
Furthermore, in order to race well, you need to train on the terrain you
will be racing on. And, unfortunately, I’ve
not spent much time on trails since I ran the 50K in June. I did
manage to get in 2 5-mile training runs in the 3 weeks before Free To Run – but
I had a spill on my first trail training run and suffered a nasty hamstring
pull that had made sitting excruciating for the past several weeks and which was
only just now recovering.
My Ragnar buddy Ed Rudman had seen me thinking out this race
online, so we signed up together. After
we signed up, he shared info about the race with some other Ragnar teammates
including my cousin and best friend Rebecca Makas, and Rebecca and our friend
Deb Ross decided to come up and do the half.
So – rather than a solo training run, I had an opportunity for a long
training run with a friend, as well as a chance to run a chunk of it with other
buddies too. This for me is special as I
spend lots and lots of time running alone.
Problem was, as the race was approaching, I was not looking
forward to it. Rather, I was facing it
with dread and trepidation. As in “what
have I done?” Primarily I think the
issue was fear of injuring myself further, after my spill from 2 weeks
ago. I have been getting so much joy out
of running big miles – almost all of them on roads, and I had this sick feeling
in the back of my mind that I was putting that ability in jeopardy by throwing
myself into a race I really wasn’t all that prepared for. Distance?
Yes. Terrain… not so much.
One of the nice things about the race was the start time –
with a 9:00 start for the half and full marathoners, I was able to get out and
back in the same day rather than drop money on lodging. I woke up only about 5 minutes earlier than
my usual 4:30 and was in the car by 5 to head out to the forest. Unlike many previous drives to races where I
start to enjoy a sense of anticipation, I continued to feel nervousness and a
bit of dread. The only bright spot in
the drive was looking forward to seeing people I love and spending the day in a
beautiful place with them.
Breakfast consisted of a bacon, egg and cheese bagel from
the Dunkin’ Donuts next to a Love’s travel stop near Pittsfield. I was wearing my Vegan Power 50K race shirt
(which I love! It’s bright red and
totally badass), and the clerk at Dunkin’ looked startled as I gave her the
order. “Did you say… bacon?”.
“Damn skippy.”
“But… your shirt….”
“Oh. It was a race –
it was a Vegan support event but they let me in anyway.”
I got to the forest with plenty of time to spare, and before
Ed, Rebecca and Deb arrived. I picked up
my bib and just drank coffee until they showed up a few minutes later.
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| Rebecca and Ed - pre Race |
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| Deb, Amy, Rebecca and Ed Pre race |
The trail loops were each 12.5 miles, so in order for each
respective race to hit the required distance, an extra stretch was added on to
the beginning of the race. The half
marathoners added on .6 miles, while the marathoners added on 1.2. This meant that Ed and I started out the race
more than ½ mile before Rebecca and Deb – which sort of threw our plan to run
together into disarray. Becca and Deb
said they’d “meet us at the top of the hill”, and I think we all assumed we’d
see them shortly.
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| Rocky Terrain - new to me! |
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| Ed posting on the trail |
The add-on stretch was pavement, but shortly thereafter we
hit the trails and started climbing. As
the elevation map had indicated it would be, the first stretch of the first
loop was pretty much all climb. Although
the “hiking” portion of ultra running had surprised me on my first trail “run”,
after seeing the elevation map I had pretty much been mentally prepared that I’d
be doing a bit of hiking early on. Still
– running is my thing. So whenever we
hit portions of the trail that appeared more runnable, we started
trotting. I have to say I felt pretty
good about the first 3-4 miles of the race.
I was pleased with our pace, and pleased with the sections of trail that
I found “runnable” – especially given the rocky terrain, which I was not at all
familiar with. Ed and I kept thinking we’d
run into Deb and Rebecca any minute – but in fact we didn’t see them until we
hit the first aid station which I believe was somewhere between 3 and 4 miles
into the course. Rebecca was easily
identifiable by her bright orange compression socks.
We took advantage of the aid station goodies and soda, and
then started on our way as a group of 4.
One of the other racers informed us that the hill right out of the aid
station was known as the “Thrasher”.
There are some writings on the race website about where that name came
from, but all we knew is that it was STEEP.
I was actually OK with this – I’m a pretty strong climber
when it comes to hiking, and I can power my way up most hills without too much
huffing and puffing. That is to say, the
non-technical uphills are the piece of trail running I do well. I was a bit ahead of my buddies on this part
of the trail.
One of the best and most delightful parts of this race were
the stream of obscenities pouring from Deb’s mouth. Deb is, simply, amazing. She is witty, crass, astoundingly funny and
shockingly obscene when she chooses to be – and she was choosing to be. She kept us in stitches for the rest of the
half marathon. Going up the hill: “Whose F@#ING idea was this anyway. F@*ING AMY.
DAMN her! “ Funnier still was
when we got to the aid station where I got stung by a wasp and without even
thinking, I swore loudly. Deb said
gently “Amy – don’t swear. Swearing
offends me.” She then apologized on my
behalf to the aid station worker for my mouth.
It was Deb’s birthday and she was
waiting for the exact moment when she turned 48 (1:00) so we could take a
birthday selfie.
After we conquered the Thrasher we hid a much more level and
rolling section of trail – and even though Deb swore every time we hit another “up”
(there were plenty), in fact this section was pretty enjoyable. It kept looking like we would break through
and be on the top of the mountain soon, and every few minutes, Rebecca would
state “Where’s my lookout? They promised
us a lookout damnit!” I was thoroughly enjoying this and feeling
pretty happy that I hadn’t fallen.
And then. Running
along in a nice stretch of woods – and my left foot gets caught on a sneaky
root and stays hooked there while my butt separates just a little bit from my
leg and I can feel my hamstring pull EXACTLY where it had on my fall a few
weeks ago. And then I swore just like
Deb, “F@#K!!”, terrified that I had
ruined myself for my upcoming 50 miler.
That pretty much blew my confidence for the rest of the
race. I gingerly started running again,
the hammie yelling at me for my clumsiness.
Forutnately after a mile or 2, the hamstring pain started to subside significantly.
We finally hit the overlook and it was as incredible as
promised. We spent WAY more time there
than I would normally spend at an aid station at a race – which was fine,
because this was all about running in a beautiful place with friends. There were other runners up there, including Ana
Wolf – who I had met briefly as the Race Director extraordinaire of the (much
more runnable!) Vegan Power 50K, and with whom I have been Facebook Friends
ever since. It is always great to spend
time with my runner friends in person.
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| Deb, Rebecca, Amy and Ed |
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| Meeting my friend Ana on top of the world |
It was also up on the ridge where I got stung by the wasp. Didn’t even see it coming but all of a sudden
my arm was on fire. Made sense that it
was a yellow jacket – the aid station workers said they were hanging all around
the food table all day. I swore loudly
(chastised gently by Deb), and hoped that today wouldn’t be the day I’d develop
any sort of sting allergy.
Fortunately there was no need for epi-pens as we progressed
down along our way. After our highly
enjoyable vista stop, we headed back into the woods for the last 5 miles for
Deb and Rebecca, and that last 18 for Ed and I.
The next 3 miles was unremarkable.
There was one more aid station after the vista, where the aid station
volunteers said “the rest is easy! There
is just one more little up hill, and then no more single track – just downhill
the rest of the way.”
Easy my ass. (My
sore, pulled, ACHING ass!) The one thing
they were right about was the downhill part.
Oh boy was it downhill. Leaf
slippery, rock slidingly, impossible footingly downhill. Not too far from where we started our
descent, I went down. My goal going into
this race was to stay upright and not get injured. This fall was pretty disheartening – again because
I had gone into this as a training run for a 50-mile road race – and what good
is a training run if you come out of it unable to run? After I got up from my tumble, I was much
more cautious on the remaining downhill.
Deb and Rebecca hopped down it like billy goats, while Ed was a bit more
cautious. I brought up the rear. Some minutes later, we saw a clearing up
ahead, and there we were – Deb and Rebecca done with their race, and Ed and I
at the halfway mark. It was also pretty
cool that our friend Sharon – another Ragnar teammate, had come to watch Deb
and Becca finish and to cheer Ed and I on!
Again we spent a bit more time at the aid station than I would
normally do – and we headed out on lap 2 – with Ana and Marie right behind us.
It was pretty clear on lap 2 that most of our productive “running”
was done. The uphill seemed “uppier”,
and EVERYTHING seemed rockier and rootier again. At this point I had 2 remaining goals – not to
fall again, and not to DNF – and a not very strong but still present goal of
trying to finish in less than 8 hours.
Whereas on our first loop we had plenty of miles that were
anywhere from 13-17 minute miles, on the second loop we were happy with
anything under 20. And believe it or
not, in those sections where we were hitting 18 – we were actually doing a bit
of running.
So here is the thing that gets me about trails. Deb said it just right as we were hiking up
the Thrasher. She said “I like to RUN
trails. I don’t like to hike to get to
my run. If running is your drug, then
this part doesn’t do it”. Yes – that. I’m into this thing for the run. So on the parts where, for whatever reason, I
can’t comfortably run – it feels like I’m either cheating, or failing. Despite the fact that I KNOW that except for
the top runners in these races, pretty much everyone is doing a bit of
hiking. Some more than others.
But running is my drug – and, well, I was not doing that
much of it on loop 2. But neither was I
falling. What WAS happening was my quads
were getting more and more angry.
Although it had seemed like a second loop would be take
forever, in fact the time flew by – as it often does on these things. Ed and I talked about anything and everything
– and he jazzed things up a bit by singing a bit of Bruce (he’d just been to a
concert). At one point we were merrily
belting out the song they sing in the Stripes marching scene – “There she was
just a walkin’ down the street, singing Doowa Diddie Diddie Dum Diddie Do…”
I channeled my inner Deb when we got to the last aid station
– my recollection had been that it was just a bit over a mile to the finish
from there (which was what my GPS was telling me), but when the aid station
volunteers indicted it was 2 hours – F#@K came flying out. I just wanted to be done and go home and lick
my wounds.
Down the rocky, leafy descent we went. On this last section, there was pretty much
no running this time around. Well, until
we were maybe a half a mile before the end, when a couple that had been a ways
behind us appeared to be catching up. I
knew I wasn’t doing well in this race, but I wanted to at least keep any lead I
had. So – rocks be damned – I was
running the rest, with Ed right along beside me. We managed to run in approximately 30 seconds
to a minute in front of the 2 folks behind us – which put me 22 out of 30
finishers with a finish time of 8:03.
Almost twice as long as my best marathon, and only 7 minutes faster than
my first 50K trail – which was ALSO a tough course, with about as much
elevation as this one, where I was the 2nd woman in.
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| Finished! |
Well damn. What just
happened?
And here is where the Monday morning quarterbacking comes
in. My buddy Rich tells me “ya gotta
learn to not be so hard on yourself”. But
still – I’ve worked pretty hard at this ultra-running thing in the past year –
and so a finish time of 8:03 at the very least makes me think “how could I have
done better”?
So number 1: Train
for the terrain, dumbass.
OK – yeah. So why in
hell would I expect to do at all well when this wasn’t what I trained for? Isn’t what I AM CURRENTLY training for? Is, in fact, an almost entirely new thing for
me? This was my 4th trail “race”,
and even for my other ones I didn’t have THAT much more trail running under my
belt – but at the very least, before my 50K, I’d gotten in 3 or 4 solid 8-10
mile trail runs. This one – next to
nothing. And, although I’d gotten some
root practice on both training runs and previous races, really NOTHING in my
past running career prepared me for the kind of rocky terrain that was
everpresent on this course.
Number 2. I was
overly cautious.
On previous races – despite trips and falls (I’ve had at
least 1 on every trail race – hell, almost every trail RUN I’ve done..), I
managed to get back up and get in the groove again. But because of my fall weeks earlier that had
ended up giving me pain for weeks, I was so worried about injuring myself that
I didn’t allow myself to get back going again.
Number 3 – This wasn’t “THE” race.
So yeah – it definitely makes a difference in motivation
level if you are deliberately going into a race as a training run rather than
to “race” it.
Number 4- Probably 10-15 minutes lost at aid stations.
I guess those are mostly the things that could have been
opportunities for improvement.
Still – it was humbling.
When I finished that second loop, my legs were literally shaking. They were jelly. And that was after HIKING most of the second
loop – not much running in that go-round at all. I was used to being able to finish 26 miles
before breakfast and then spending the rest of the day cleaning my house. This 8 hour jelly-leg crap was a whole new
humbling gig for me. I couldn’t fathom
how anyone had done 4 loops on that course.
(And the lead person only took an hour more for the 50 that I took for
my marathon!! HE wasn’t hiking up those
hills, for sure. He was running them!).
Clearly, IF I want to improve at this particular type of
race, there needs to be some lots of trail specific training thrown in.
Although I spent my drive home and most of the rest of the afternoon
and evening growling at the whole concept of trails, by the next day I was
feeling a bit more like I might consider getting back out there and trying to
conquer them. There were plenty of
moments in the race that were in fact pure perfection. Particularly in the first loop, before
pulling my hamstring, running smoothly
and comfortably over the gentle hill portion of the course, my buddies behind
me on an incredibly beautiful day in a stunning venue – well, it just can’t get
any better than that. And the view from
the top? Priceless.
But I think I’ll wait for after my 50….
