Halfway through the second of three loops, I'd been wallowing in self pity for quite some time as I made my way up the biggest hill on the course. Michael Valone and a few others sporting #TrailsRoc orange gazed down the slope as I meticulously inched my way forward and seriously considered calling it a day and hiking it back in with this crowd. Michael yelled something about looking strong I muttered back something about feeling awful.
It wasn't until I crested the ridge and exchanged high fives with Michael that it struck me what a selfish, grade A a-hole I was in that moment. Here I was, spending a couple hours exhausted and cold and sore, but doing something I genuinely love to do on almost any given day. And for the last hour and a half I was blind to it, practically begging for an ounce of sympathy while trying to maintain traction up that snowy singletrack. It wasn't until Michael and I high-fived that I was bitten with his always-present, infectious energy. Only then I remembered how lucky I was to even have the chance to be out there sauntering through the woods.
Friday, December 21, 2018
Wawayanda
Of the four 100-milers I've run the Wawayanda Wonderful Wonhundred was by far the easiest. On paper. In reality, I had to work harder for this belt buckle than for any of the previous three. I wasn't able to find much info on this low-key race aside from the event website, so I'll describe the course and the race in more detail than I normally would for anyone who's interested in running it in the future.
Now in it's third year, the Wawayanda Wonderful Wonhundred is put on by NJ Trail Series annually in mid-October. NJTS is an event production company owned by husband and wife Rick and Jennifer McNaulty. They organize trail and ultra races year round, the best known of which is Three Days at the Fair. The WW100 uses the singletrack and logging roads in Wawayanda State Park in Hewitt, New Jersey, with the race HQ located at a boat launch area on the edge of Wawayanda Lake.
The WW100 course is a looped format in which runners complete three separate loops — marked blue, orange, and purple — totaling 25 miles, then repeat three more times for a total of 100. 50-mile and 50k races are held concurrently on the same loops. This year, parts of the course were altered due to flooding on the trails; as a result each loop was shortened slightly and we had to run more of them. We started off with a truncated 1.8-mile loop run twice, then began the
Now in it's third year, the Wawayanda Wonderful Wonhundred is put on by NJ Trail Series annually in mid-October. NJTS is an event production company owned by husband and wife Rick and Jennifer McNaulty. They organize trail and ultra races year round, the best known of which is Three Days at the Fair. The WW100 uses the singletrack and logging roads in Wawayanda State Park in Hewitt, New Jersey, with the race HQ located at a boat launch area on the edge of Wawayanda Lake.The WW100 course is a looped format in which runners complete three separate loops — marked blue, orange, and purple — totaling 25 miles, then repeat three more times for a total of 100. 50-mile and 50k races are held concurrently on the same loops. This year, parts of the course were altered due to flooding on the trails; as a result each loop was shortened slightly and we had to run more of them. We started off with a truncated 1.8-mile loop run twice, then began the
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