Virtual Skunk Cabbage Half

I'm a weekend late so I don’t know if I’m DQ’ed or banned for life or what, but I ran a version of the Finger Lakes Runners Club's Virtual Skunk Cabbage Half Marathon this afternoon. I was signed up to run the half for the eight time until the COVID-19 pandemic caused it to be cancelled. The club decided to go virtual for those who didn't want a refund. I decided to try something different than the traditional Skunk course and run the distance on the flat but lumpy Stewart Park woodchip path near my house. My plan was to run loops at half marathon effort until my watch read 13.1.

Why this particular loop? For one, it’s a convenient three-minute walk from my house and usually not very crowded despite the location and ease of access. Second, because I wanted to get a taste of the hamster wheel courses that runners elsewhere around the world are confined to during the pandemic. I don’t have access to a treadmill or a track and wouldn’t go so far as to run 15-foot loops around my living room, so the woodchips it was. Picture an isosceles triangle with sides measuring 3-5-5; that’s the loop, complete with its three acute angles. Most importantly, the woods around the path are teeming with symplocarpus foetidus (commonly known as the titular skunk cabbage plants). Sadly, they were not in full bloom today despite permeating the
park with their radiant purple hue a mere three days ago. Perhaps two days of cold weather put them back in their shells.

The aforementioned trail measures 0.85 to 0.90 miles, depending on GPS accuracy, so that made it about 15.5 loops. The path lacks the standard Skunk course’s rolling hills, but subprime traction on the soft, uneven woodchips made for slow going and provided plenty of aspiring ankle rollers. I started out too fast and after two miles scaled the pace back from tempo to steady effort. The lost sleep and lack of training that comes with raising six-week-old twins has taken a cumulative toll and insisted that my new dad bod ain’t ready to race. I didn’t want to destroy myself and need a week to recover.

I got into a good groove, but one pitfall of a virtual race is that it’s easy to forget to run hard when there’s no crowd or other runners. I kept allowing my mind to wander and slacking on the pace, big time. I flew through the final half mile to reach 13.1, stopped the watch, and finished with a slow AF half marathon. At least it was a PR for a trail half, albeit on a much easier “course”. (Think Monster 13.1 on the old Virgil route for my previous best in an actual race.)

That’s it. If my run doesn’t count for an official race finish or PR, at least it’s an excuse to go to town on some Taste of Thai Massaman curry for dinner. Happy COVID-free trails!