Joel Cisne, race director for the Finger Lakes Runners Club's Thom B Trail Runs, decided to go virtual fat-ass style with his race after the club's board voted to cancel it. (With a race date of May 16, it likely would have been cancelled by the NYS DEC anyway.) Joel flagged the course and gave people a three-week window in which to run the 13k, 26k, or marathon and report back with their finish times.
I was hoping to run one or two 13k loops at this year's race, having only ever raced the marathon and the now-defunct 52k at the event. On the evening of May 1 I went up to Hammond Hill State Forest to take advantage of the marked route and hammer out a fast 13k loop.
Things started out okay on the initial climb and ensuing flat trails. It was a few miles before the recent rain muddied up the trails
and made running difficult. My new pair of inov-8 Roclite G 275s handled well in the mud and slick leaves. I maintained a half marathon effort on the trails—through the mud and water, up and down rolling hills, and over wet leaves and roots. Physical distancing was easy. Overcast skies scared everyone away and I only saw two hikers the whole time, both from the parking lot.
Around mile 5 is where I began to tank on the Y4 trail leading out to Star Stanton Road. Crossing Star Stanton, the gradual uphill on Y2 was a real grind until I hit Star Stanton Hill's peak and began to cruise on the decent. The last two miles of this loop are among my favorite trails to run in the area. Smooth, fast, and mostly secluded. I really started to hammer after the final hard right turn on Y1.
Sprinting down to the hard left onto the unmarked "finishing chute" trail I was in for a surprise. A large downed conifer completely blocked the trail and the only way past was to climb straight over. I fumbled my way forward and hustled down to the dirt road, turned right, and ran another 100 meters to compensate for not having access to the actual finish line inside the closed private camp.
I clocked a 1:09:18 for my first time "racing" the single-loop course. I don't know what to make of this. I think I've done faster than that in a training run or two, and Strava says I ran the loop in 1:06:57 to start the four-loop 52k in 2017. However, this time around I measured 8.25 miles on my newer Suunto 9, as opposed to 7.8 on my old Ambit 2. The old course also had a small section that's since been rerouted. (Replacing a bit of FLT with Y4 just south of Star Stanton.) The reroute adds 0.1 to 0.2 miles to the loop, but is much smoother and easier to run than the lumpy and technical FLT. It felt great to open up and race all-out on these fast and smooth trails!
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Does a virtual race fail count as a DNF? On May 11 I went up to Hammond to virtually race the 26k. It was low 50s and sunny at my house in the Ithaca valley when I got ready to leave at 9:30 a.m. The babies started crying and before I knew it I was arrive at the higher elevation Hammond Hill parking lot at noon, light rain was just starting, and I was cold as soon as I got out of the car.
I hadn’t planned for the weather to turn like that and was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt, with no extra clothes in the car. I made good time up the initial dirt road climb and was greeted with numb hands as the wind really started to pick up. I continued down B1 a bit and decided to call it when a steady downpour of hail started stinging all over my bare skin. I finished up Thom’s Victory Lap, retrieved my stashed bottle, and bolted back to the car all but victorious. I’ll try again later this week when the weather is better. Lesson learned: always bring extra clothing options to Hammond!
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Three days after the aforementioned DNF, I thought the 26k would go much better since the trails were all dry and it wasn’t too hot. I felt like crap after only 3-4 miles, got a short lived second wind around mile 12, then slogged it in to the end. 1:13 for Loop 1 is a solid time for me but the 1:28 Loop 2 is not. I should have waited to do this another day but didn’t want to do it in a downpour. At least the physical distancing was easy again this time.
After this there were only two days left to run the "official" virtual race and submit my time. Today seemed like the best day to do it. Sadly I won't be able to get out for the marathon and complete the Thom B Triple Crown. With twins at home I just don't have the bandwidth to leave Hayley home with them so I can run a 4+ hour marathon. Thanks RD Joel for marking the way and recording times!
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