'Twas The Night Before Gingermas

'Twas the night before Gingermas, and out on the trail
The finish line awaited with local craft ale.
The RD was sleepless, in the crisp autumn air
In hopes the lead pack soon would be there.
The midpackers were scattered all along the course,
While the elites sped along as quick as a horse.

And my pacer with his Suunto, and I with my Garmin,
Were hours behind coach Ian Sharman.
Long ago I had bonked, and my face lost its smile;
Barely half done with the one hundred miles.

Food rations were low - just a handful of pretzels -
As the light slowly faded from the bulb in my Petzl.
I felt so light headed, I had nothing left,
And was ready to drop - my first DNF.
We wandered forever and could not find the path.
I'd never make the cutoff - just do the math!

Giving Thanks

As a trail runner who's as involved with work, family, and social life as the next person, it's easy to take the little things for granted. To have the physical capacity to be out there on a run, surrounded by nature, fresh air, and beautiful scenery - this is a gift. I know it sounds cliche, but it's important to remain thankful for this gift that could suddenly be taken away without a moment's notice.

This realization hit me hard this past weekend. I had quite the scare during a routine trail run in a park I've traversed dozens of times. Running down a moderate grade slope, seemingly in the zone, I suddenly clipped a toe on a rock. Before I knew what hit me I was on the ground, face first in the dirt. On impact I banged my patella on an upturned root and began to panic that there may be some serious damage. After a quick systems check I was able to walk it off and then finish the run. (A few days later the knee feels okay, albeit a little tender when palpated.)

I spent the last half hour of that run thinking of how that day could have ended badly. A broken kneecap is no joke, so I've heard, and one of the most painful fractures one can sustain. The solution

Ultra Reading

What better way to relax after a run than to grab a snack and kick back with a good book. Anyone who knows me or regularly reads my blog knows that next to running, reading is my favorite pasttime. I enjoy polishing off pages by the dozen and will pick up pretty much anything that looks to be entertaining, interesting, or thought provoking. Reading helps me relax and open my mind to various viewpoints and different ways to express oneself through the medium of paper and pen (or keyboard and monitor.)

So what does any of this have to do with trail running? Well, there are three books in particular that I read a few years back that first got me interested in the sport. It was through these books that I first discovered ultramarathons even exist, let alone that I (and many other non-elite athletes) are more than capable of running beyond 26.2. These three books are a must-read for any current or aspiring ultrarunner, and the first two are both entertaining and educational for the general population,

Letchworth State Park: The Grand Canyon of the East

While Upstate New York is home to many beautiful parks, forests, and wilderness areas, there are none quite as popular as Letchworth State Park. Nicknamed "The Grand Canon of the East," and rightly so, it is the most visited of New York's 180 state parks.

On the western edge of New York's Finger Lakes region, the Genesee River cuts through many miles of bedrock to create a gorge that exceeds 600 feet in depth within the park boundaries. The river snakes and winds through the gorge, forming three major waterfalls along the way before reaching the Mount Morris Dam near the northeast end of the park. In a 2015 USA Today reader's poll, Letchworth was voted the best state park in the entire country. (Watkins glen State Park, also in the Finger Lakes, took the bronze in the same poll.)

Since this blog focuses primarily on off-road running, you may be asking yourself impatiently "Sure, but what about the trails?" Well, Letchworth boasts over 60 miles of trails inside the park proper

Virgil Crest Game Plan

[I've included here a separate post which is an exact copy of the Google Doc I provided to my crew. It lists my ETAs for every aid station and what I planned to do at each, the contents of my drop bags, and descriptions of the individual course sections. The document is posted here as it was originally written, errors and all. It's remarkable how accurate I was in predicting the ETAs - I listed times without really knowing what I was doing, and most of them were within a few minutes of my actual time. The only additional part is the miscellaneous photos at the end of the post. Click here and here to read two differently written accounts of my race experience.]

Virgil Crest 100 Race Itinerary

Listed here is what I think is my best strategy for completing the 100 miles, given my level of fitness, knowledge of the course, race rules, and safety precautions. Below is a breakdown of what I will hope to do at each of the 15 aid stations and a brief description of what I will be facing in between each one. It may sound a little long winded, but I want to provide as much detail as possible. Please keep in mind that we are guaranteed to be thrown curveballs mid-race and that everyone will NOT go exactly as planned. Where possible, I will try to provide backup plans for certain possible

Green Lakes 2015

Ah, the Green Lakes Endurance Runs. Back for another round, I decided to give the 100K a go as my final training run for Virgil Crest. That meant double the pleasure and double the fun I had during the 50K last year and the year before. (Race report from 2014.) My main goals for the 100K (62 miles) were to make sure some of my new gear is in working order for a race situation, to further dial in my nutrition, and to spend a long day on my feet. The tricky part was to remember that I'd need enough left in the tank to recover adequately during my three week taper between Green Lakes and Virgil. The common "I have no goal time" statement of course was always a lie. In the back of my head, I thought a sub 12 hour finish seemed reasonable, but I had to remember it was low on the priority list. I was telling people I wanted to finish before 7:00 pm when the park's swimming area closes so I could cool down in the water immediately afterward. A chance to hop in the lake meant breaking 13 hours.

Race Summary

 

The course is a loop of mostly flat trails, about half of which is exposed to the sun when the trails deviate from the woods for a few extended stretches. The loop is repeated eight times for the 100K, with access to a drop bag at the start/finish area.

Midway through lap 7. Photo: Tom Garby

In brief, the 100K went pretty well. It didn't really hit me until a few miles into the race that today would be my longest run ever by a full twelve miles. I was forced to push that thought aside and focus on pacing to avoid starting out too fast and burning out in the second half.

I got worried as I started feeling the first bits of fatigue around mile 20. I thought I could easily breeze through the first 50K before experiencing any signs of slowing, but to no avail. Laps three and four weren't terrible, but felt like more of an effort than I was hoping for. I made it through the first half in about 5:30 - not a bad split to go sub 12:00, but I already knew this time was not in the cards today.

Laps five and six were a struggle. I managed to keep moving in part because of all the 50K runners still on the course that I was able to converse with. This helped to take my mind off the pain and the monotony of such a repetitive course. On lap seven, my friend Tom, who was out for a long training run on the trails, kept running into me at different points and told me to keep moving because I was looking strong. I knew it wasn't true, but hey - sometimes those little

Definitely Maybe: Cayuga Trails 2015

Over the past few weeks I've been on a kick listening to one of my favorite bands of all time - the one and only Oasis. The short drive from my house to the starting area found me blasting several of the band's more up-tempo tunes to get pumped and ready to rock. As if that wasn't enough, I had an array of Oasis songs playing in my head throughout the race like some bi-polar DJ performing a freestyle mash-up for the first time. Amazingly, it seems many of the Gallagher brothers' songs fit the tone of the race and reference themes that I revisited throughout the day (albeit when taken out of context). What, then, could one of most most successful and iconic rock bands in history have in common with a bunch of grungy, sweaty weirdos running through the woods? I mean, what's the story, morning glory?

Hello! It's good to be back!

On the starting line, once again surrounded by 200 plus trail runners, I took a good look around. Strangely enough, it felt like only yesterday since I last toed the line at the Cayuga Trails 50. The day's forecast seemed to change every hour, and last I checked it was expected to be cloudy with scattered rain showers. Nobody ever mentions the weather can make or break your day. We could only hope the stairs wouldn't be too slick and the mud would be minimal. Some might say we will find a brighter day. 

After five long months of training and preparations we'd finally be setting off in under a minute's time. I intentionally stood near the back of the pack to avoid going out too fast, and was so far back I couldn't hear the traditional sounding of Ian's ram's horn as the countdown clock reached 00:00:00. Little things they make me so happy, but it's good to be free.

Cayuga Trails 50: Final Preparations and Additional Resources

With only a few days to go before the Cayuga Trails 50, I feel like I'm as ready as I could possibly be. The previous five months of training have been a lead-up to this coming Sunday. The last few weeks have been a combination of running on the course and getting in an ample amount of hill work. I'm hoping to run a PR for the 50M with the secondary goal of beating last year's time here, and feel like I have a good chance to do both.

The fun starts tonight (Friday), as Scotie Jacobs and Ithaca Beer are bringing back the Lucifer's Steps brew in conjunction with the race. The brewery is hosting a MUT runner social gathering of sorts, along with a pre-race briefing. The Race festivities continue tomorrow with the Trails in Motion Film Festival. Even if you are not running the race, considering checking out the Film Festival on Saturday afternoon, held downtown at Cinemapolis. I attended the festival last year and it was well worth it! (Click here for a full rundown of the race schedule of events.) There will also be mid-race live

Gnarly Times: The North Face Endurance Challenge at Bear Mountain

On the first weekend in May, I headed down to the Hudson Valley for a 50K trail race as a warmup for the Cayuga Trails 50 Miler. I've previously run the half marathon and full marathon at the North Face Endurance Challenge: New York, and thought the 50K would be a solid training effort for Cayuga. (I crashed at my friend Adam's house the night before the race, which helped immensely on the logistics. Thanks Adam!). Based on my memory of the marathon from 2013, I figured I could break six hours in the 50K without putting in an all-out effort. The 50K race started at 7:00 AM. After some brief pre-race announcements from Ultramarthon Man and North Face athlete Dean Karnazes, we were off, and by 7:05 I had already realized how wrong I'd been.

Pre-race sunrise. Looks to be a beautiful day!

 "And we're off!" Photo: Ultra Race Photos

Cruising in the early miles. Photo: Ultra Race Photos

In the two years since I'd run the trails at Bear Mountain and Harriman State Parks, I'd forgotten how the tough, gnarly terrain took a pretty good toll on my body. Despite being in better shape with more trail running experience this time around, I was still running that same marathon course plus an extra

Springletrack Recap

A couple of weeks ago, I returned to the Shawangunk Mountains in the Hudson Valley for another fat-ass trail run. Now in its third year, the Springletrack Fat-ass Trail Marathon is a sister run to the Wagathon, again traversing the Shawangunk Ridge, but this time on the North side of the ridge and heading in the opposite direction. With no aid stations or course markings, Adam and I were left to our own devices to complete the run and earn the highly coveted Springletrack Finisher's Medal.

Castle Point, atop the Shawangunk Ridge

What is a springletrack you may ask? Well the obvious answer is a play on the words "single track," as in running single track trails during the Springtime. I've yet to confirm the origin of the word, but my inner-nerd wishes to believe it is a derivative of "springle-ring," a "a pretty dance, but rather vigorous," performed by the Shire hobbits at Bilbo Baggins' farewell party in Fellowship of the Ring. Yes, that must be it! We were expected to dance like hobbits across the ridge while singing Shire songs and smoking those hobbit pipes.  But I digress. (More on the springle-ring here.)

A group of about 12 of us met up at the Spring Farm parking lot in the Mohonk Preserve shortly before 9:00am on Sunday, April 12. Saturday the 11th was the originally scheduled date for the event, but it was moved to the next day because and official, organized race was set to take place on Saturday near the same starting area, which would make parking and logistics difficult. Apparently, several people had run the Springletrack route on Saturday anyway, so turnout on Sunday was lower than expected.

Mike, the fat-ass organizer, started us off and we began a jog through the woods. I was surprised to learn that Mike, who of course was running with us, had also run the entire route the day before. A Springletrack double!!? That's over 50 miles of this rocky terrain in two days! (I later learned that he was at the peak of his training plan for the Massanutten 100.)

I struggled for the first few miles, thinking it would only get worse, making for an extremely long day on the trails followed by a three hour drive home. Perhaps some hobbit songs and dances would have helped me through this funk, but fortunately it never came to that. Eventually I began to feel better. In retrospect, I think the early sluggishness had something to do with a lack of training on the trails throughout the winter plus the cumulative mileage on my legs over the last several weeks. I actually began to feel much better as the day progressed and day's mileage piled up. For the most part, the group split up due to different paces. Adam and I ran together as planned; we were just out for a good time and besides, I would have gotten hopeless lost if I wasn't running with someone immensely familiar with the area's trails.

Around mile nine, we came to a parking lot at the entrance of Minnewaska State Park. We had stashed a gallon of water here the night before, as it was the last place on the course where it would be possible to do so. For the next 16+ miles, we'd have no access to water aside from what we could carry, and no bathrooms. With nowhere to refuel and no reasonable spot to drop out, mile nine was the Springletrack's point of no return.

View of the valley from Castle Point

High Point, still on the ridge.

We cruised on through the park, up and down rock scrambles and along the exposed rocky roof of the Shawangunk Ridge, occasionally stopping to take pictures of the valley and mountains on either side. I was naive enough to think that I was immune to sunburn in New York in early April, but several hours in long sections of exposed terrain proved me wrong, as I'd learn later that evening. The fact that my shoes got soaked early on, and continued to get soak every time they were nearly dry, made the run that more challenging.

Another runner told us early on that the last few miles of the Springletrack were a gradual downhill along the Smiley Carriageway. Our legs were pretty trashed by the time we reached this carriageway around mile 22, but the downhill was nothing to smile at. Some parts of the path were so covered in water that we had no choice but to plow right though, while other parts rocky enough that it looked doubtful even a four wheel drive horseless carriage could make it up the carriage road. Eventually the terrain went easy on us and turned into a much more forgiving dirt road. We cruised the last mile down to the finish area to find Mike waiting at the bottom of the hill.

As "official finishers" of the 2015 Springletrack Fatass Marathon, Adam and I were granted the privilege of signing the prestegious Finisher's Log with our names and self recorded completion time. Mike then presented us with the most coveted award in all of trail running, the Springtrack Finisher's Medal...

The Finisher's Medal. May or may not constitute
copyright infringement, but who really cares?

It was a good day in all. The weather was close to ideal, scenery was beautiful, and it was a challenging but rewarding day on my feet. The Springletrack made for a nice training run as the Northface Endurance Challenge 50K at Bear Mountain and the Cayuga Trails 50 both draw near.  Thank you to Mike Siudy for organizing the run, and to Adam's wife Erica for dropping us at the start and picking us up at the finish!

Peterskill at Minnewaska State Park

Gratuitous selfie in front of Peterskill, because why not?

Castle Point

Castle Point

Fall Recap: A Wedding, a Fat-Ass, and a Six Second PR

So 2014 has come to a close, and with it, the sudden realization that I haven't posted anything on this blog for nearly three months. While in the past few months I haven't been keeping up the mileage quite so much since Green Lakes, that isn't to say I haven't been keeping busy. The highlight of the fall is not running related, but it wouldn't be right not to mention that Hayley and I got married in early September. Wedding preparations, followed by a honeymoon, caused me to take a running break for a few weeks, and subsequently a blogging break ensued. (Bonus link: Strava GPS data for my flight from Philadelphia to the Dominican Republic.)

The first running-related highlight of the fall season was volunteering at the Virgil Crest Ultras. The day before the 50M and 100M trail races, my friend Rusty and I had the pleasure of checking the already-placed course markings on VCU's south half, AKA the alpine section. This entailed running/hiking up and down the ski slopes of Greek Peak in three different places, then running along the singletrack and dirt roads to The Rock Pile - an aid station at the 25 mile mark of the VCU that marks the turn-around point for the out and back. (50 milers run the out-and-back once, 100 milers

A Tale of Two Races

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I recently ran a 15K. Then a week later, I ran another, yielding a slower time but much better result. Both races consisted of putting one foot in front of the other with the goal of traveling from point A to point B as fast as possible. However, the two events could not be more different.The purpose of this post is not to write another race recap, but to attempt to explain the vast differences between trail racing and road racing, as well as the pros and cons of each.

***

Held annually in Utica, NY, since 1978, the Boilermaker 15K Road Race is one of the largest 15K races in the United States. The race has become so popular than online registratrion, capped at 14,000, sold out in about an hour and a half. The 15K attracts runners from all over the world, and its sizable purse brings in East African elite runners who usually end up taking the top places.

Every second weekend on July, the entire city of Utica, (population 60,000) becomes encapsulated in Boilermaker fever. The weekend includes a large expo the day before the race, a National Distance

Keeping the Cows In: A Finger Lakes 50s Race Report

I collapsed into my foldout camping chair with a huge sigh, immediately clawing at my mud soaked shoes. Trying to undo the laces would sap a sizable amount of my remaining energy, but I felt I had no choice. I forcefully sprayed some warm, stale water from my bottle onto the laces to clear away the mud. This allowed me to nimbly pick at the knots and eventually yank both mud ravaged shoes free, tear off my soaking socks, and finally dry my feet. Aaahhh, instant bliss.

After 33 muddy miles on foot, the race offered reprieve in the form of hot food, cold beer, and a respectable 6:10 50K finish. The trail gods gave me a choice: I could simply call it a day here and bask in the sweet summer shade for the remainder of the afternoon, or I could force myself afoot and run/walk/hobble through another 17 miles during the hottest part of the day. So why, then, did I choose the latter? After glancing across the campground to make eye contact with my pacer, it was clear I had unfinished business. Ignoring the Sirens' calls of cold drinks and hot eats, I shoved clean socks and the muddy Kinvaras back onto my feet and Adam and I hit the trail. It was time to get the Hell out of Dodge before common sense set it.

The Finger Lakes 50s consists of three different distances, each distance one to three laps around the Finger Lakes National Forest. Located in the southeast corner of  the Finger Lakes region, The FLNF is the only national forest in New York State. The 16,000 acre forest boasts 30 miles of hiking trails,

Thom B 52K Race Report

The morning of Saturday, May 10, saw the inaugural running of the Thom B Trail Runs 52k. The event itself has taken place for the past fourteen years as a 13k and 26k that are part of the Finger Lakes Runners Club Trail Circuit, but this was the first time the four-lap, 52k race was held. The plan was to shoot for a five-hour finish, while using the race as a long training run to test gear and fueling strategies for the upcoming Cayuga Trails 50 three weeks later. I did not intend to race hard today, and aimed for 5:00, or 1:15 per loop.

At 7:00 a.m., fourteen trail enthusiasts took the starting line for the four loops through Hammond Hill State Forest in Dryden, NY. Consisting of dirt roads, single track, ski trails and snowmobile trails, I was expecting a muddy slogfest due in no small part to the heavy rain of the previous two days. After a few words of caution and a few words of thanks, the early morning din of chirping birds and rustling leaves was suddenly disrupted by the race director's shout of "Thom B says go!" followed by the shouts and cheers of the fourteen runners.

The course started off uphill on a dirt road. The leader took off and—spoiler alert—I never saw him again until the finish line. Justin Trana and I settled into a "chase" pack at a comfortable pace and chatted for most of the first 7.8-mile loop. To the delight of my shoes and socks, the mud was minimal and the trails were entirely runnable. Towards the end of the loop, I

The Trailhead

Well if I ever see the morning

just like a lizard in the Spring

I'm gonna run out in the meadow

to catch the silence where it sings.

I'm gonna force the Serengeti

to disappear into my eyes

and when I hear your voices calling

I'm gonna turn just inside out.

"I Won't Be Found"

 - The Tallest Man On Earth

Ah, the allure of the outdoors in the springtime. After the longest and roughest upstate New York winter in recent memory, the feeling of summer-like weather is simply indescribable. The area trails are clear of ice and snow, and for the most part, mud-free and very runnable.

Like some runners, I view the sport of running not as exercise and not as a hobby, but as a lifestyle. That is, I don't view it as a chore that must be done to complete some arbitrary goal like training for a specific race or burning X number of calories. Rather, I reward my self by obtaining the sense of accomplishment that comes with a job well done, not to mention the positive physical aspect of