The Monster Marathon 2018

I just can't get enough of the Finger Lakes Runners Club's Monster Marathon. The timing usually works out that the race can serve as a long, supported training run on close-to-home trails. There's also a bit of nostalgia factor; the accompanying half marathon (run on the old course in Kennedy State Forest) was one of my first trail races back in 2011.

The marathon course is a double out-and-back that snakes its way around Treman State Park in a slippery S-pattern. (Half marathoners run a single out-and-back of the same route.) Runners receive handicap starts based on age and gender. This means people who are older and/or female had a head start over the final starting wave. At age 35, I'm still considered a young buck and was rewarded with an 8:00 a.m. start time in the final wave of runners. Standings are based on the order in which runners cross the finish line, rather than their time spent running. Essentially, it meant I was starting off tied for last place overall

Cayuga Trails Course Guide

Update 3/4/21: Take note that this guide is for the traditional course and does not reflect the Covid-modified course and its major changes for 2020 and 2021 Cayuga Trails.

• Overview
• Elevation Change
• Aid Stations
• Gear Recommendations
• Additional Info
• The Course
• Strava Data

Overview

The Cayuga Trails 50 has quickly become one of the northeast's premier ultrarunning events. Race Director Ian Golden created the race in 2013 under his Red Newt Racing brand. The event was conceived as a way to draw runners to the Ithaca area to immerse themselves in the beauty of Ithaca's best trails and to experience the community that Ithaca is known for. Ian added a marathon to the event in 2016 to increase participation. Since 2014, the race has served as the USATF 50-Mile Trail Championship, making it a selection race for Team USA to compete at the IAU Trail World Championship. There is also a large cash purse up for grabs, overall awards, raffles, and in-race premiums from the race director himself, and additional USATF awards for overall and age-group winners. What's more, the 50M is part of the new Empire State Triad — a three race series that includes Many on the Genny and Twisted Branch and has a ranking system for finishers off all three.

The course circumnavigates Ithaca's two state parks, Robert H. Treman and Buttermilk Falls, both of which are popular destinations among hikers, tourists, and vacationers. The parks' trails offer up some of the nicest scenery on the east coast, traversing through, over, and around dozens of waterfalls, gorges surrounded by natural stone walls, ravines, old growth forests, and a lake. The course crosses over a small dam, runs past a historic stone mill, and traverses trails built by the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930s. The route encompasses a wide variety of terrain, including singletrack and doubletrack trails with varying degrees of technicality, stone stair cases, several creek crossing, a few paved and dirt road sections, rolling hills, and one very steep, switchback-laden climb. Most of the course is runnable, but constantly having to change gears and adjust your stride can be very challenging.

I live a few miles from these trails, run them regularly throughout the year, and have run the CT50 each of the past four years. I find the race challenging but highly rewarding, and always come away with some new friends. The purpose of this guide to give runners an idea of what to expect on each section of the course, with a reasonable amount of detail. For event rules, announcements, logistics, etc., you should consult the race website and/or detailed pre-race e-mail.

Note: This post was updated 7/16/18 to reflect course changes for 2018. The course is always marked thoroughly with flags, arrows, and chalk; I reference trail names and colored blazes in this guide to provide direction during training runs. I'll update with additional photos of the trails when I am able to get them. 

The course essentially runs 12.5 miles from lower Treman out to the base of Buttermilk Falls, then 12.5 miles back. Marathoners do this once, and 50-milers twice. Some of the inbound portion of the loop overlaps with the outbound portion and some of it is different. There are three aid stations on the loop and you'll reach two of them twice. 50-milers will have

Bringing It All Back Home: Cayuga Trails Take 4

PC: Steve Gallow

I could hear the siren song of the Treman gorges calling me back. On a 50-mile course that’s thrice chewed me up and spit me out, it was inevitable I’d return to and face the known peril of Cayuga Trails. Lucifer’s Steps were calling, and the tune was nearly palpable. And hence my quest once again for a 10-hour finish. This was my fourth straight year running the Cayuga Trails 50, and the fourth time it's served as the USATF 50-Mile Trail Championship. In 2015 I narrowly missed going under 10 hours after a rough second loop. Last year, my training was there but some early nutritional mistakes put me in a hole and I finished way off my potential. Based on my training over the first half of this year, it was all but given. I fully expected to run somewhere around 9:15. That is, until I learned of some late course changes a few days before the race. Ian mixed things up a bit compared to previous years, leading to two significant changes in the route. A flat, half-mile of grass and park road adjacent to the start/turnaround was replaced with some hilly singletrack through an old growth forest a few miles in. Double that over two loops, and it meant two miles of rolling hills

On Monsters and Devils

The Monster 

 

You really can't find a better marathon for $35. No fancy swag, shiny medals, or chip timing. Just 4,000 feet of gain over singletrack and some park roads with some good people and good food at the finish. Welcome to The Monster Marathon.

The original Monster course was a double out-and-back on the Finger Lakes Trail at Kennedy State Forest in Virgil. For logistical reasons, including some trail rerouting and the closing of Gatherings Restaurant and Event Center where the race was staged, the race was relocated in 2015 to Robert Treman State Park in Ithaca. Despite the new location, the original race format remains the same - a double out-and-back, (or single out-and-back for the accompanying half marathon), low entry fees, and handicap start times. These attributes are what gives the Finger Lakes Runners Club's only marathon a unique flavor, setting The Monster apart from most other trail races.

With the age and gender-graded start times, runners start off in waves. Older athletes start earlier and the ladies go before the men. Some sort of mathematical formula is used to calculate each runner's head start over the "open field," with start times calculated down to the minute. This creates competition between older and younger runners. Final standings are

Ain't No Easy Way Out: 2016 Cayuga Trails

sodium

noun \so·di·um\

1.  a silver-white soft waxy ductile element of the alkali metal group that occurs abundantly in nature in combined form and is very active chemically.

2. one of several electrolytes required by the human body during an ultramarathon, the mismanagement of which may cause a long and painful day.

sleep

noun \ˈslēp\ 

1. the natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored.

2.  a condition required by the human body in the days prior to an ultramarathon in order to replenish energy, the mismanagement of which may cause a long and painful day.


That's now three finishes at the Cayuga Trails 50 and that elusive sub 10 hour time still escapes my grasp. Going into the race, I thought - no, I knew - that my fitness was there, and that breaking 10 hours was all but given. Unfortunately, this is

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

Recovery and Taper

The last couple of weeks I've been engaging in more of a variety of activities to help recover from the Cayuga Trails 50 and prepare for the Finger Lakes 50s 50 miler on July 5. The entire month is sort of a recovery/taper period, without any big training weeks or 20 mile runs. It's important to give the running-specific leg muscles a rest, and this can be done without losing much, if any, fitness. With that said, I did run a couple of local races at a comfortably hard pace in order to get a few "speed sessions" in.

Saturday, June 7, saw the Tortoise & Hare Trail Run at Buttermilk Falls State Park. The course winds up the park's Rim Trail and Bear Trail, ascending about 900 feet in the first few miles, then circles around Lake Treman and descends via the same route. Only a week removed from the Cayuga Trails 50, I felt pretty fresh at the starting line. I definitely felt the fatigue in my legs during the long ascent,

Cayuga Trails 50 Race Report

In the Devil's Footsteps

There I sat, dejected, head in hands, less than halfway up the 222 stairs standing between my first DNF and the final five miles to a hard fought personal victory. My secondary goal of a sub 11 hour finish had just gone down stream, washed away in the current and sucked over Lucifer Falls, well beyond reproach. Although my body and organ systems were, for the most part, still intact and fully operational, my spirit was suddenly crushed beyond disrepair and my mind completely fried. 45 miles into the beast known as the Cayuga Trails 50, I had come to the base of the 222 step stone staircase that ascends adjacent to Lucifer Falls at Robert Treman State Park. The first climb up these stairs, 20 miles and six hours ago, had left me lead-legged and light headed. This second climb seemed certain to finish me off. I'd gladly have sold my broken, lactic acid filled soul to Lucifer himself for an elevator ride up the gorge, but surely even the Prince of Darkness himself could not contrive a hell any worse than what I was experiencing at this God-forsaken moment. Had six months of training and nearly 10 hours of continuous running ultimately come down to this? How had I ever come to this point, on the verge of such a breakdown?

Buttermilk Creek.

 

Pre-Race

First, a bit of background leading up to the moment of truth. The Cayuga Trails 50 is the brainchild of Ian Golden, local trailrunner, ironman, race director, owner of Finger Lakes Running & Triathlon Company and Confluence Running, and all around great guy. The race is a double loop, beginning and ending at the east end of Robert Treman State Park in Ithaca, NY. The course runs entirely along trails, features roughly 11,000 feet of vertical gain and an equal amount of descent, and showcases