Run to Win

I have wanted to take part in the Pineland Farms Trail Challenge for the past few years, but since it is on Memorial Day Weekend and I am rarely home I haven’t been able to until this year. I can now see why everybody raves about how great it is.

This is a tough race. It is made up of 25 kilometer loops, where runners can run 1 loop (25k), 2 loops (50k) or a 3½ mile mini-loop and then 3 full loops (50 mile).

There are a lot of turns (click map above for PDF download.) The course is very easy to follow, with plenty of surveyor’s flags and arrows pointing which way to go. When in doubt, you always turn left and can’t go too far wrong.

There are a couple of short but very steep downhills each loop, but otherwise there isn’t anything that individually would seem very difficult. However, you can never rest on this course. You are always climbing or descending; there are no flat sections to this course at all: (Click here to continue reading…)

Just a quick announcement to anybody interested in running at the Pineland Farms Trail Challenge on Memorial Day Weekend in New Gloucester, Maine:

The Pineland Farms Trail Challenge is coming up on Sunday, May 24th.

After this Sunday the 10th the price for each race will increase by $5 so sign up soon! This year we have capped the 25k race at 250 and right now there are only 80 places left, these are sure to go quickly over the next two weeks.

We are looking for volunteers on race day and to help with set-up the day before, let us know if you can help. This year we are looking for school sports boosters clubs to take on aid stations, in return we will make a donation to each club. If anyone has connections to a group that may be interested please let us know.

This Saturday the 9th we will be running the race course at Pineland Farms starting at 8:00am. Meet in the YMCA parking lot.

The Trail Challenge consists of 3 races at 25k, 50k and 50 miles. All 3 races are run on the trails at Pineland Farms, which are like big, soft and grassy roads (with a lot of hills.)

If you are interested in running, you can get more information here:
http://www.mainetrackclub.com/pinelandfarms.html

If you aren’t interested in running but would like to help out, volunteers are needed! Click here to sign up to volunteer.

Ian put together a video of last weekend’s “Fat Ass” 50k for your enjoyment:

Now you, too, can enjoy the excitement of 30 miles in the snow but without all the wet feet and scraped shins!

The next TMR Fat Ass is scheduled for March 28^th at Bradbury Mountain.

Despite feeling ill and being unable to keep liquids down for over 1/3 of the race, Josh Cox still managed to set the American mark in the 50k in 2:47:17. That beats Alex Tilson’s 2:51:48 set back in 2002, but was a bit short of Thompson Mugwana’s 1988 world record time of 2:43:38.

Cox ran his record at the Arizona Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, where he went over the marathon finish line in 2:20:32 only to continue on to a nearby track to run 19 laps and bring his distance up to a full 50 kilometers.

“I felt good at about mile 14, and then for the final two laps,” Cox said. “I had a lot of stomach issues, I don’t know why. Maybe I overcompensated for going the longer distance. Maybe I took on too many fluids early in the race. I just kept throwing down fluids. But I didn’t have any after 20 (miles).”

If you are curious about just what type of training you need to do in order to run an American record in a race like this, just watch this workout that he ran with Ryan Hall last November:

(More Info: USA Today)

This week last year centered on racing, covering distances from the 100 meter to the 50 kilometer.

• First, Asafa Powell set a new 100 meter world record in Rieti, Italy with his time of 9.74 seconds. He has since run faster than that, but no longer holds the record.
• Second, the Back Cove Weekly Race Series finished up. 2007 was the first year that I was one of the sponsors, and I managed to win free shoes for a year by having the fastest 6 times on the course. I only won by an average of 1 second per race!
• Third, I wrote about my first ultramarathon experience at the Pisgah 50k Mountain Race. I had quite a few articles about the race, so anybody that is thinking of running might want to take a look through. The race is either today or tomorrow this year, and I wasn’t able to make it back. Hopefully next year.
  1. Pisgah 50k Trail Race (2007) – Pre-Race Review
  2. Pisgah 50k Trail Race (2007) – Race Review
  3. Pisgah 50k Trail Race (2007) – Post-Race Review
  4. Pisgah 50k/23k Trail Races – 2007 Race Results
• This week 2 years ago also saw the Back Cove 5k Race Series finishing up, that time with Mike Caiazzo and Lindsey Davis taking the series honors. I won the last race, and placed 3^rd overall. I added on to my icing series from a few months earlier by explaining how to ice sensitive areas on your body such as your eyes or testicles, and I reviewed Breaking Away, a movie about cyclist in the 70s. On the news front, New Jersey began testing kids for steroids in an attempt to catch them young.
• This week three years ago, I pointed to some resources about deadlifting, namely a video on how not to deadlift and one on proper deadlift form.

Anybody in New England that is still looking for something to do on Memorial Day weekend should look towards making a trip to New Gloucester, Maine, to participate in the Pineland Farms Trail Challenge.

There are 4 races along with volunteering opportunities. The 25k and 50k are returning for their 3^rd incarnation, and the 4km canicross race is returning for it’s second running. (When was the last time you ran a race tied to your dog?) For those of you are looking for a bigger challenge, the weekend is now also hosting a 50 mile race.

The courses are all located on the beautiful Pineland Farms campus and are made up of soft rolling hills. The trails are not technical in the least bit and are split between fields and dirt paths. There is ample course support available, and what will likely be one of the better BBQ parties of the weekend is located at the finish line. There should be plenty of free food and beer for everybody, volunteers included, with at least a dozen people committed to bringing the good stuff like cookies and brownies.

Speaking of volunteers, more are needed. If you are not up to the challenge of running the race, volunteering can be just as fun and rewarding. You may not get a silver (50k) or gold (50 mile) cow bell for finishing, but you do get $5 in Maine Track Club bucks and access to the party. There are also some volunteer positions available that will still allow you to run, especially if you are running one of the shorter races that start later in the morning.

For more information, check out these links:

• Pineland Farms Trail Challenge home page
• Remaining volunteer opportunities
• 2007 Photos
• Canicross race information

Early results are in! There were 12 runners: 3 women, 8 men, and 1 dog.

(Click here to continue reading…)

The Trail Monsters are putting on a “Fat Ass” 50k at Bradbury Mountain on Sunday, March 2^nd at 7:00. Anybody in the Southern Maine area that is interested in a fun run should think about coming out for it. The vast majority of the run will be outside of the park (click here for the map) following the snowmobile trails and the power lines. The course is consists of a 10.5 mile loop, so there are options for 1, 2 or 3 loops. I’m planning on running 2 loops of the course.

I’ve run the majority of the course before and conditions can vary depending upon how much snow we get this week and how many snowmobiles are out to pack it down between snowfall and “race” morning. I ran out on the majority of the course this morning and the footing wasn’t too bad for the most part, but still quite obviously slicker and more effort than running on the roads. The race starts at 7:00 in the morning, and you can read about the course at: Trail Monster Running » Bradbury “Fat Ass” Test Run

For those who are unfamiliar with Fat Asses, it’s basically a “race” that has no entry fee, no prizes, and folks bring their own goodies for the aid station(s). In this case, they’ll probably designate somebody’s vehicle as the aid table and just put all the goodies there – something like the back of a pickup. For me, it’ll be a long training run with hopefully a few more people than I’m used to running with on the weekends.