8:07 amRace Results, Reviews, Sports, , , , , , , , ,

Update: Click here for the 2007 race results of both the 50k and the 23k.
The Pisgah 50k Mountain Trail Race was this past Sunday, September 9, 2007. I really enjoyed the experience and will provide a few details about the race now that I’ve had a few days to think about the whole thing. The other day, I talked about what led up to the race and covered what happened before the gun went off. Today I’d like to talk about the race itself.

The Starting Line at Pisgah

The start of the race was scheduled for 8:45 a.m. At 8:43 a.m. it began to rain again. The race was pretty low tech, so the start consisted of a couple of stopwatches and some voice commands. As much as I love the Maine Track Club’s cannon, it was nice to not be deafened at the start of the race.

A bunch of 23k runners were clustered at the front of the starting line. The crowd of them took off with the “gun” (also known as somebody yelling “Go!”) and hurried to the front of the pack. I hung back a little since this was a new experience for me from both a trail racing perspective and a distance perspective.

The Start at Pisgah

The first mile or so was along paved roads which rolled steadily up towards some carriage roads. Once you got onto the carriage roads, there was a steep descent to get onto the trail itself. The drop was probably about 400 feet over the span of a third of a mile or so.
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9:31 amSports, , ,

b2b_largelogo.gifWCSH6 has starting line and finish line videos of the Beach to Beacon from this past Saturday. The starting line is one video, and they have the finish line seperated out in 5 minute increments.

The quality is not great, but you can hear your name announced (if they announced it) and you can make out your jersey as you come across if you know when and where to look. I looked at my finish at the end of the 30 to 35 minute video, and they actually announced that I was in a sprint finish with David Hunt of Fryeburg, Maine, and not Harry Norton of Hanover, New Hampshire.

Very neat, either way. I look forward to checking it out in more detail tonight when I have some time.