Run to Win

This Saturday a group of us went to Sunday River to map out some possible trail race courses and see what was available by foot. Most of what Erik knew about the trails came from skiers and mountain bikers, so it was important that we check out what was actually possible and workable by foot.

Ian just put up his report on the run, which included a video that he put together that can give you a small idea about what it was like to be running through there:

You can see more about the run over at Ian’s Trail Monster Blog.

This morning, my friend Erik Boucher picked me up and we went up to Sunday River to scout some trails for the Mountain Epic trail races next Autumn. The original plan had been for a half dozen of the Trail Monsters to head up and spend two days on the mountain, but with the Mount Washington Road Race this morning and a bunch of the guys running 33 miles on the Pemi Loop 2 days ago, we were only met by Ian Parlin (who did actually run the Pemi Loop a few days ago) and by a teammate of mine, Dan Crooker.

I’m glad that Dan decided to meet up with us; he knows the mountain very well and with his help we managed to scout just about all of the trails we wanted to run and didn’t need to stay overnight.

The original distances we’d been thinking of were for the most part a bit short of what we found out there. The 1-peak short loop will still be about 4 miles, but the 5-peak medium loop is closer to 11 miles than 7, and the 8-peak hard loop is about 15 miles instead of 11 miles. There’s a lot of fun terrain, though.

We started by hitting some single track and heading up to North Peak, which is pretty central to the routes for all 3 races.

We wound up running the opposite direction to Jordan Peak than we’d originally planned on by going up the Kansas Trail, but we decided that that was a good direction to be running in so the course will likely wind up going that way. (There will probably be a detour up to Spruce Peak before Jordan Peak, though, rather than after as we ran it.)

After hitting Jordan Peak, there’s a very quick descent halfway down to the bottom before climbing back up to North Peak. We got some pretty rapid turnover heading down there; Ian took some video so I’ll link to that if he puts it online.

At North Peak, our guide needed to head back home since he’d already been out there with us for 3 hours, and Ian went back with him to get the GPS coordinates of some different single track trails than we took on the way up. Erik and I continued on to hit the last few peaks before heading back.

All in all, we were out there for about 4 hours and 42 minutes, 3 hours and 31 of which were actually spent running (or walking, as happened in many of the steep places.) We covered just over 15 miles and managed to hit all 8 peaks.

(Photos – Map – More Photos)

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…)

This week last year centered around two topics, the world championships in Osaka and trail running basics for beginners.

Ian Parlin and Jamie Anderson gave an excellent Trail Running 101 clinic at a local shoe store, introducing the basic concepts and rules of trail running to the crowd. You can read my notes on the presentation as well as download the original powerpoint slides.

The world championships had a fair bit of media coverage, with constant radio broadcasts and daily television broadcasts on the Versus network and on NBC.

The IAAF coupled the increased media coverage with the first incarnation of their fantasy athletics game.

The heat and humidity was good preparation for this year’s Olympics, but led to quite slow times as Luke Kibet won the men’s marathon in a “pedestrian” 2:15:59.

In other racing news, the L/A Bridge Run was exactly a year ago. I managed to run (slightly) faster and place higher despite not being in as good of 5k shape as I am this year.

This week two years ago, I gave some reasons that running takes practice just like any other sport. I also found the “Athletes Against Doping” website, which contains a lot of information about what substances are banned in each sport and who the governing bodies are.

This week three years ago, I also talked about doping by explaining what EPO was after the furor with Lance Armstrong brought it to attention. Kenenisa Bekele also set the 10k world record with a time of 26:17.53.

If you are interested in a fun but challenging trail race, then the 2^nd of 3 races out at Bradbury Mountain State Park is this weekend on Sunday, August 10^th. There are still spots open in the race if you are interested in a unique experience. From the registration form:

Two laps of an exceptionally hilly, technical single-track trail loop that takes you up and down Bradbury Mountain more times than you can count. If you’re not begging for mercy after the first lap you will be on the second.

If that sounds appealing to you, then head over to Trail Monster Running where you can download the course map, register online, or print out the entry blank.

If you’d like to see how the Breaker course compares to the other 2 races, or if you just want to see what the elevation profile looks like, you can click below to see a very large and detailed image that tells you exactly what you are in store for:

Don’t let it intimidate you, though. Bradbury Mountain is really just a big hill, and the race will be well supported and a lot of fun, guaranteed. It is put on by the Trail Monsters, specifically by Ian Parlin, so you know that this will be a top quality event.

For more information, you can visit the website here:
http://www.trailmonsterrunning.com/

This morning was the Bradbury Scuffle, the first of 3 trail races at Bradbury Mountain State Park this Summer. The conditions were absolutely beautiful, and by beautiful I mean that it was raining at the start and it was pouring by the finish, creating puddles and mud galore throughout the course. Most of the regulars that were there were happy about this because it not only ensured a fun race but also meant that the mosquitoes and ticks were not much in evidence during or after the race.

The course was well marked, so much so that the “Most Lost” prize was unrewarded at the end of the race. There was only one place that could have been at all confusing, and since you just went straight through there and ignored the crossing trail it wasn’t too confusing. One trail marker had fallen down since Friday night, but I stopped and laid it in the direction you were supposed to run on the way out and Ian (the race director) actually placed it back in the ground for those behind him and for the return trip in the other direction.

As soon as the starting bell went off, I made for the front of the pack. Within about 10 or 15 feet I was in the lead, which meant that I could run at whatever speed I wanted without having to worry about somebody blocking my view of the trail. Today was the fastest that I’ve ever run through the woods on single track, and was a much different experience than the 50k that I ran last year. I could feel yesterday’s 5k race within about 400 meters of starting, but I got a second wind relatively quickly and I don’t think that it impacted my race too much. My lack of a decent warmup probably had more to do with it.

Throughout the entire race, Patrick Cote was right behind me. Any opportunity that I had to pick up the pace or get out of sight, I tried to extend my lead on him. Within a few minutes, though, he was always close enough for me to hear him, and he pushed me hard throughout the entire race. The only other people I saw on the course was at the aid station and the few places where the course came close enough to previous trails that I could see folks through the woods.

I managed to navigate the course without taking a fall, and only rolled my ankle once about halfway through. My wife wasn’t so lucky. As she put it, she rolled her ankle and then rolled the rest of her. She didn’t win the “Best Bruise” prize, though, because she didn’t realize that she was bloody until we got home and she washed off the mud.

Coming up on the aid station, Patrick passed by me and then slowed down to get some water. He passed me again in short order, and led the way down a good portion of the snowmobile trail on the way back to the Knight’s Wood trails. It was here that I really dropped a few hammers to reclose the gap, quieting my breathing as I caught up to him in an attempt to fool him into thinking that I wasn’t working very hard. I did manage to put a little distance on him before taking the turn into the Knight Woods, and having a good idea of exactly how far I had left to go was certainly helpful through this stretch.

I thought that Patrick was right behind me the entire time, and I kept worrying that he was going to catch and pass me again. This kept me running hard right through the finish line, where I turned around and realized that he wasn’t there. I won the race in 40:58. It’s too bad that I didn’t think of diving into the puddle in the finish until this point; that would have been fun. I wound up winning the race by a bit over 20 seconds, and Patrick had an 80 second lead over Stephen Wells, who finished in third.

The women’s race was won by Katherine Creswell in 48:08, which was good for 17^th overall. She beat Emma Barclay by just over a minute.

I attempted to get photos of all of the finishers (excluding the first 5 or 6 who finished before I could retrieve my camera) but most of them came out fairly poorly. I was a bit of a distance off from the runners in order to keep my camera out of the rain, but a few of them came out passably.

It was a small race, but it was a lot of fun and the trail was easily able to support the number of runners. The second race in the series in the Bradbury Mountain Breaker on August 10^th, which runs as a 9 mile race over 2 separate loops up and down Bradbury Mountain.

I hope to see you there. Visit Trail Monster Running for more information.

(Full Results – Photos – Satellite Map)

Other Race Reports:

• Patrick Cote: 2^nd Place in 41:21 (scroll down to the bottom for the Scuffle report)
• Stephen Wells: 3^rd Place in 42:40
• Ryan Triffitt (Snowman): 8^th Place in 46:35
• Kevin Robinson (Pathfinder): 39^th Place in 57:17
• more to follow…

Photo by McKay SavageHave you ever been out for a run, opened your water bottle or taken a sip from your hydration pack, and discovered that the water is either frozen or so warm that it is unpalatable? On those days when it is really cold out or really hot out, you need to be sure to keep hydrated but it presents its own difficulties.

There is an easy way to moderate the water temperatures, though, so that the water remains available for a longer period of time over the course of your run.

Up until this past year, I rarely carried water with me and never really had to deal with this sort of situation. My first 50k trail race brought home to me the need for carrying your own water, and I purchased both a handheld water bottle and a backpack with a water bottle similar to a CamelBak but manufactured by the North Face. As such, I have had to rely on others for advice when it comes to carrying water.

When you are running in extreme hot or cold temperatures, here are some easy steps that you can take to keep your water potable.

1. Start with hot or cold water. If it is hot out, put some ice cubes or partially freeze the water before setting out. If it is cold out, use lukewarm water.
2. Ditch the water bottle. Using a backpack style hydration pack with a bladder instead. In both hot and cold temperatures, it takes longer to freeze or heat a larger volume of water. In the heat, holding a water bottle in your hand is going to warm it up faster than wearing a bladder inside of a backpack on top of your clothes and in the cold you will not be carrying a lump of ice that will freeze your hands.
3. Position the pack appropriately. In the heat, keep the pack outside of your shirt. In the cold, you can wear the pack in between layers to provide some added insulation.
4. Clear the hose after each sip. Once you are done drinking from the pack, blow air back into the hose. This will push the water in the hose back into the bladder where it will be slower to heat or freeze. It will also prevent you from losing access to the water in the bladder if your nozzle freezes because there will be less water to block it.
5. Don’t blow too much air back into the hose. If you blow too much air back into the hose, the air will get into the bladder and the water will slosh around as you are running. Not that that will cause any problems, but it can be a little annoying.

That strategy should work pretty well for most conditions that you would run in.

I learned the tips for running in the heat from Jack Pilla, who beat me by about 15 minutes at the Pisgah race. I learned the cold weather tips yesterday from Ian Parlin. We ran out at Bradbury Mountain on the trails and Ian carried his water with him as he planned on running twice as far as I had been planning on. He got to test the air in the hose trick, which worked out pretty well for him.

I plan on experimenting with my hydration pack on my next long run, as my last few have left my mouth pretty dry by the end of the run. Running in the snow is a lot more work than running on the roads (and a lot more fun.)

Last night, Ian Parlin and Jamie Anderson spoke for an hour or so at Peak Performance Sports about trail running, providing an introduction to the local trail options and a primer for those who are first making the migration to trails from the roads.

They described the popularity of the sport and defined some technical terms that any new trail runner will need to know. After offering advice on how to running on trails differs from running on roads, they offered some tips on running safely and being able to enjoy the trails. They finished off the night by describing some of the different gear that they have used (and stopped using) in their training and racing.

They put together a short PowerPoint presentation (download here) that they projected onto a wall at the store. There are quite a few pictures and diagrams that are worth taking a look at.
(Click here to continue reading…)