Run to Win

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…

The lottery for the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run was this afternoon, and there were 3 Mainers attempting to get in through the lottery.

Jamie Anderson made it through the lottery after having been chosen within the first 20 picks. James Demer and Stephen Wells were not one of the 191 lottery entrants.

Jim Eckert will also represent Maine. He bypassed the lottery because he was guaranteed a slot at the race after having won last year’s raffle.

There were approximately 1350 applicants to run the race this year. There are only 357 slots available for runners, and 166 of those slots were filled by automatic qualifiers who had either won a raffle from the year before, had “lost” in the lottery for the past 2 years, or who were in the top 10 finishers for male or female last year. The race includes entrants from 13 different countries and 40 different states, with the vast majority of runners coming from California.

The Western States Lottery coincided with the ultramarathoners apple pie baking contest today. Chuck Hazzard tried to sway the judges by bringing his pie straight from the oven to the contest, so it was still warm when judging began. No clear front runner could be decided between his pie or Jamie Anderson’s, which had been baked earlier that morning. Everybody seemed pretty happy with both pies.

(Click here to view the 2008 WS 100 Lottery Results)

The Bradbury Bruiser Trail Race was this past weekend on October 28^th, and since I was out of town I was not able to be there. From what I have heard, the vast majority of people had a great time, even the ones that got to compete in the “Best Bruise” contest.

Stephen Wells has written a very thorough write-up of the day from both a race director’s and a competitors perspective. You can read it over on his site, Live Strong Maine.

There are a lot of great pictures and he covers the race from first thing in the morning right through finding the last lost runner hours after everyone had left.

Tom Tero sprinted to the finish ahead of David Roberts and Tom Page in a near photo finish. Out of the 130 people registered, 108 started the race and 98 finished the race. That is really good for the first year of any race, and doubly impressive because of the grass roots nature of this race. Two months ago, the race had not even been conceived of yet. The race raised over $2000 for Bradbury Mountain State Park to help with trail upkeep.

(Race Report w/Photos – Race Results)

There are thousands of runner’s who write about their training, their racing, and their sport. Some running websites have thousands of readers, others have hundreds, and the rest have only dozens. No matter how many readers a runner’s site has, though, they can still write passionate reports about the races that they have run and the fun and adversity that they have faced.
(Click here to continue reading…)

Photo by Ian ParlinThe Vermont 100 Mile Trail Race was this past weekend on July 24^th. The top three Maine finishers all belong run with the Trail Monsters, a running group in the greater Portland area that runs local trails every week and race in the local mountain series.

Stephen Wells was the first Maine finisher in 20:27:37.80, and was 15^th over all. He overcame cancer a few years ago and has been doing all of the endurance events that he never thought that he would do before he was diagnosed.

James Demer was the second Maine finisher in 23^rd place over all. His finishing time was 21:10:07.00. He came by to the Trail Monsters group run this evening with his daughter and puppy, but he was just walking around on the trails.

Jamie Anderson rounded out the group in 36^th place over all with a time of 22:09:55.50, which is very impressive only 3 months off of knee surgery. He wrote a very detailed race report that is well worth taking a gander at. He walks through the day from waking up at 3 a.m. to taking a short 1 hour nap after finishing and then watching more people come through the line.

Andy Jones-Wilkins won the race with an impressive 9:32 pace, almost exactly an hour off of the course record time. He ran the race in 15 hours, 53 minutes and 45 seconds. Mary Churchill was the first woman to finish with a time of 19:41:13.80. There were 142 finishers. Other Maine finishers within the 30 hour cutoff were Maurice Kelleher (25:54:00.70) and Sarah Heck (27:42:09.60).

(Full Results – Photos)