Run to Win

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/

Sad news today, as the Maine Woods Trail Marathon has been canceled this year.

The Maine Woods Trail Marathon has been cancelled for this year! A storm went over the area last week and took down many trees which made the trail impassable in many places. Six bridges were washed out, one cannot be found.

The race will still go on next year, but there is no estimate yet for when the damage will be repaired and the bridges restored. There will be a sign at the starting line in Mount Blue State Park, but hopefully everybody that was planning on running will find out about the cancellation before heading over there.

I’d like to run this race but had no plans to run it this year. I didn’t actually learn about it until a few months ago. Next year I will hopefully be able to fit it into my training schedule.

(Hat Tip: Trail Monster Running)

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…

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.

I got lost in the middle of a lake today while I was out running. (If you have never done it before, then be sure to read the FAQ about Lake Running first!) You would think that it would be pretty difficult to get lost in the middle of a lake. After all, there are no hills you can see for miles because everything is exactly level, and there are even a few islands to use as landmarks that you can run around.

Photo by ezioman
Yet there I was, having done a loop and on my way back, trying to figure out exactly where it was that I had come onto the lake. I could have easily backtracked and found where my footprints in the snow were, but there’s the possibility that snowmobiles had obliterated some and besides, where’s the fun in that?

I have a very good sense of direction, so I pointed myself towards where I wanted to go and it wound up being right.

After a few steps, though, I decided to give the map functionality on my new watch a try. It is a Garmin ForeRunner 305. I haven’t had it long, so I don’t know all of the cool things you can do with it yet. I mostly use it for mapping my runs after the fact.

It turns out that I was going in the right direction and would soon have gotten to a spot of open water that I would have remembered running around on the ice. It makes me very comfortable knowing that the map was there, though, because now I can run trails wherever I want and at least have an idea of what direction I need to go to get home. Once I was back on the path I wanted to take, it even started to warn me about 15-30 feet before every turn that a turn was coming. That was pretty neat, but also a little annoying.

Photo #59 by Don Penta
The run itself was a lot of fun. I ran 15 miles on snowmobile trails, with about a third of that on the surface of the lake. Anytime a snowmobile came near me I had to jump off to the side, where I would sink into knee deep snow. I also got some strange looks when they got close enough to realize I wasn’t wearing a shirt. Hey, it was hot out! It was at least 35 degrees.

Speaking of running without a shirt, the pictures for last week’s Resolution Run are now available. By the time it started snowing during that run, I had stripped down to just my singlet. You can see all of the pictures from the run (the photo to the left is cropped from #59) over at the Maine Running Photos website.