Looking for a good run this weekend in Southern Maine? The first Blackstrap Hell Trail Challenge is this Sunday, November 16th, at 10:00 a.m. in Falmouth.
The course is about 10 kilometers long, there are no aid stations, and the course runs the gamut from narrow single track to wide snowmobile trail, from open woods to rivers, ponds and waterfalls. The trail is covered in rocks, roots, mud, leaves, and contains some wicked steep uphill climbs and lightning fast descents. As the race notice reads:
Hell has no water stations.
I’m going to have to change my weekend plans so that I can take part. If anybody is going to be in the area and wants the details on the race, then leave a comment below or send me an email and I will forward you the race information.
The race requires pre-registration, but the only cost is bumped shins and bruised egos. There will be a pot luck BBQ at the race director’s house afterwards.
The best courses are those that once you are in you have to finish it no matter what. Gives you that sence of accomplishment.
No aid stations, free and a BBQ? Just damn, you guys are lucky 🙂
That sounds like a really hard course… I hope you can make it and have fun! 🙂
Too bad I will be running the Loco Moose Cross Country 5K in Portland on the same day. I have always wanted to try cross country and this is going to be my first one.
But maybe it is better this way because struggling with roots and “real mud” as a first experience might be a bit too ambitious, don’t you think?
Hey! Look in my blog what I got in the mail yesterday! WOOHOOOO!!! 🙂
How would you estimate the time to run that 10K in “Hell”?
Boy that sounds scary, doesn’t it? LOL
I don’t know how long it will take. I’ve run on trails near there, but I haven’t been over on these specific ones and from what I understand they are a little tougher than some other trails near there that I’ve run on. I’ll have a better idea on Sunday afternoon, heheh.
Good Luck!
Well If I put the top Bradbury Breaker time into the McMillan Running Calculator (using the Breaker distance as 15K) I get an equivalent time of 45:37! Blaine is faster than the winner of the Breaker, so I’m guessing if Blaine goes all out, and stays on course, we’ll see low 40s. The elevation change for both races is about the same – I compute 367.2 feet/mile of “up” in the Breaker and 359 feet/mile of “up” on Blackstrap Hell.
-Jeff