It's been a while since my last post. Since then Melissa and I have moved across the country for a travel nursing assignment in Connecticut. Sounds like just the random kinda place we would end up! Being busy with the move and eating way too much junk food on the road made training hard for my goal race. I am currently signed up for Mountains 2 Beach marathon in California and was hoping for that to be my Boston Qualifier (BQ). My training wasn't great and work was originally going to take us somewhere on the west coast. Well, things changed and New Haven Connecticut called our name. The decision was made to jump ship on a super expensive cross country plane flight for a race I wasn't prepared to run my best at. It was a hard decision to make, but ultimately was the wise choice. This void in my schedule left me jonesing to race. After scouring through www.runningintheusa.com (one of my favorite websites), I found The North Face Endurance Challenge New York at Bear Mountain. The had distances from 50 Mile down to 5K. It worked out perfect with our work schedules to make the hour and a half drive out to Bear Mountain New York for a weekend of racing. I pulled the trigger on the trail marathon, while my wife jumped into the half marathon.
I mentioned earlier that my training had not been great. I guess mentally I felt more prepared when I signed up for the race. A few days after I started looking back through my training on Strava and noticed that I had only done one run longer than 13 miles in the past 6 months. I knew deep down that I could finish a marathon, the amount of struggle was the variable here. I love being out on the trails and know I could struggle through the miles if need be, but I always go out wanting to race. I was hoping I could dig deep and pull something out of nowhere! Then the forecast came out. Race day Saturday less than 50 degrees F and 100% chance of rain ALL DAY. I'm from Arizona, we don't see this sort of thing. I almost talked myself into just taking it easy and chalking it up to a good training run....but deep down I wanted to bring it! Here's the elevation profile:
Let's see which way this day went....
The race didn't start until 9AM so waking up in Connecticut and taking the drive out there wasn't too bad. We didn't have to wake up a the butt crack of dawn like most races. We navigated through the early morning fog and continual rain and made it to the race designated parking area. Huge parking lot with free parking and free shuttle about 15 minutes away from the start line. Packet pickup was a breeze (maybe because everyone was hiding from the downpour). There were multiple tents that were originally for post race massage, beer garden etc. These were full of everyone trying to stay dry......until the race started. We started right at 9AM with a few hundred people signed up for the marathon distance, not to mention the hundreds that were already on course from the 50 miler and 50k. The first few miles ticked off quickly as we went from hard packed gravel to single muddy, slippery single track. This was the moment I realized I really need to figure out my eyesight situation. I wear glasses, couldn't handle contacts and have been debating Lasik surgery for a while. Once we hit the rocky section my glasses were completely covered with rain and I was soaked with nothing dry to clean them off. I ditched them into my jacket pocket and went blind for the next 25 miles. I had a horrible fear of falling or getting off course (more on both of those later). I settled into a nice place behind a few other runners so I could follow in their footsteps and not get lost. Miles kept ticking off, the footing was extremely difficult in most places. We were either hopping from rock to rock over small creeks or stomping through slippery ankle deep mud. Any uphill was hard to get traction and downhills were like slip n' slides. Aid stations were 4 to 6 miles apart and had GU and Honey Stinger gels, Skratch electrolyte drink and water. Along with some "real" foods (bananas, bagels, pretzels, broth, etc) at most of the stations. The course was beautiful from what I could see through the rain and horrible eyesight. It definitely looked better the next day in pictures! The course took us by multiple lakes and had a few higher ridges overlooking the most green area I have ever seen in my life. Throughout the race I had been holding steady somewhere 5th to 8th place. I kept getting passed on the uphills and would drop to 8th (must've been the mud I hope because I'm usually good on the climbs) and would catch back up to 5th place. I followed closely behind a guy in a neon yellow jacket to keep me on course. We ran nearly the entire race within 10 seconds of each other. This cycle continue all the way until the last aid station. I showed up to the Anthony Wayne aid station at mile 21 in 7th, with the next 2 runners within eyesight.
I knew the two people ahead of me had been stopping for short refuels at the previous few aid stations and knew this was my chance to try to fly by and push the pace and hope I could hold on for a strong finish. I had my handheld ultimate direction bottle half full and I grabbed a few gels and was on my way. Leaving the aid station there was a climb back up to the trail we had started the race on. Now all we had to do was backtrack the last four miles and finish exactly where we started. I had a burst of energy and was feeling great. Made it up the climb, bombed down the next downhill and realized I hadn't seen any trail markings in a while. This was the first time during the race that I wasn't following behind somebody for fear of getting lost and guess what happened?? The race was extremely well marked and I don't know exactly how I missed a turn, but upon backtracking I found an arrow and markings in every color that I ran right by. My mind went to a bad place, "how many people passed me?". "Why do my eyes suck??". I then proceeded to slightly twist my ankle on a rock (it wasn't even that bad, but was the icing on the cake) and was nearly set on walking it back in to the finish and calling it a day. I walked up the next climb and saw a familiar neon yellow jacket toward the bottom of the hill. Were these the same guys I had been following most of the day? This gave me a burst of energy and I slowly closed the gap. By the time I caught up to them there was about half a mile left in the race. It WAS the two guys I had tried to blast by at the aid station. I had new found energy and there was no way I was going to let them get the best of me. I passed and "sprinted" @ 10:00 min/mile pace down the next section until I could see the finish. All those bad thoughts earlier had cleared my mind and I was ready to cross that line. Can't believe how great I felt the last 5 miles of this race despite my lack of long run training!! Ended with a shockingly strong finish which I didn't predict pre race and finished in 5th place overall and 1st in my age group!
The marathon race and higher distances were on Saturday and Half marathon and below were on Sunday. My wife was racing in the half the next day, so we got a hotel about 30 minutes away, got some grub and slothed around the hotel and kept our fingers crossed for better weather the next day! Waking up the next day there was no rain and we could actually see the sky on the way in. This day was a complete 180 degree turn from the day before.
The weather was closer to 60 and sunny most of the day, but the trails were gnarly from all the races the prior day. I had never been able to crew and be a support person for my wife before as I had always been a part of the race as well. This was a fun experience and I will have to do more of it! It was a blast getting to know some of the aid station workers and cheering for the top runners coming through. I was only able to see my wife at one station around mile 4 and the tracking app only updated me one time on her location. I set up shop and waited at the finished, where all distances were finishing.
My wife had a great day out there and ended up finishing 15 female in the race, despite less focus on running training over the past few months due to injury. Overall a great weekend at Bear Mountain. Gnarly trails and tough weather, but we left without any major injuries and with a ton of confidence going forward! Now onto planning the rest of our season!!
Gear Used:
-Nike Terra Kiger 3. First run over 10 miles in these shoes. Drained the mud and water well. No blistering, no hot spots.
-Ultimate Direction Fastdraw 20oz water bottle.
-Drymax Socks
-Brooks Sherpa Shorts
Onto the Scores:
Race Location: Bear Mountain New York was a beautiful race location. Definitely a good thing we stayed both days because the venue looked so much better during the Sunday races. Despite the rough course conditions, I don't think the rain really added too much extra time as the course is very rocky and technical anyway. 1 hour from New York City, short drive from Canada and the rest of New England makes this an ideal location. 7.5/10
Swag: The hooded shirts were an awesome idea, how many regular race t shirts do you need? I will definitely wear this shirt often. They did run out of some sizes, but they brought a screen printing guy to the location to please everyone with the right size shirt. Medals were pretty basic, but at least the had different colored lanyards for the different distances. Everyone also got a finishers water bottle at the finish line as well. I also received a trucker hat and buff for placing 1st in my age group (many races don't even give age group awards anymore!) (Ladies shirt pictured on left, mens on right) 9/10 (Better Medals could've gven this race my first ever 10/10)
Experience: Tough weather made the course more memorable. Getting lost and falling in the mud multiple times will be ingrained in my memory. This was my first race with terrible weather and I actually kind of liked it being more of a sufferfest. Race logistics were on point at least for the race I did. I heard there were some drop bag confusions in the longer races. Course was well marked and aid stations were well stocked. 8.5/10
Post Race: I was so cold when I finished that the ice cold Sierra Nevada beer didn't sound good. First time not taking advantage of the free post race beer. There was confusion on if the age group winners got prizes, so I actually didn't get mine until the next day. Should have more announcements regarding this so nobody leaves empty handed. Didn't explore much of the area around as the weather was not letting up all day. 7/10
Overall: I was surprised with how well organized the race was despite the weather concerns, you could tell this wasn't their first rodeo. Everything that was thrown at them was solved quickly. They had fire pits and enough shelter to stay out of the rain on day one and the festival area had enough space to really enjoy the nice weather on day two. Will for sure be doing another North Face race in the near future! 8/10 Overall
Comments