In my previous post, I accepted the challenge from Paige (aka Crash) that if I did not finish the Pittsfield Peaks 53-Miler on June 6th I would wear her girly pearls during my next Ultra. IF, however, I did finish this most grueling of challenges (more on this later), she would have to wear my sweat stained Chili Pepper Shorts at her next Ultra. On her side, she knew I’ve had some issues at my last couple of events: the Pineland Farms 50M bloody pee incident and the MorFun Wapack 50 DNF and she knew/read how tough this course was – so she figured it was a good bet. On my side, I needed a finish badly to bring back my ultra mojo and there was NO WAY IN HELL pearls would be around my neck at an Ultra event (I have some self respect) – so I figured this added incentive, though a risk, was well worth it. Bryon Powell from irunfar.com sent me a nice little email prior to the race to fire me up. It simply read: “Dial it in and nail it. As my dad says, run smart. NO F*CKIN PEARLS!” Brilliant. I was fired up. Bryon is a great coach (more on this in a future post, but if you’re interested, contact me or go here for information on his services). So, how did it go? Read on…

About the Race

The race course is on country roads, logging roads, NFS roads, snowmobile trails, and rugged single track trails. With over 14,000′ of elevation gain, some near bushwacking in sections, shoe sucking mud, rocks, roots, limited switchbacks, and temps in the high 70’s at times – this course was the most difficult in my short ultra life. The course is also consistently difficult. I can’t remember a section of the race with more than a few miles of easy, fun running terrain…it’s relentless. Several people who ran Wapack (my first DNF) testified this is a harder course – which I never thought I would hear. There were ample aid stations throughout and you have access to your drop bags on three separate occasions. Planning for this race is difficult. Even though you have ample aid stations not too far apart, some sections are so darn tough it’s difficult to determine what your pace will be and therefore your hydration and fueling plan. Plan conservatively, carry extra water and fuel. I went with two handheld bottles and my Nathan vest to carry supplies. Worked pretty good for me.
Despite cursing his name on more than a few occasions, convincing myself it would be worth it to punch him in the face when I finished (DNF or not), Andy Weinberg puts on a TOP NOTCH event. This is my second race put on by the very sinister Mr. Weinberg (the other being the McNaughton Park 50M) and his races are very well organized and supported, tons of fun – before and after, not necessarily during :) – and his enthusiasm is absolutely contagious. I would be an ass to not thank all the other volunteers and organizers – even the masochistic Jason who puts the race course together. A great overall effort by everyone and an excellent event.

Thank you!

Race Synopsis

Drive down to Pittsfield, VT after work on Friday night with Jeff – pick up race number, have a small pasta dinner, and meet Andy, Sherpa John, and others at the General Store.

Met Serena, Bob, Todd and others at Aimee Farm (start/finish of the race) to camp.

Put up the monster ultra tent for the first time (5 person Mountain Hardwear) – easy to pitch, HUGE, love it!

Prep for the early morning start, mingle a bit, get to bed early for once.

Wake up at 5am for the 6am start – hydrate (remembering Pineland Farms), eat, fail to poop, add some toilet paper to Nathan vest (just in case), toe the line.

Go through my pre-race plan – be patient, run your own race, pay attention to hydration and fueling plan, be aware of temperature and effort changes, try and have fun, laugh at yourself when you hit the wall and push throught it, you CANNOT fail, remember Bryon’s quote “NO F*CKIN’ PEARLS!”

Feeling great through the first 20-miles or so which featured climb upon climb, straight up the gut and then down – over and over again. I settled in wtih Sherpa John, Adam and Nate figuring they have done this before and would help me be patient. They cracked me up for a long while just listening to them – always nice during these events.

The next stretch I think I caught up with Rob Hamel – a great dude from NH who I was going to do the Presidential Traverse with this same weekend. I’ve never met Rob in person, just online, so it was funny to run into him on the trail. We ran together for a short while, shared some stories, and then split up. I really enjoyed meeting Rob and can’t wait to hit the trails with him down the road. A class act.

At about the 50k point I realized I hadn’t peed yet, tried, dribbled some rusty looking stuff (crap, need to hydrate more), got a bit concerned and slowed down a bit. At this point, I think Nick caught up with me and we ran together for a while. Nick traveled down with Amy Lane (a recent speedster on the Northeast ultra circuit and great gal) from MA. I’m a bit foggy on the distance, but somewhere along the way I noticed Nick looking for the ‘right’ leaves to use for toilet paper. Having no urges anywhere in sight, I made his day when I pulled some actual toilet paper out of my Nathan vest and offered it to him. Talk about trail magic – he was psyched.

The Bloodroot section nearly killed me. Seriously. It has a brutal 2 mile climb that NEVER ENDS. I’m not sure if this is where it happened, but I got to an aid station and begged the volunteer to kick me as hard as he could in the kneecap so I had an excuse to pull out from the race. I was hurting…and I was serious. I wish he kicked me :)

For some reason, after the hellish time on Bloodroot, I thought the race got much easier through the finish. NOT SO. There were two, count two, brutal climbs in the next 6 or so miles. I wish I could playback for you what was going through my mind over the last couple of hours and the time spent on this section. As usual, I swore off ultra running, quit the Vermont 100, rationalized to myself that it’s not worth it, wondered what it would be like to be trolling Church Street or the waterfront back in Burlington instead, got REALLY mad at Andy (the RD) for putting so many ridiculous climbs over 53 miles, yelled F-YOU ANDY at the top of my lungs (Sherpa said he heard me), and made several spontaneous aid stations on rocks along the way to take a brief rest and reflect (most lasting a mere minute or two, some shorter when my butt and/or hip flexors would cramp). Oh, the memories….

Just before my last trip to the drop bag section I took a side trip with Sherpa John and soaked my feet (trail shoes and all) and legs in a creek/steam. OMG – so refreshing. I don’t think I’ll ever pass up the opportunity to soak again! This was around mile 39 or so. I felt alive again. I was really going to finish this thing! Change shoes and socks, take in a bottle of Ensure, I’m off! Only 13-14 miles to go!!!

Sherpa eventually caught me and passed me…again. I wouldn’t see him again until the finish. At mile 40 or so, I couldn’t eat anything anymore. This concerned me a bit. My lips were rejecting Gels and Clif Shotbloks – nearly throwing up a couple times as I forced them down. I tried swishing the gels with water in my mouth – didn’t work. I spilled a gel all over my hands and water bottles too – so uncomfortable and a sticky mess. Darn, I was a mess. I finally got to the water-only aid station at mile 44 but it had NO WATER and I had only 3/4ths of a bottle left and 4 miles to the next aid station. This freakin’ mountain wasn’t going down without a fight. Keep going Mike…suck it up.

On the next stretch I caught up with Adam Wilcox and ran with him for while on some runnable (finally) single track. I was low on energy and low on hydration as we approached the final aid station at mile 48. This was by far my favorite AS. First, they had tons of ice, water, and food. I indulged. I put a crapload (that’s a lot) of ice in my hat and put it on my head to cool down. I was SO sick of Gatorade by now (race supplied drink), I filled my bottles with ice and water. Our sinister RD had a few challenges at this aid station for the last 5 miles. There were some items with dollar signs on them. If you could carry them through the finish, you get the money. There were two rocks…both big. One was worth $100 the other $1,000. Honestly, and I’m serious, you couldn’t have offered me $5,000 to carry either rock. Adam went for the $100 rock (he consequently finished with it many hours later – Wow). Adam made sure to tell me there was one more climb before the finish and I was off.

The first three miles out of the AS were great and runnable. I felt great again – so goes the trials of these races. Eventually I can hear the finish line music, Andy’s voice and get excited that it’s almost over. Adam must have been wrong! Excellent! They must have changed the course. I continue on – all smiles. THEN it happens. The race takes you down within earshot of the finish then abruptly takes a sharp turn UP THE MOUNTAIN AGAIN! Not just up the mountain, so switchbacks here, directly up the mountain. OMG – I nearly cried. I was so excited to finish, so excited to break 13 hours, so excited to meet up with my friends from Vermont who I envisioned drinking beers and eating burgers at the finish waiting for me (probably wondering if I would finish). Suck it up Mike! So, up the mountain I went yet again. I was pretty angry at this point – who puts a climb like this at mile 51 of a 53 miler? This took me some time. If I had my camera I would have taken a picture of my view as I climbed this last stretch. The picture would have been the view from between my legs as I hunched over several times trying to catch my breath. A couple ‘false’ summits, evil thoughts about Andy, and I finally reached the turnaround. BUT, it’s not over yet. You have to survive the rocky, steep, quad crunching descent. This hurt…especially since muslces along both shins were beginning to cramp (didn’t know I could cramp there! Love new muscle ache discoveries). Anyway, I finally made it to the home stretch and caught up with Nick (or he with me, can’t remember). Nick got lost where I thought he had and we finished together FINALLY at 12:49 – good enough for 24th of over 50 starters. Not too bad.

Upon crossing the finish line, Andy met me with a big dude like hug and my trophy (a big rail spike I think with Peak Finisher on it). All I could say was ‘Never Again’ – but that’s probably a lie. I simply love his races.

Afterwards

As I guessed, the Vermont Crew was lounging with burgers and beer when I finished – lookin’ all happy and happy for me. Todd finished in 10:53, Bob 11:29, Serena finished 3rd woman in 11:37, and Jeff just finished in 11:59. Other notables: Amy Lane finished 2nd woman in 11:04 (it was real nice to finally meet Amy), Nikki Kimball won the women’s race in a ridiculous 9:47, Leigh Schmitt and Brian Ruseicki tied for first on the men’s side in 8:51  (how one does this, I’ll never know), Nick Tooker finished with me at 12:47 (though he did take a poop and got lost for 15 min), Pam Dolan in 13:39 (loved meeting Pam – great job!), Adam Wilcox in 14:04 (but he carried a rock for 5 miles…and it was big), Nate Sanel in 11:47 (I met and ran with Nate for a little while), and Sherpa John in 12:27. After a couple burgers myself, a beer provided by Amy (thanks!), we picked up camp and headed back to Burlington. Jeff and I stopped off for a well deserved dinner along the way – steak tips, fries, buffalo wings, chocolate milk, ginger ale, and lots o’ water. YUM.

Reflections

1. I might need to hydrate EVEN MORE. Hard to believe, but possibly true
2. Relying on the race for my sports drink doesn’t work for me – I got sick of Gatorade pretty quickly. Good experiment, lesson learned
3. Getting a good night of rest really helps
4. I can battle through the tough spots, just need to keep moving
5. Finding people at the right time during the race to run with helps – thanks Nick, Sherpa, Adam, Rob and everyone else
6. I cannot rely on purely gels and bloks to get me through a race – at some point, my body rejects them
7. Playing it conservatively at the beginning really helped
8. Don’t swear at the RD along the way, you’ll end up hugging him later :)
9. Spontaneous, self constructed aid stations are wonderfully effective for reflecting, embracing your pain, laughing at yourself, and resting
10. Streams, creeks and/or rivers should never be passed up – your legs and feet will thank you
11. My Atayne shirt continues to surprise me with how great it is :)
12. A little extra incentive goes a long way – NO F*CKIN’ PEARLS!
13. Andy puts on an amazing show – BUT, you better be ready for some hurt
14. I need to train more in the mountains if I expect to perform better in these types of races – though I’m still VERY happy with the finish
15. This sport never ceases to amaze me with all the wonderful people I’ve met and shared experiences I’ve gained
16. It pisses me off to no end that people toss crap on the ground during these races – I noticed several gel wrappers and Zico beverage containers on the trails. Come on people!
17. If you’re last to finish in your travel group, you miss out on the after race lounge chairs and party. Once I finished, the group was ready to head home. I better start training harder!
18. I’m ready for the Vermont 100 – BRING IT!
19. Lastly, but certainly not least, I can’t wait to see Paige donning the Chili Pepper Shorts at Vermont (she bought her own so I could continue the streak of wearing mine)

Recovery

Believe it or not, I feel great. On the Tuesday following the race I did a nice little 3 mile run and 6.5 miles on Thursday. This weekend I’m planning a long run with Jeff – distance TBD. No aches whatsoever!

Keep it clean,

Mike