It's been a good year for running part 2

Took the two weeks off after Philly. Didn't have anything planned but someone posted some info about a trail race in Staten Island, a 10K, 25K and 50K, 99% on proper forestry trails!
SO I couldn't miss that, once I'd secured a lift, as it was also only a 30min drive.... albeit in a direction that nobody normally goes due to some aversion with Staten Island having some kind of Essex-like connotations.

I reckoned if my legs could recover enough then my leftover marathon fitness could get me round the 25K at a decent pace albeit not knowing the course and how hilly it was, it was kind of difficult to see a lot of previous race info for this event.

I researched previous years results and it was normally a smaller field of sub 100 runners in each event. Then they said this year that the 25K was a USATF championship trail event and members were eligible for the cash prizes on offer for the overall and age groups. So after much though, I gambled and paid the $30 annual membership with the hope of at least 3rd in my age group which would net me $50.

They clubmate I ran it with is a fast runner (2.53 NYC marathon) but inexperienced on the trails. Within the first few hundred metres we were leading! There was a group of 4 of us for the first few miles. I thought either we've gone of too fast, not knowing what lay ahead or because it was a smaller (non-roadie) field I would indeed have a good chance at an award.

After about 5 miles Shan and I were on our own. I led the whole way with him happy to follow on my heels. Apart from going the wrong way a couple of times, banging my knee of a log and waiting for 2 secs as Shan picked himself up after falling, we raced round averaging 7.46 pace and finishing together in 1.53.03. Shan was gallant enough to let me cross the line first mainly as he said I'd done all the work and he said he wouldn't have run that hard on that type of course without following someone.

We were a good 7 mins ahead of 3rd place and despite now having to wait for the USATF to get the results etc, I'm pretty confident of a $150 cheque arriving in the mail, ha ha.

The other funny moment was when we were waiting for the awards I overheard a couple of Scottish sounding voices and then when they went up for the 10K awards realised I knew a couple of the girls from the Aberdeen running scene. Then it turned out they were visiting the winner of the 50K who moved here earlier this year and is hill/ultra runner from Scotland.

In terms of 'it's a small world' that is right up there with the previous weekends Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot that I volunteered at and while taking entries met a couple from Elgin, she came from Inverness and he came from Aberdeen!!

Great last race of the year. I had three vastly different top 3 races, Bear Mountain Marathon, Philly Marathon and this more relaxed one. Along with PB's in the 5K, Half Marathon and Marathon.

The Big Endurance Challenge

The North Face Endurance Challenge Marathon at Bear Mountain. Big title, big race.

This is what I'd been training for through winter and what I'd nervously been looking forward to for the last couple of weeks ever since I'd started to taper down and have that tired feeling where you just want to do the race and not carry on the training.

This was the info from the course guide I'd been looking at all week.

Trying to plan out my fueling strategy and still trying to get into my head how the hell I was going to pace this.
From last year's results I thought maybe a finish time between 4.15 and 4.30 and somewhere around 10min miles would be good enough with a bit of luck to get close to the age group awards.

We left just after 6am and the roads were nice and quiet. As it started an hour later (9am) than the half marathon version I'd done the previous two years the sun was already out and heating things up nicely.

Partly having the confidence of a solid training schedule behind me where I barely missed a session and a love of getting back onto some proper trails meant I was really looking forward to this one.
We also took two friends along to keep Heather occupied while I disappeared for the 4 and a half hours!

Here's me smiling at the relaxed start of the race and an example of the mixed terrain that lay ahead.
There were regular marked trails, unmarked little trails and rocky stretches that they tried to guide you through rather than following any actual path.
There were a couple of real boulder scrambles where I had a little smile to myself when I looked up ahead and seen this was where the little coloured flags were directing us to go.
There were a few moments like that. Is it left? Is it right? No. It's straight ahead off the path and up through the trees. Of course it is!
There was even a 1/4 mile of Tour De France alpine road climbing with an aid station right at the top. At least I managed to get down to 6.40min mile pace coming down the other side, which considering I'd done 15miles at that point tells you how steep it was.

Back to the start. The first 4 and a bit miles to the first aid station were the same as the half marathon I have done the last two years. I really tried to go slower than my body wanted to knowing there was so far to go and so much climbing to be done.
They had a timing mat here and I found out afterwards I was through here in 19th place averaging 8.50 pace.

I had my shorts with their little hip holster pockets containing one gel flask with 3 gels mixed with water and a little soft flask with water. The plan was to take these if needed and consume the water and hydration drink at the aid station combined with trying to take a gel from my flask or the aid table every 30-40 mins depending on where I was on the course.
They had a volunteer stationed like a 1/4 mile away ringing a bell or shouting that the next aid station was coming up which was really useful.

It's getting hot out here

It didn't take long to heat up and despite being in the trees for most of the course the sun got through very easily. It got up to around 20 degrees which wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that I'd just trained through the winter for this and it had only really been this warm for like three days this year so far.

I used my Garmin to gauge the distance run but that's all really. All the training and knowing your own pace and effort helps as I would look at the watch to see 9min something pace one minute then 11min plus the next so it really helped that I was semi-comfortable knowing what effort I could sustain even though it was going to be an hour longer than I'd ever run before!
At the start the starter asked how many people were running their first ever marathon and there were way too many shouts of 'yes', I would've been really worried if that was my first marathon.

What path?

As I kind of suspected the race settled down after a few miles and as happens to me quite often I ended up running mile 6 to mile 12 all on my own with nobody in sight whatsoever!
I was alone in the woods, just running along following the little coloured flags thinking my thoughts.

There were a few stretches where I ran and ran and then checked my watch only to see a mile had gone by and I was barely at half way. 13M still to go?!

The mixed terrain and not knowing the course kept me going and also I started to run into the back end of the 50K field, maybe even the 50M competitors? I seemed to be flying compared to them of course.

At the 14M aid station I was up to 12th although as I say I didn't know this at the time.

The next aid station was just after 20M and Heather had agreed to be there to cheer me on. I've never down a race before where I felt I needed any kind of cheering on or support to help me through the race but on this one I was really looking forward to seeing someone I knew. I didn't really need a cheer just a little break and like a mini reward along with the hydration and gel!

Pour that water in my cap

Hey, posing mid race, a novelty!

Okay, better get going.

I ran off up to the t-junction, the tape was on the left corner and after 21M you're pretty tired so my head was down going up the short climb. I turned left and ran about 50m then thought, oh oh, this doesn't seem right as I couldn't see any more tape up ahead.
Just then, two runners came round the top corner and were saying that wasn't the right way. Just then we looked back to see another runner run straight across the road and up through the trees.
Of course it was straight up the hill.
The other two runners took off and disappeared out of sight, the other guy I slowly caught and passed which kept me going for that couple of miles!

With a few miles to go we met the 10K course which I remembered from the half last year. This time it was the marathon relay that were using the 10K for their loops. I sped past a couple of them and was feeling good knowing I only had around 2 miles to go.
Then I was thrown off slightly as the marathon course deviated up and over another rocky little climb, I was cursing the organisers at this point, what the hell.

We rejoined the 10K course and there were a couple of slight rocky little uphills on this never ending course. These last 3 or so miles really were the longest 3 miles of my life.

I felt good coming through to the finish but I knew I was totally done. As soon as I stopped, I downed some water and found Heather sitting on the hill.
I collapsed on the ground and my leg muscles were so tired. I've never felt my legs so tired before, like a weird pain where you can't sit still, I probably shouldn't have been sitting that was the problem!

I barefooted it down to the ice bath and sat for a few minutes and rubbed the cold sponge on my calves. We got some free food but after a bite of hot dog I decided I didn't really feel like eating that kind of food right now, I did down the entire cold Diet Pepsi though.

As we got ready to leave I went to check the results and was really pleased to see I had come in 8th overall and had secured 1st place in the 40-44 age group.

Look at the winner's pace, ridiculous!

The prize was pretty poor, a buff and a couple of gel blocks (ha ha) but after thinking back and despite not having any time reference to go off unlike a road marathon I felt this was the most proud I've been of how a race has gone for a long long time.

This event was tough. The terrain was unforgiving, very little flat or sections to relax on, total concentration required (I did trip 7 times!) and with the sunny weather and thre fueling needed to run for an hour longer than I've ever run before. I overheard some people say the 50K was one of the hardest 50K's you can do.
After the last couple of weeks though, I definitely prefer the trails and am going to pick out some more events like this in the future.

Interestingly my legs got rid of the soreness pretty quickly and I look forward to seeing how they feel when I bike to work during the week as it's Bike To Work month here in NYC.

Onto the next one, I have the Brooklyn Half Marathon on the 16th so we'll see how my legs feel when I actually try to run!

Leatherman's Loop 10K

I entered the Leatherman's Loop 10K race back in January through their lottery system. Luckily I got in at my first attempt but the way things worked out it turned out to be one week, actually just six days, before I do my main goal race, The North Face Endurance Challenge Bear Mountain Marathon.

I should be okay as it was soft enough in places (see below!) that I don't have the same soreness normally associated with 10K trail events and another good reminder of how good it is to get back into the countryside and get some proper off-road running done.

I shared a car ride up with one of the guys from the Prospect Park Track Club and we left at 6am to avoid the long wait to get access to the car park we had heard about if you didn't arrive before 8am.
We got there at 7.40am which felt really early but by 8am the place was heaving.

The warning pic form their website!

This was my first event competing in my new PPTC club kit which lead to me getting my first shout from a spectator of 'Cmon PPTC'.

It was the 29th running of the event and apparently it is one of the largest fields for a trail race in the US that isn't a Spartan or Tough Mudder event, there were over 1200 finishers this year.

The start was like a cross country, wide open over a rough dry meadow with the herd of runners trampling their way to a left hand bend and sprinting to get to the front as the path narrowed to single and double file for most of the next mile. 

Where's Chris?

Ready, Set, GO!

I had heard the first three miles were the hardest but without knowing the course it was difficult to know how hard to push it from the start. We started near the front but I was definitely delayed due to the number of people around me. A little here but more once we turned into the woods and the path and roughness underfoot meant it was difficult to run close or pass people.

Once the field separated and things settled down I began to enjoy the varying terrain, being able to see where you are going helps!

There were rough forestry trails with gnarly (a favourite word with a lot of REI employees) tree roots and rocks, then the mud flats!

Small video of the mud.

Then after a bit of narrow trail action it opened up to a dirt hill that was short but so steep everyone was using their hands to claw their way up.
Just before that I had a smile on my face as there was both a bagpiper and a mariachi band!

There were two mini water crossings during the first 4 miles and after a bit of a downhill stretch towards the finish there came the infamous water crossing where all the spectators lined the exit up the bank cheering as you jumped up and sprinted the final few hundred meters to the finish.
One of the best finishes to a race I've ever done.

There were tonnes of photographers there and they post the photos on their website for free!

1.

2.

3.

Despite the above 'technique' surprisingly picture 4 was me exiting the water and not falling face first in as you might have expected.
I felt good towards the end and finished with 7.03 and 6.47 mile splits.

Not everyone was so lucky:

On purpose??

I came in 17th and had heard beforehand that under 45mins was considered a good time. I did 45.41 and as is my thing nowadays I thought I might be close to the age group awards but similar to Scotland the 40-49 age group is very competitive in the rougher, hillier trail events so I could only manage 7th!

Definitely one I'd travel up to do again.

Hopefully not as wet next week!

Secret show and secret trail race

On Sunday it was announced that Mumford & Sons were playing a kind of secret show at a small 500 capacity venue in the city. The tickets went on sale the next morning but we couldn't get any.
Late Monday night they announced they were playing a second night so on Tuesday morning we tried again and after a couple of page refreshes after entering my card details I managed to get two tickets!

They were playing all the songs from their upcoming new album, basically practicing the songs live before they go on tour. Because of this, they specifically stated there would be no phones or cameras allowed inside and you would have to leave them at the door.
As it was close to my work we left our stuff there and headed over around 5.30pm, Heather wanted to be close as normally she struggles to see over tall folk at standing gigs!

The doors opened at 7pm and they were due on at 9pm. We ended up being about the 10th people in line and I wandered around the corner to get some mexican food which we ate in line then we went in and ended up right at the front corner of the stage basically a couple of feet away from the bass guitar every time he swung it round.
The two hour wait inside was pretty painful on the feet and back, old people problems, but once they started it was pretty amazing. So close, so loud and brand new songs!

Of course there was the odd person that smuggled in their phone as there were a couple of pics floating about the internet the next day buy the singer commented that it was amazing to look out and see actual faces and not phones and ipads staring back.

As we were up front we were also lucky enough to come away with one of the guitar picks jettisoned at the end of the gig.

REI has been trying to boost its running business, specifically leaning towards the trail running market. They started a running group and are organising a trail race series, the first of which was last Saturday.

I wasn't planning to do it as it was an hour and a bit drive North at the Blue Mountain Reservation but a couple of other people at work said they were doing it and would drive if I wanted to go so I jumped a the opportunity to get some proper trail practice.

They hadn't really advertised it much on purpose as they wanted to keep it low key as it was their first real attempt at orgainsing a running race. The other races in the series are later in the year.
There was only 40 something in the 10K and maybe 30max in the 5K so of course I hit the front within the first few metres and lead the whole way round, coming home first by a good distance.

The course was good, rough in parts, little climbs, and a good warning reminder to not go off too fast in this upcoming marathon with pacing being more difficult to judge.

The course was a little short at 5.9M but I average a solid 6.50 pace overall and represented work, coming away with a nice silver mug.
Annie from work finished 5th overall and 1st female but they only did awards to the first three across the line so we gave them feedback, maybe something they can think about changing for their next ones!

Paine to Paine

Last year one of the races that we ventured out of town to do was a trail half marathon up in New Rochelle, about 45mins north of the city. Well, 45mins going there at 7am and about 2 hours coming home in the afternoon!

It wasn't a race I really enjoyed last time as it was constantly undulating without being hilly and I ended up running most of it all on my own AND the weather was humid so it fogged my glasses in among the trees.

But another REI store was one of the sponsors so I enquired and received a free entry so I had to go! It was going to be good training for the marathon anyway and with all that running I thought I could go quicker. Last year I was 5th in the 40-49 age group so maybe there was a slim chance I could get into the top 3.

It is a really nice location and the finishing area with the cheerleaders and running track and all the free food and a hot shower afterwards also make it a good event.

Unfortunately after a couple of weeks of cooler weather (20-25 degrees but with fresh air rather than humidity) we woke up to find the forecast was correct and it was humid.

The updates from the race organiser were pretty humorous. For example:

4.   Number transfers are not permitted. Veteran P2Pers will remember that if you transfer a number, a kitten will die. And it will be your fault.

I also just read this on his post-race report:
"Was this year’s edition of Paine to Pain hard with the 200% humidity? Well I didn’t run it this year, I watched you. But 2x Badwater champ Pam Reed came up to me after the race. “That was hard.”
It made me smile. We didn’t call this the Buttercup Classic, after all."

Badwater is a 130+mile Ultra marathon through Death Valley.
Hey, at least it wasn't sunny!! I would've really struggled with that. And of course the weather has gone straight back down to regular Autumn weather for the rest of this week.

The start is uphill on the road for 1/4 mile lined by the school cheerleaders and then it's into the woods, up and down, 750ft of ascent and 750ft of descent, no major hills just constantly rolling terrain which is probably worse. There are only 3 mile markers, all of which say "-ish" after the number but having done it last year I at least had that finish time to go on.

I started quite strong, then had a mid race slowdown where I got fed up running with 4 or 5 guys in a small group so eased off a little. Then after running on my own for a couple of miles and taking my gel and water at the 8M mark I picked the pace up and slowly reeled in all but one of them. The marathon training really gives you a strong finish even if its just a little bit of a mental boost.

I love the finish where you pop out of the woods, down the road between the cheerleaders and onto the running track for a 300m lap to the finish. I finished in just over 1hour 32mins (7.03 pace), knocking 2mins off last years time in the near identical conditions.

As I came down the home straight the race commentator said my name and informed me I was in 10th place! I was 20th last year so that was a big whoop when I heard that.

Heather didn't really enjoy the race, if you hadn't run it before the course and weather conditions made it tough, much as I found it last year.

I waited for the prize giving as there were prizes for first 3 in each age group and I was 5th last year. There was one guy in the 40-49 that finished 3rd overall and then when they read out the 20-29 age group I was ticking them off when all 3 were faster than me. Then I was really pleased when he read the 3rd place and 2nd place and then I was 1st!!

Big glass tankard

Afterwards we took our hire car to the same supermarket in the suburbs as last year and got a big pastrami sandwich for lunch, some ice cream and then looked at the animals they had outside, ha ha.

The only downside was that weekend was supposed to be my second 20M training run but the half was a good test of where I'm at. This week is a recovery week then I'll try a 20M the following week.

Week 11: 44M

Return to Bear Mountain

The North Face Endurance Challenge Half Marathon at Bear Mountain (what a mouthful) was my main goal for the first half of the year.
I had felt really strong in the last couple of weeks leading up to Sunday's race especially on easy runs but was unsure how close I would get to last year's 1hour 51mins (6th place) as I knew I ran hard and remembered that I had finished really strong last May.

Again, we hired a car for the day and set off at 5am. A little bit delayed as we had to navigate some road closures due to Sunday also being the 5 Borough Bike Ride where thousands of cyclists get to ride on closed roads. Luckily we were off before they got going.
The weather forecast was dry and overcast but with the threat of rain later on that afternoon. In the end it was perfect, slightly cool at the 8am start but with the sun breaking out towards the end. It was actually the hardcore rain we had two days before (apparently Wednesday was the 10th wettest April day ever in Manhattan) that changed the course... for the better.

This was bone dry last year!

On the very first climb into the woods within half a mile we encountered a big pile of mud across the path and then a slightly rocky uphill patch that had water streaming down it. I realised it was going to be a lot wetter than before and immediately I assumed I was going to be slower because of that.

fresh and clean

I went off quite fast and thought there must've have been about 10 people up ahead and then like last year within 3 miles it settled down to where I ended up following the same guy for the next 7 miles with nobody really behind me. The other difference from last year was that around the 3 mile mark I decided to stop at the side for a pee! It had bothered me since about 400m into the race, I could've carried on but it was bugging me mentally, ha ha. You think a lot about different stuff during a half marathon. That guy passed me while I stopped and it took me the next 7 miles to finally catch him and pass him. And just like last year, it kept me going trying to keep him in sight so I didn't have to try so hard to spot the course markings.

I didn't think I'd really remember the course but occasionally I'd remember bits as I got to them, I knew there was a long-ish climb after the 9M feed station and although there are no miles markers, when I did pass one saying 11M I knew that was incorrect based on how long I'd been running for, more like 10M!

There were a few tiny stream crossings, plenty of mud patches and a lot of running water on the rocky downhill stretches. In the last couple of miles you meet up with the 10K race runners and I looked forward to this as I knew I'd get that same boost as last year plus knowing it was the home stretch meant I felt I was flying! I seen the photographer positioned right after a mud bath and as I stormed through it I hoped he'd get some good photos of me, and he did!

splish

splash

dash

I hadn't really looked at my watch for a while, just in case I tripped! I only really looked at a handful of times, just to get an idea of where the water stop would be as I planned to take a gel and then just to know there was 20 odd minutes left to go.

300m from the finish!

I came into the finish, crossed the line and then was extremely pleased to see that I'd crushed last year's time by over 2 minutes, 1 hour 48min 52secs.

They have timing mats at 2.6M and 8.3M so afterwards I seen that I was actually about 35 secs slower to the 2.6M and 8.3M marks this time, so I must have picked up all that time towards the end.

I finished in 5th position out of the 677 finishers and as the overall 3rd place prize was taken by a 42 year old I got 1st place in the 40-44 category! Incidentally I was only 9 secs behind 4th, damn that pee stop. Age group prizes weren't up to much though, a water bottle, some gels and a smartwool sticker. The post-race food they offer is really good though as is the technical race t-shirt and Smartwool socks you get.

I scoped out some pancake place in New Jersey that looked like it was in an industrial park just off the Palisades Highway on our way home but despite the look it was an old school diner and the strawberry banana pancakes I had were just what I needed.

Then of course, we used our rental car to take all our winter clothing to our storage unit, switched it for the remaining summer clothing, a little active recovery doesn't hurt..... and then went for pizza.

So I was well pleased indeed with that result. An easy week this week although a couple of weeks ago I did enter a 10K for this coming Saturday, ha ha. It's around Roosevelt Island, so it was more the different location that encouraged me to do it, plus it's an NYCRuns event, so a little cheaper and lower key than a NYRR event... AND it's directly off the F train and that's what matters!