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!

Four weeks to go!

Still training well, just got over the cold which really only made me miss one of the speed sessions.
Last weeks key weekend workout was 18M with the last 14M of that around 7.30 pace. Felt good during but lay on the sofa absolutely knackered later that afternoon.

Then now that we are outdoors for the speed workouts I stepped onto a running track for the first time in years to do a session. 10x400m with a 200m jog rec. Not much lighting when the sun went down halfway through and light drizzle that turned to rain as we finished but in the absence of the two faster guys I led the pack round in fairly consistent 75 to 72 secs.

One of the hardest workouts I've done in ages, the short recoveries were hell.

A slightly different week this week. On Monday, I went with a couple of colleagues and managers to our off-site warehouse (freight company) storage place in New Jersey and basically did a days tidying up of the entire stock we had there.
This mostly meant throwing fixtures away, taking stock of fixtures left there, finding two pallets of stock we didn't know was there and then lining up a pallet of old backpack hip belts to dispose of  due to a (very stinky) dead squirrel being found inside.

It's getting near to my three year anniversary of arriving to stay in the USA.
Three years ago who'd have thought I'd be sitting on the ground, in a warehouse car park, in New Jersey, eating a Subway sandwich!

Thursday our (flagship) REI store had a big event instore. The US National Parks have their centennial celebrations and REI are a main partner associated with this.
This meant a tidy up before a visit from some various big wigs! Just at the end of my shift we went upstairs and provided the audience for the CEO of REI and the Director of National Parks to make their announcements.

The bad news was I was on the edge of the photo and just got shrunk out, the good news, I was one of a few he shook the hand off. I thought that was a pretty cool thing.

This weekend Heather and I went out for a nice meal then went to the Beacon Theater to see Damien Rice.

Apart from one song where he was joined onstage by fellow Irishman Glen Hansard, plucked from the audience no less, he did the whole concert himself.
Similar to KT Tunstall (& Ed Sheerin) he uses the recording loop effect to make different background sounds and even backing vocals for himself.
Really good gig, really strong voice, one of the best I've seen in ages. The Beacon is a really nice old style theater venue too with comfy seats and plenty of leg room, what we look for now, ha ha.
Even though it has some strange Roman architecture thing going on.

Home late but up this morning to do my latest long run, 17M and I threw in a few random hills along the way as I ran through a lot of small parks.

A productive busy week!

21M's and award

Despite some windy weather I had a great session on Friday night. 11M's from work to home with 7 of them around 7.15 pace. I felt so strong, I think the cool weather helps, no sweating!

Then Sunday I did my next 20M run.
It was a little overcast and my gloves were on and off as much as my sleeves were rolled up and down. I revisited last years routes to Coney Island and ran to the beach!

'insert ice cream here'

It was a lot quieter than last Summer! Also not as many toilets were open :-(

It actually ended up being 21M as I reached the bottom of the park at 20M and decided to go up and over the little trail hill for the last mile. I just hit the corner of the local St Patrick's day parade as I went straight into the local muffin shop. I scoffed a danish pastry and some Gatorade on the walk home. Other than being a bit hungry, I felt pretty good. Just got to add the hill part to it now.

Today after work I popped by the office of the Cherry Tree organisers and picked up my age group award!

Cherry Tree 10 Miler

Had a couple of good strong sessions the past week. Last Sunday I did 16M with the last 12M around marathon pace which meant various loops in and around Prospect Park as the other sidewalks were still a little slippy in places.

Tuesday's speed sessions are still going well and I am feeling strong at the end, this week was 3 x 1Mile with 800m jog rec, the last two I did on 6minutes. Thursday we had another snowfall, this was my view of Manhattan as I headed over the bridge on my midweek run to work.

But all that fresh snow meant I could get back on my trail shoes and I managed a whole 7M jumping around the trails the park.

The next day was the Prospect Park Track Club Cherry Tree 10 Miler.
I've never really run that much the day before a race but it wasn't a main goal race and with the (cold!) time of year I didn't think my time would be that great.

This was the rescheduled date as it was way too cold (for volunteers) the last time.
Is it a coincidence that the clocks changed here on Saturday night to Spring time and we woke up to amazing sunshine, 8 degrees & no wind. Despite wearing calf supports and a thermal top I dug out my new SHORTS!

Again, my kind of race. 10am start, leave the house just after 9.40am, jog over, straight into the coral and get racing 5 minutes later. As I've said before it helps that the NYCRuns races are a lot lower key than Road Runner's events. When the guy called out was the lead biker ready and didn't get a response he was like "whatever", let's go!

It was three laps of the park, I took the first one relatively easy as I couldn't decide how hard I was going to race it. Then picked it up as I tried to pull back a few people I could see up ahead such as a couple of guys with their PPTC kit and one of the leading women. Third lap I went for it on the last couple of miles after I crested the hill.

I didn't really think about the time I was aiming for, I'd done it in 1.08.30-something the year before but with my new found marathon strength I knocked nearly two minutes off!

1.06.47, 6.39 pace for 23rd place out of 457 AND as I found out afterwards 3rd place in my age group!

Onto this week, the last indoor speed session before we move to an outdoor track! Then a 14M midweek run, hopefully in the predicted 14 degree midweek weather, an 11M with 7M at 1/2 Mar pace and another 20M on Sunday. Hmmm, tough week.