My fourth year running this race and it's a personal favorite. Most of my runs are road races and I look forward every year to tossing the road shoes in the back of the closet, grabbing the trail shoes and running through creeks. Honestly, as I write this, I'm not sure why I don't run more trail races--an issue for personal reflection later.
With a couple exceptions (Marine Corps Marathon being one), I'm a big fan of smaller races. The packet pick up is easier, getting to and from the race is easier and I'm not someone that needs huge crowds for motivation. The North Face run is a great size event. Even though they run 6 or 7 races over the weekend from 50 miles to 10K, each one only has about 300-500 people. So, the race.
Up at 4:30am to ensure I'm at the shuttle parking lot (about an hour from home) around 6:00am. Again, unlike my pre-marathon routine, I save a lot of the prep for when I get to the start area, rather than try and do everything before leaving home. The shuttles from the parking lot to Algonkian Park are well run and the drivers some of the friendliest people I've ever met at any hour of the day, much less 6:00am. I'm thrown off a bit when the bus drives past the start area and drops us down some random side road. I learn later that the wet conditions resulted in needing to move the start area slightly from previous years. Not a big deal in the morning, but the walk back to bus after the race sure seemed long.
I mentioned wet conditions. This surprised me because there had not been much rain and, in fact, the forecast for race day had flipped completely over the previous three days from "rain all day" to "nothing but sun." I almost ditched the trail shoes and wore my Newton Elite road shoes. That would have been a bad call.
The start--again I had to get out of my marathon mind set when I'm, for no rational reason, insulted by being assigned corral #2, yet I know I'm going to finish in the top 50-100 (out of 400-500). Who cares? I know they do it to spread people out, which is great, and I know it's chip timed. Anyway, at 7:01am, we're off.
Miles 1-5. The first mile loops runners around a soccer field and here's where the decision to stick with the trail shoes immediately pays off, as does the experience of having run this race before. The field is a squishy, muddy, marshy, mess that you just have to embrace and run right through. The runners who try and pick their way around the wettest spots just end up slowing themselves down and wasting energy zigging back and forth. You are going to get wet and muddy over the next several hours--might as well just dive in at the start.
The course then parallels Mr. Trump's golf course and here is the only time where it's worth racing just a bit, because after the wide cart paths and gravel road end at about mile 2, the course goes to single track. You want to be surrounded by runners who are near your pace or you can be trapped for the next couple miles (not that a forced slower pace is necessarily the end of the world). I managed to put myself in a good steady paced group as we headed into the woods--and to this day still did not see the woman fall face first into a mud puddle in front of me, didn't happen. We all agreed.
I should mention something on pace. The three previous years I had improved my time each year from 6:30 hours to 6:00 hours to 5:33 hours. I wanted to be somewhere around 5:30, which meant something around 10:30/mile pace to 11:00/mile pace. If you've never run a trail run, this probably seems slow (my best marathon time is 3:23), but it's not slow--trust me.
I'm reminded why this pace is a good target at about mile 3.5 when we hit the first hill and start walking. There are several hills on the course, but for me the worst are at mile 20 and mile 23. We'll get there. After clearing that first hill, we made it to the aide station and I loaded up on peanut and butter and jelly sandwiches. I believe these are my secret weapon even if everyone has access to them. I was right on pace at 10:00/mile.
Miles 5-8. The next stretch has gotten easier in the past two years since they added another aide station at about mile 8.5. Runners used to have to go over 7 miles to get to the Great Falls aide station. I can tell you before they added that station that coming back the other way from mile 19 to mile 26, you could not find a runner who wasn't convinced that distance was closer to 10 miles. But, that's no longer an issue with the friendly aide station at mile 8.5, which they placed at the bottom of two hills, so runners would have to run uphill both ways. I guess the organizers didn't want to get a rep as being soft.
Miles 8-12. The run to Great Falls is deceptively difficult. Yes, there are some nice flat stretches, but there are also long gradual uphills and areas where the sun beats down on you (I should have mentioned that despite moving the race from June to April, it was hot, hitting 80 degrees by afternoon). The steep downhill leading back to the river and into Great Falls is so steep it's hard to move quickly. I felt like I was keeping a good pace though as I arrived at the park and having people around cheering was a nice adrenaline rush. When I looked later at my splits, I was under 10:00/mile pace. I refilled my water bottle with something that was supposedly an electrolyte drink and headed into Great Falls for a loop through the park.
Miles 12-19. Looking at other recaps, the Great Falls Loop seems to affect people very differently. I find it extremely challenging with lots of ups and downs starting with a mile long uphill on the wide central dirt road. By the time I reach the top of that climb, I'm winded and the steepest down and up section is still ahead as runners head down Difficult Run and back. The good news for me, I was trying to connect with a 50 mile runner who was on his 2nd or 3rd lap around the park, so I had something to distract me (never did find him though). After a quick stop at the 16 mile aide station (I should note how insanely helpful the staff and volunteers are especially in the later miles when they fill your bottle for you and pour water over your head), I enjoyed a nice downhill stretch through Swamp Trail and quickly was back at the main Great Falls aide station.
Miles 19-23. I took a little extra time at the aide station to make sure I drank lots of water, ate some food and put my headphones on. I knew from previous years that the run back suddenly gets very lonely as you leave the 50 milers behind and the 50K runners have become very spread out. Some music was needed and really I'd seen and heard all the nature on the way out. With some Bare Naked Ladies as my guide, I headed back along the river to that hill at mile 20 I mentioned several paragraphs ago. This hill sucks. It is steep. It is rocky. And, it kills all your momentum. It does end, however, and once I could breath again, I was able to settle into a nice steady pace that I knew was slower than earlier, but I was able to keep at it.
I actually forgot about the hill at mile 23 until I stood at it's base 30 minutes later. You are lulled into a false sense of easy trail running with a slight downhill and flat stretch along the river the previous miles. Then, damn, you remember flying down this thing and thinking, shit, I will have to go back up this sucker later. Well, later was now. Grabbing tree trunks, shuffling backwards I started for the first time thinking about just finishing rather than grasping for any time goal. I stumbled into the aide station with a look of longing at the medical tent. There was a gurney in there--maybe even a pillow. "Only 8 miles to go!" someone yelled. All I saw was the uphill climb leading out of the aide station. I grabbed a saltine, refilled my bottle and shuffled up the hill.
Miles 23-26. After the hill, the trail flattens out again and I found I could get into a decent rhythm as long as the hills kept to themselves. I was fully on board mentally with the idea of just getting to the finish line upright and being happy with a good run regardless of time. For the first time I can remember, the next aide station appeared sooner than I expected. I took a moment to appreciate that.
Miles 26-31. Now, I said I was happy to just finish, but then someone at the aide station asked what time it was and I could not help but overhearing that it was about 11:30am. Some quick math told me that I had a shot of beating my time from last year if I could just manage 12:00/mile for the last 5 miles. I knew this stretch well and I knew aside from the one hill at mile 28, it was relatively flat. It's on.
Seeing the golf course again is a real mental boost, even though there are still over two miles to go to the finish. I mean how hard can it be to run along a couple fairways. By mile 29 I'm back on gravel road and can really focus on a target in the distance without having to worry about tripping over a branch or rock. A quick stop at the last aide station with only 1.7 to go. On the way to the finish, there's no loop around the soccer field.
With about a quarter mile to go, two other runners come along side and we all decide to try and finish fast (relatively speaking). As I come around the last corner and can see the finish line, the clock shows 12:26pm. I finish in 5:27:12. 42nd place. I go lay in the grass.
Strongly recommend.
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