( The most serious I have ever looked.)
This past weekend, I had the incredible opportunity to run two mountain races. One on Saturday and the other on Sunday. Initially the plan was just to run Swain, the USATF Niagara Mountain Championship, but I received a message on Friday evening from Jared Burdick asking me, if I wanted to come run the Run It to the Sumit, and he would give me a free entry, and as John Muir said, if the mountains call you must go, especially if you are getting a free entry. So now my weekend was packed, and my quads were also about to be packed with lactic acid, that will probably linger for the rest of the week, but it was so worth it.
Both races started at 8:30, but Swain was two hours away, whereas Greek Peak was less than an hour, which was nice. On the way to both races, there were massive patches of fog that limited visibility greatly, and occasionally break lights were visible off in the distance, otherwise it was incredibly isolating. It reminded me of a war movie, instead of fog, imagine it being loads of smoke billowing off the battlefield from the blasting of gun powder, and racing is basically my version of war, and if there is any type of racing that will truly ravage your body, it is mountain racing.
Also there is an intimidation factor that comes with mountain racing, especially on ski slopes, that normal road races do not have. When driving to both of these races, the first glimpse of the bald strips of grass going down them is always an eye-opening moment, because you are literally staring the steep challenge in its face, and this is rarely the case in road racing. In Boston, you do not see Heartbreak Hill till mile 20, or at Mountain Goat, you do not see the hills, until you are right on the precipice of them. The steepness is also more visible when all of the trees are gone on the ski slopes, so running in Highland never looks that intimidating, because it is completely forested, but ski slopes it is pure visualization of the incline, and it can be seen miles away from the interstate on the way to Greek Peak, and it is like oh… that is where I am going.
I got to Swain thirty minutes before the start, and I picked up my bib, and then I went for a quick warm up jog. On the way to the mountain, I saw a port-a-potty by the railroad tracks, and I stopped there because there was a surprisingly long line for the men’s bathroom, and the port-a-potty by the railroad track had hardly ever been used, so it was like my own private secret bathroom. After the warmup, I switched into my trail shoes, the Brooks Catamount, the originals not the new edition, and I headed to the start line. Nobody seemed to want to take the front though. Normally it is hard to get a spot right up on the line, but here everyone was waiting for the last second, but then Boyce walked up, and he toed the line ready to go, and everyone else followed suit. Swain has a fun tradition where before the start gun goes off, they play the first fifty seconds of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica.
(First Climb)
The first part of Swain is a slow jog to the bottom of the first climb, and the first climb is about a mile, and it takes you all the way up to the top. Then you run another mile back down to the bottom. The first uphill is a service road, so it is pretty manageable despite its steepness, and the downhill is not too bad either. Going up the first incline, I was in a group of the first five, and I was surprised. I expected to be a little further back, and the first two guys really took off closer to the top, and then right around the top Chip passed me, which always seems to happen around mile one no matter what the race is. He passes me around the first mile, and then sometimes I fight back and am able to catch him, or sometimes he beats me, but he always passes me right around mile one no matter the race. This time I caught him a little quicker than other races though. I passed him and another guy pretty quickly on the downhill, and that put me into fourth going into the next big climb, but Chip battled back and passed me going up that hill, but I was able to get him again on the steep downhill, and I never looked back after that. Well physically I looked back many times to see if anyone was close behind me, but that is not the point. I had confidence. I had trained for this! Then at some point I passed the third-place guy, because he was walking up a hill, and I did my best to not allow that to happen to me.
(Bombing down a hill)
Then there were a few more climbs and descents, including a turn that I almost missed going downhill, because I was so focused on not falling down the hill, but shortly after flying down another hill, I was kind of alone. The second-place guy was far ahead, and then after flying down some descents, I had put a solid gap between the people behind me, and so it was just me and the red flags. This helps add to the middle of the race being a blur, or maybe the grim reaper on the course took my soul and allowed me to fly through it, but I got to the last big climb, grabbed a cup of water, and started chugging up the hill. I could see the second-place guy off in the distance, and I had seriously cut our separation, so I kept pushing, even though there was still a slim chance I would catch him. The last hill is the steepest or the longest or both, and I made it almost all the way to the top, and then I started to walk for the first time, but I should have crawled because it was that steep, but I knew once I made it to the top, that I could just fly down to the finish, and that is exactly what I did. Third place!
(Mentioned Grim Reaper on the course)
I never expected to finish that well. I planned on PRing easily, but I beat last year’s time by ten minutes, and I improved by seven places. Then I found out that due to it being a USATF race that my third-place finish won me $100. I have won gift cards before, but I have never actually won money, so that was an awesome surprise, but age group winners got locally made peanut butter and a beanie, and I kind of wanted that too. Those are two things I love a ton, beanies and peanut butter. After the race I enjoyed a few slices of breakfast pizza, a delicacy to me, it is rare that I have it, but I always love it, and a few beers. I hung out with some friends on the Roadkill team that I had met at other races, because my team sadly did not show up in the numbers that theirs did, but I really enjoyed my time with them. Then I went home and went into recovery mode, because I had to do essentially the same race again the next day. Swain is 6.7 miles and a little over 2,500 feet of elevation gain, and Run It to the Summit Up Hill Challenge plus 10k is 7 miles with about one hundred feet less of elevation gain, but over 2,400 is still a large climb.
(Post Race Community)
I was on dog duty this weekend, so I still had to get up pretty early, and I took Danielle for a one-mile run, and this gave me time to evaluate how my body was feeling after Swain, and that one mile was more of a slow jog than anything. I was feeling sore, but last year after Swain I was in much worse shape. So I got to Greek Peak about thirty minutes early, and I started my normal warm up. Two miles and strides, and I felt surprisingly good doing the strides, so my confidence was building, which really did not matter, because either way I was going to have a great time. I switched into my shoes, the same ones as yesterday, which had thankfully dried out, and there was about four minutes before the race started, and I decided I wanted my water pack after all, so I sprinted back to the car and grabbed it, and made it back to the line just in time for the instructions, which I needed explained to me two more times, because I did not get it. Thank you Craig, for the help!
There were four different races starting at the same time, so the horn went off, and we scattered. I led the pack of runners up the summit of the ski slope, while a high schooler led the 5k and 10k runners into the woods. The first climb was about a mile and over 700 feet, and with it being a ski slope and a clear view, every time I looked up, it felt like it just extended on forever, but eventually I made it to the top, took a quick sip of water, and bombed it back down. If my quads were not feeling it from the uphill, they were definitely feeling it going down the slope. At the bottom I took the hard left and was off into the woods to start my first of two 5k loops, and as I entered the woods, I tried to take one of the bottles of water out of my vest, and the lid slid off, and I ended up spilling a good portion of it all over myself, which was refreshing, but not the goal I had in mind. Practice makes perfect.
(Starting the first 5k loop)
The uphill starts quickly in the woods, but the shade was nice, and it was also gravel, and what seemed to be quite the mountain biking path. It was steep, and I worked my way up it. There were a couple of sections that were very steep, and I just kept zig zagging my way to the top, and once I got to the top, I passed my first people, who were doing either the 5k or 10k without the Up Hill challenge, and then I got back up to the water station, and I continued on to the back part of the mountain for the first time. There were a few more climbs on this side of the mountain, but none nearly as steep as the primary stretch that goes up the main face, and this made it runnable, and the downhills were not too steep either. So I made really good time on these parts. Then there are two big dive bombs that take you to the bottom, and no matter how hard I tried to stop clomping my feet, I could not help it, and this is what really causes the quads to burn. I managed a 5:48 4th mile going down the hill and went straight into the second loop, and I thought for sure that my quads would not make it through the second loop.
(Running hills is fun!)
But I was wrong. For some reason when I started the first big hill in the woods, I felt better than I did the first time. Maybe my legs had just gotten used to being so filled with lactic acid that they no longer cared, or maybe it was because there were more people going up this time that I could see, and I got to exchange pleasantries with them as we all marched up this steep piece of gorgeous land. I summited the mountain for my third and final time that day, took a shot of Gatorade this time, and continued on my way. I was really trying to push it though. I knew all the hard stuff was behind me, so no matter how bad my quads burned going down the hill I knew that it would all be over soon. So I pounded the grass and dirt with reckless abandon, and it paid off. My last mile was my fastest, and I dropped a 5:25 as I cruised across the finish line to finish in first for the 10k Mash Up. Somehow, I averaged 9:03 at Greek Peak, and 9:11 at Swain, despite Greek Peak being a slightly longer race. It had slightly less elevation, but I had a whole other mountain in my legs for this one, so I was very surprised at my time.
(Down the last hill)
After the race, we were given a ticket for a beer and a burger, and I had a veggie burger, and it was amazing. It was also fun to hang out and enjoy the meal with others that had been out doing the race, and it is the people and the hangouts that really make these races great. At Swain, my group was not there, but I was welcomed into another group, and we hung out for a while by the finish line as other people completed their journey. There was also the person at the top serving water, and the person who dresses up as the grim reaper and plays the song “Don’t Fear the Reaper” on repeat, which is amazing. Then at Greek Peak, there was also a person at the top serving water and Gatorade. There were people and a couple of kids posted up at different parts of the course that were there cheering, and it was awesome. Also Greek Peak was two loops, and so I had the chance to run past people, and we shared good jobs with each other, and at the bottom, there was a guy with a microphone, and each time I passed him he would cheer me on and say how good I was looking, which is always a big boost. Even the photographers were friendly and cheered each time I went past. There was also Craig, who I met through the Syracuse Trail Runners Instagram page, but I showed up to one of their runs, and he told me about Highland Forest and Morgan Hill, and I knew nothing about that area, but after that, that became my primary place of training for my upcoming mountain races, and he has shared many other pieces of trail information with me that I am very grateful for. So I owe him a large amount of thanks.
(Here is Craig! Cooling down after the race)
So it was this time last year, after running Swain, that led me to take a larger interest in mountain running, and I signed up for Pikes Peak Marathon and the JFK 50 miler, and although neither have happened, they are coming, and it is all thanks to Swain. Sadly, Swain was my first mountain race since Swain last year, so I plan on adding more mountain races next year and spreading them throughout the year, instead of backloading them. They are tougher but the community is amazing, and the views are also incredible. It is hard to fully take in the vistas as you are trying to push through as fast as you can, but a brief pause to digest the view and the work it took to get to the top before plummeting back down the mountain is an important thing to do. It is a great gift to be able to run, and it is a greater gift to be able to do it in the mountains with some amazing people. Thank you to everyone who made these races possible!
I have a couple of trips coming up to get some altitude training in before Pikes Peak and to enjoy some hiking with my dad, so I will probably write something up about that as well, so keep an eye out!
Photos Courtesy of:
Goat Factory Media Entertainment
Lauren Ashley
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