Sleepy Hollow Mountain Race 2019: Fun in the Mud

Huntington, Vermont
Saturday, April 20, 2019

You know those races you've done where the weather before the race was terrible, but just before race start, the rain ended or the wind died down or perhaps even the sun came out?  Yeah, this race experience wasn't like that at all.  In fact, it was a little bit of the opposite.  To break up the car ride from southern RI, we spent the night in White River Junction, VT.  As we left the hotel Saturday morning it was overcast but not raining and 67 degrees.  OK, with only a 1.5 hour drive, let's plan for a warm, dry race.  Wrong!

Headed up I-89 North, the temperature dropped precipitously.  In fact, it was 42 degrees when we arrived.  That's right; a 25-degree drop!  After about four miles on dirt roads and watching and hearing the Subaru WRX in front of me bottom out in the mud multiple times, we arrived at the Sleepy Hollow Ski Lodge.  I had my singlet on to run in, plus a long sleeve tech shirt to warm up in.  Felt cold once I got out of the car, so I put on the windbreaker/rain coat that I had and headed up to registration.  I saw fellow Rhode Islander Rachel Flaksman as I headed into the barn to get ready and pin my bib to my singlet.

Parking on dirt road leading up to the ski lodge.
Most sections of the dirt road were in good shape as
seen here; but there were certainly some challenging sections.

Warm-up:    With only about 20 minutes to race start, I went out for a short warm-up.  If you can call it that.  I ran up just a short section of the first trail we would ascend out of the "gate", but it was flooded muddy mess, so I just tiptoed around awkwardly to avoid plunging in the mud.  Obviously this strategy would NOT work at race time.  And now it started to rain steadily.  Of course it did!  I pondered switching my bib to my long sleeve shirt, as I remembered running Hartford Marathon in 42 degrees and rain, and feeling very cold at the end.  On the other hand, having looked at last year's results and the two finishers I know rather well (Steve Brightman and Leslie O'Dell), I figured I'd be done in an hour and could tough it out.

My understanding is that the start is usually pretty much right
where the snow patch is behind me in pic, so this year the
organizers moved the starting line just higher to avoid this.

Here is the starting trail (to the left of green plastic fencing).
Doesn't look too wet, right?  Let's look a little closer ...

And now up closer.  Oh yeah, feet will NOT be staying dry for long today!

Pre race announcements were here.

Lining up for the start.  A few of us wore singlets, but not many.

Race start:  After a brief announcement from the RD with a warning on forecasted thunderstorms, we lined up and were off.  I opted to start in the second row, figuring I had a good chance of finishing top 20.  We took off, and no pussy-footing around this time.  Straight through the puddles and mud and up the slope we go.  It seemed every step I took was a post-hole into the mud.  Slow going.  EVERYONE was passing me and the race had only just begun.  Grandmothers pushing strollers uphill were passing me at this section.  Or so it seemed.  Time for this novice to look around and watch the veterans of this race and see what they were doing right and what I was doing wrong.  Oh, they are running on the sides of the trail; not totally mud-free, but the mud is less deep there as some vegetation is holding the dirt better.  Well, that helped a little, but it still seemed like a long slog up the initial ~300' climb and I was seriously doubting myself.

And we're off.  I'm front and center in green singlet, bib 239.

Starting the uphill climb.

Even when it was leaf-covered, you can see how soft the
ground was here and easy to post-hole.

Out of control:  There was no time to catch your breath at the "top of the mountain", as you went right into a 500' fairly steep decline over the next mile or so.  There was still the same deep mud, and it was a blast running/sliding down the slope.  Finally I'm feeling a little more comfortable, and although on the ragged edge of control, I'm passing quite a few people here.

I'm not in this picture, but I included it to
show typical race conditions today.  Mudfest!

2nd ascent:  In retrospect, I think of this race as three ascents, each followed by an immediate descent.  Yes, that's an oversimplification, but it works for me in my simple mind.  This next ascent was the longest and lasted roughly from Mile 1.5 to Mile 3.2.  Unlike the first mud/slop wide trail ascent, much of this next climb was on a fairly well drained single-track with lots of switchbacks on a trail named "Darth Vader"!  I could see fellow RI'er Brightman on the switchbacks and he wasn't as far ahead of me as I expected (five days earlier, he had run some little 26.2 mile run in Boston, so his legs may not have been fresh).  Fellow runners on the course were friendly and when I caught right up to one in particular, he moved aside for me in an area that would have been tough for me to pass otherwise.

On one of my uphill climbs;
this one was not as muddy.

Downhill to the finish area:  At the top of this climb, there was a trail sign showing we were going onto a single-track trail named "Princess Leia", and lo and behold, in the rain and mud, there was Princess Leia!  In her white robe and with her classic cinnamon buns hairstyle on each side of her head!  You may be thinking, he's hallucinating.  And I thought that myself at the time, much as late in a hard race I have imagined things there that aren't, but this be the real thing.  As I went past her, she said to me, "May the force be with you!".  Now, if you've run this race before, or if you're not into Star Wars, you're probably thinking that I need to get a life (which I do, but that's a separate story); however, for me, this was so cool and brought a huge smile to my face!

Star Wars themed trail names!  Very cool!

The Princess Leia single-track ended quickly at another wide ski trail, and we were back on our way bombing down a 400' descent back to the start/finish area.  I noted that I was passing some of the same people now that had passed me going up.  Downhill is my sweet revenge.

Watch out for the snow patches coming down to the start/finish area.  They're slick!

Final climb:  In a cruel twist of fate, you empty out onto the main field and go right past the finish line and clock but yet still have about two miles to go.  Leaving the start/finish area again, you're now on a two-way wide trail with a slight downhill.  Then it's a sharp right turn and start of a twisty climb up Han Solo.  Han may have been killed in the movie, but his spirit is alive here.  Right at the start, I move over and motion for the guy on my heels to pass me.  We've been trading spots for a while now.  He asks me, "How do you guys run so fast on the downhills?".  I responded I'm borderline out of control on the downhills, and he retorts that the only way to beat me then is on the uphills.  Sure enough, he's soon far ahead of me on the twisty switchbacks and also overtaking the next person, who is not only the woman in the WRX that was bottoming out getting here, but more importantly, soon to be the women's overall winner.

Final downhill push:  Just over a mile to go.  I can see my competition a ways ahead of me now, and it's time to go for it.  Worst case scenario, I go down in the mud and lose more time, but I've got to at least try.  I push it hard down the final long slope.  I hit some really soft spot and struggled to stay upright, but kept going.  Somewhere near the bottom of the hill I go past him, not letting up at all, as I know the finish is on a slight uphill.  Done!

Done!  The top female finisher is just ahead of me in red.

Not surprisingly, the finish area as well was quite muddy. 

I held off my competitor by 8 seconds.  Not that he was in my age group, but it's good to have someone to push you.  We chatted for a bit, and it turns out that he used to run in Mystic, CT (one town over from me), then lived in Newport, RI, before moving to MA.

Final results:  51:43, 11th overall of 195 finishers, 3rd in age group.  Full results here.

Post-race:  changed out of the wet clothes, with a jacket on inside,
trying to get warm (it would take me a while)

Post race I caught up with Rachel, Steve, and Leslie, while waiting for awards and trying to get warm.  As with much of the rest of this race, the food was fairly unique too, and I really enjoyed the build-your-own burrito bar, cups of trail mix, and the HOT coffee until it ran out.  (OK, I probably didn't help keep the coffee going for others by drinking three cups, but it sure hit the spot on a cold and rainy day.)

The next day over Easter dinner, I was talking about the race (of course) and
explaining how I did much better on the downhills than uphills, and I was then
asked, "How did you do on the FLAT sections?"
Um ... where exactly are the flat sections?

I was technically 4th in my age group and not sure if I would get anything as the 1st place overall was also in my 50s age group.  Fortunately, this race followed the practice of most, and did not double-dip, which meant I got the 3rd place award.  Yay!  By the way, I was the 10th male overall but yet 4 out of the 10 top males were in their 50s?!  Kudos to us old guys, I guess.

Really unique and fun age group awards and giveaways!
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Left:  Age-group award:  Darth Berry Jam!  (who needs another medal?)
Right:  Race entrant give-away:  Vermont maple syrup made on the premises!  (who needs another shirt?)

I'm quite sure this was the muddiest race I've done in my life.  And I've run some pretty muddy races in my humble opinion, from running through a swamp at Old Mountain Field Trail Race (RI) to slip-sliding on steep muddy single-track in Pioneer Ridge Vertical Mile (AK).  Today's event was a very well organized, unique and challenging race, and I had such a BLAST out there!  The first race in the USATF-NE Mountain Series is done; I look forward to the rest!

Here are my race shoes ONE DAY later, AFTER I banged a lot of mud off!
(As part of a post-race e-mail sent out by the RD, it appropriately said,
"Good luck getting your shoes dried out."!)