Cockaponset State Forest
Chester, CT
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Background: I had previously contemplated running this trail race for several years now, but somehow had a conflict of sorts each time. Until this year. So this past week I contemplated harder. With no firm weekend plans other than dinner at a neighbor's house Saturday night, after I opted not to do the Wave tri the same day, I couldn't find any reasons NOT to do it, and the thought of a serious water crossing piqued my interest. Pulled the trigger Friday, and registered for an all-in price of $21.96.
To the race: It was a pretty easy drive to the race Sunday morning. Despite only being a 50-minute drive away from Westerly, I'm pretty sure I had never been to either Chester or Cockaponset State Forest, the second largest in the Constitution State. Almost all of the drive is on highways, and after exiting Route 9 in Chester, you quickly come into the forest and arrive at Pattaconk Lake, the start/finish of the race. I thought that being "so far away", I would not know a single runner today, but at registration I quickly found myself talking with Kenny Shardlow (the only other Rhode Islander), Way Hedding, Rose Buckingham, Kevin Clendennin, and Bill Bentley who prognosticated that I would be the winner today, which I scoffed at.
Pre-race: Warmed up for just over a mile and immediately had three concerns: 1) the race is on ASPHALT! Ugh, 2) there are no course markers, and 3) my calves are really, really tight. All three were unfounded, as 1) only the first 0.6 miles were on asphalt, and when I caught up with veteran trail racer Kenny, I got this cleared up, 2) true, there were no markers in the first 0.6 miles, but the turnoff to single-track (and subsequent turns) were all very well marked, and 3) fortunately the calf tightness was gone by the end of the warm-up. (Hey, moron, that's part of why you're supposed to warm up - to get the kinks out.)
We all (most of us) sang the Star Spangled Banner off-key and not in unison as we lined up on the shores of Pattaconk Lake. Following that, I listened intently to RD Charlie Iselin (veteran runner of Rhody) as he described the markings and course. It was pretty funny to me when he characterized the optional water-crossing in the 8-mile course as "not very pristine", as Chris had used those exact same words just yesterday, referencing the online race video he had seen. (As a side-note, thank you Chris for not being able to make this race.) The RD then went to say to say, in fact the water crossing is actually kind of disgusting, with deep mud and strings of algae, so feel free to take the trail around it, but be aware that the water crossing is typically about a minute quicker than the trail bypass.
The first two miles: Pete from SNERRO started the race, and across the field and then up the asphalt road we climbed. A guy in a blue singlet ("Blue Guy") kind of led us out, and then a guy in an shirt emblazoned with "Army" went by him, putting me in third for most of the road climb, which if there was silver lining to, it's that at least it was gated off from traffic. Just before the turn-off onto single-track a guy with high black socks ("Socks") bombed in front of me. Thus I entered the trails in fourth place.
I was hoping someone in the tight group of three ahead of me would show faltering signs on the trail, but no, they all seemed confident and competent running the trail hard and even jumping the occasional log that jutted out across the trail. And with rain the night before, they knew to avoid the slippery wooden bog bridges where possible. Darn, they all seemed comfortable on the trail, until ...
The technical sections! Yes!!! We hit a very short rock garden and all of a sudden the pace slowed. Well, of course it slowed, you say, we were in a rock garden. Yeah, sure, but I mean it REALLY slowed. I had to back off to avoid running into the guy in front of me and considered just bombing around the group of three ahead of me. (The fifth place guy had long ago dropped back.) I figured it was just the lead guy that was slowing so much. At about two miles we come out to (but not onto) Route 148, and then negotiate an almost 180 degree turn ...
Miles 3 to 4: ... onto asphalt again. What?!! Seriously?!! Well, I'm glad I didn't try to pass anyone yet, and I certainly wasn't passing anyone here, as the three of them went bombing down the road leaving me in the proverbial dust. Ugh. Fortunately, this asphalt section was less than 1/4 mile and we turned off onto single-track again. The next mile was a battle for me as we had a gradual but constant 200+ foot climb over about 3/4 mile, and not being technical at all and uphill not my strength, I struggled to stay within reach of the three guys ahead of me.
Fortunately, what goes up must come down. After the top of the hill, about three miles in, finally there was the first bit of jockeying. Socks (3rd place just ahead of me) went passed Blue Guy. I followed suit, although I felt badly (somewhat) that I elbowed him in the process. Socks jumped one more spot ahead into the lead, but the trail had narrowed now and Army was right on him, so I kept my position now in 3rd. Going down the hill I could no longer hear Blue Guy and sensed he dropped back. Good! And now there were three. Oh, but not so fast ...
A very short incline brought us to a rock boulder (as opposed to what other kind of boulder I don't know) that you literally had to scramble over. Sure, it was slippery, but the two guys in front of me SLOWED TO A WALK AND STOP! Oh, come on. Sure enough, Blue Guy caught up right behind me. When it was finally my turn (there was no room to go around anyone here), I went up and over, and as I did, I heard "SH*T!" behind me. I looked back to see if Blue Guy was OK. He was, it appeared he may have just slid back a bit, so see ya. At the next switchback, I glanced back and saw that he was still running, but now he was a bit behind our merry group of three again. Shortly thereafter, we came to the course split between 8-mile and 4-mile and I was surprised to see Jana there, so I gathered we were somewhere near the start/finish.
Miles 4 - 6: Alright, we're halfway through the race now, and I've had enough examples to have learned that my challengers' weakness appeared to be technical sections and to a lesser extent, downhills, so it was time to make a strategic move. As soon as we hit a slight downhill, I accelerated first past Army and then past Socks. I knew they would go with me, and then at the bottom of the hill, I got a gift! A very technical rocky section. It was the start of an appropriately named segment (see snippet below). The rocky technical section was short, but nonetheless, when I got across it, no one was with me anymore! Unfortunately, that was followed by a dirt uphill section, and I knew they were gaining on me as I could hear their breathing behind me.
As I crested the top of the hill and now started a descent, I thanked my lucky stars that they had not re-caught me, and at this point, I was starting to think that an overall win might be possible. Please have more technical sections! Please! I could occasionally hear someone a ways behind me (especially on some not so steady rocks) but it was tough to judge the distance. At one point, I thought I was being clever by avoiding a slippery looking rock and instead ran on leaves. Except that the leaves were wet and just covering more slippery rock. Down I went and banged my knee into a rock. I seemed stunned that I had fallen and paused for a moment on the ground. Get up and get going, you old fool!
At the northernmost part of the course, I was disheartened to turn onto a dirt road (Old County Road). No! I feared my chasers catching me here and thus I poured it on. Fortunately, the dirt road section was only about 2/10 of a mile long before we headed south back onto single-track, and as I did, I glanced back on the road and saw no one behind me.
Miles 6 to finish: Just two miles to go. It would be so easy to slow down a bit here with no competitors within sight or sound now, and I've committed that faux pas previously and paid for it before. I was getting tired and pushing my recent limited endurance, and just kept telling myself mentally to forge ahead, as I really wanted the win. The terrain here was not as technical as I had hoped and fairly flat as we were now following the shore of the reservoir, so I would have to look for other advantages. When we came up on a stream bed, and a bridge was just off to the right slightly out of the way, I ignored the bridge and took the shortest distance between two points. With about a mile to go, the trail went down a dry, but rock-laden river bed, and I just bombed down it, hoping this would give me some additional separation on those pursuing me. Shortly thereafter, I saw a paper plate sign on a tree indicating the water crossing required a left turn, just as the RD had described. Let the fun begin!
Now THIS was a water crossing! No pussy-footing around here, as the dirt trail ended abruptly and just dropped you off into the lake. Are you in or not? Hell yeah, I'm in!
After exiting the water, you only have about 1/4 mile to go. I was fully confident the win was mine now, but I still hammered it home.
Final results: 59:56, 1st overall! Full results here.
Ecstatic!! I ended up finishing 93 seconds ahead of the next guy, and as my competitors crossed the line, I caught up with them as we introduced ourselves. Jon, aka "Blue Guy", said he "sucked" at downhills and technical. While I didn't use that word, I just said I figured out those weren't the strengths of the group and I used it to my advantage to strategize when to make my move.
Just such a great day and race today! My first win in I believe five years (since Stavros 2014) and obviously that added to my excitement. (Correction: Jana reminded me that I won the local Sneeks for Beaks 5K this past spring, but it's still a rarity and today's race I had to run smarter and harder to win.) My winning time would have put me in 4th place in the previous year's results, but I have no idea if the course was less slippery then or if I would have gone out with those leaders, etc. You play the hand you're given, or as Muddy often says, you race who shows up.
Besides the win, this was just a fantastic low-key race, very well marked, and with cool and unique awards. And then there's the water crossing. OMG! The pictures don't do it justice. That was just such an incredible blast! Who knows what September of next year will bring, but I'd certainly love to run this race again!
Chester, CT
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Background: I had previously contemplated running this trail race for several years now, but somehow had a conflict of sorts each time. Until this year. So this past week I contemplated harder. With no firm weekend plans other than dinner at a neighbor's house Saturday night, after I opted not to do the Wave tri the same day, I couldn't find any reasons NOT to do it, and the thought of a serious water crossing piqued my interest. Pulled the trigger Friday, and registered for an all-in price of $21.96.
To the race: It was a pretty easy drive to the race Sunday morning. Despite only being a 50-minute drive away from Westerly, I'm pretty sure I had never been to either Chester or Cockaponset State Forest, the second largest in the Constitution State. Almost all of the drive is on highways, and after exiting Route 9 in Chester, you quickly come into the forest and arrive at Pattaconk Lake, the start/finish of the race. I thought that being "so far away", I would not know a single runner today, but at registration I quickly found myself talking with Kenny Shardlow (the only other Rhode Islander), Way Hedding, Rose Buckingham, Kevin Clendennin, and Bill Bentley who prognosticated that I would be the winner today, which I scoffed at.
Pre-race: Warmed up for just over a mile and immediately had three concerns: 1) the race is on ASPHALT! Ugh, 2) there are no course markers, and 3) my calves are really, really tight. All three were unfounded, as 1) only the first 0.6 miles were on asphalt, and when I caught up with veteran trail racer Kenny, I got this cleared up, 2) true, there were no markers in the first 0.6 miles, but the turnoff to single-track (and subsequent turns) were all very well marked, and 3) fortunately the calf tightness was gone by the end of the warm-up. (Hey, moron, that's part of why you're supposed to warm up - to get the kinks out.)
We all (most of us) sang the Star Spangled Banner off-key and not in unison as we lined up on the shores of Pattaconk Lake. Following that, I listened intently to RD Charlie Iselin (veteran runner of Rhody) as he described the markings and course. It was pretty funny to me when he characterized the optional water-crossing in the 8-mile course as "not very pristine", as Chris had used those exact same words just yesterday, referencing the online race video he had seen. (As a side-note, thank you Chris for not being able to make this race.) The RD then went to say to say, in fact the water crossing is actually kind of disgusting, with deep mud and strings of algae, so feel free to take the trail around it, but be aware that the water crossing is typically about a minute quicker than the trail bypass.
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| Pete from SNERRO (left) and RD Charlie (right) facing runners and giving some great pre-race info. (Pics from Jana, unless otherwise noted) |
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| I'm pretty much dead in the middle. |
The first two miles: Pete from SNERRO started the race, and across the field and then up the asphalt road we climbed. A guy in a blue singlet ("Blue Guy") kind of led us out, and then a guy in an shirt emblazoned with "Army" went by him, putting me in third for most of the road climb, which if there was silver lining to, it's that at least it was gated off from traffic. Just before the turn-off onto single-track a guy with high black socks ("Socks") bombed in front of me. Thus I entered the trails in fourth place.
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| Me in bib #482 |
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| Army, then Blue Guy, then me (the runners in yellow bibs were running the shorter 4-mile course and would quickly drop off) |
I was hoping someone in the tight group of three ahead of me would show faltering signs on the trail, but no, they all seemed confident and competent running the trail hard and even jumping the occasional log that jutted out across the trail. And with rain the night before, they knew to avoid the slippery wooden bog bridges where possible. Darn, they all seemed comfortable on the trail, until ...
The technical sections! Yes!!! We hit a very short rock garden and all of a sudden the pace slowed. Well, of course it slowed, you say, we were in a rock garden. Yeah, sure, but I mean it REALLY slowed. I had to back off to avoid running into the guy in front of me and considered just bombing around the group of three ahead of me. (The fifth place guy had long ago dropped back.) I figured it was just the lead guy that was slowing so much. At about two miles we come out to (but not onto) Route 148, and then negotiate an almost 180 degree turn ...
Miles 3 to 4: ... onto asphalt again. What?!! Seriously?!! Well, I'm glad I didn't try to pass anyone yet, and I certainly wasn't passing anyone here, as the three of them went bombing down the road leaving me in the proverbial dust. Ugh. Fortunately, this asphalt section was less than 1/4 mile and we turned off onto single-track again. The next mile was a battle for me as we had a gradual but constant 200+ foot climb over about 3/4 mile, and not being technical at all and uphill not my strength, I struggled to stay within reach of the three guys ahead of me.
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| State Forest Road was only the first 1/4 mile of this segment, and then uphill on single-track. |
Fortunately, what goes up must come down. After the top of the hill, about three miles in, finally there was the first bit of jockeying. Socks (3rd place just ahead of me) went passed Blue Guy. I followed suit, although I felt badly (somewhat) that I elbowed him in the process. Socks jumped one more spot ahead into the lead, but the trail had narrowed now and Army was right on him, so I kept my position now in 3rd. Going down the hill I could no longer hear Blue Guy and sensed he dropped back. Good! And now there were three. Oh, but not so fast ...
A very short incline brought us to a rock boulder (as opposed to what other kind of boulder I don't know) that you literally had to scramble over. Sure, it was slippery, but the two guys in front of me SLOWED TO A WALK AND STOP! Oh, come on. Sure enough, Blue Guy caught up right behind me. When it was finally my turn (there was no room to go around anyone here), I went up and over, and as I did, I heard "SH*T!" behind me. I looked back to see if Blue Guy was OK. He was, it appeared he may have just slid back a bit, so see ya. At the next switchback, I glanced back and saw that he was still running, but now he was a bit behind our merry group of three again. Shortly thereafter, we came to the course split between 8-mile and 4-mile and I was surprised to see Jana there, so I gathered we were somewhere near the start/finish.
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| In 3rd place, behind "Army", at the halfway mark. |
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| In 3rd place, at the split / water stop, going back into the woods. |
Miles 4 - 6: Alright, we're halfway through the race now, and I've had enough examples to have learned that my challengers' weakness appeared to be technical sections and to a lesser extent, downhills, so it was time to make a strategic move. As soon as we hit a slight downhill, I accelerated first past Army and then past Socks. I knew they would go with me, and then at the bottom of the hill, I got a gift! A very technical rocky section. It was the start of an appropriately named segment (see snippet below). The rocky technical section was short, but nonetheless, when I got across it, no one was with me anymore! Unfortunately, that was followed by a dirt uphill section, and I knew they were gaining on me as I could hear their breathing behind me.
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| Very appropriately named segment! And only 7 seconds off the CR! That means I have to go back next year, right? |
As I crested the top of the hill and now started a descent, I thanked my lucky stars that they had not re-caught me, and at this point, I was starting to think that an overall win might be possible. Please have more technical sections! Please! I could occasionally hear someone a ways behind me (especially on some not so steady rocks) but it was tough to judge the distance. At one point, I thought I was being clever by avoiding a slippery looking rock and instead ran on leaves. Except that the leaves were wet and just covering more slippery rock. Down I went and banged my knee into a rock. I seemed stunned that I had fallen and paused for a moment on the ground. Get up and get going, you old fool!
At the northernmost part of the course, I was disheartened to turn onto a dirt road (Old County Road). No! I feared my chasers catching me here and thus I poured it on. Fortunately, the dirt road section was only about 2/10 of a mile long before we headed south back onto single-track, and as I did, I glanced back on the road and saw no one behind me.
Miles 6 to finish: Just two miles to go. It would be so easy to slow down a bit here with no competitors within sight or sound now, and I've committed that faux pas previously and paid for it before. I was getting tired and pushing my recent limited endurance, and just kept telling myself mentally to forge ahead, as I really wanted the win. The terrain here was not as technical as I had hoped and fairly flat as we were now following the shore of the reservoir, so I would have to look for other advantages. When we came up on a stream bed, and a bridge was just off to the right slightly out of the way, I ignored the bridge and took the shortest distance between two points. With about a mile to go, the trail went down a dry, but rock-laden river bed, and I just bombed down it, hoping this would give me some additional separation on those pursuing me. Shortly thereafter, I saw a paper plate sign on a tree indicating the water crossing required a left turn, just as the RD had described. Let the fun begin!
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| Part of the reason I chose this race was BECAUSE of the water crossing! Now leading the race and armed with the RD advice that the water crossing was about a minute quicker, there was just no way I would risk the W by taking the boring and slower route. |
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| Check out above Strava comment from 2017 race. Oh man, what a price to pay indeed! |
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| And here's the infamous water crossing. You come in from the top of the picture, immediately drop into several feet of water, follow the rope and exit at bottom of picture. |
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| Not sure on best technique for water crossing. I tried grabbing the rope and used this to pull me along, but it's slow due to depth of water at chest high (above). |
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| I also tried swimming (yellow arrow above in video still) |
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| And finally, once the water was shallower than waist-deep, close to the water exit, I could kind of run again. |
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| Except that I was fairly unbalanced, as there are uneven rocks under the water. |
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| Final trail home to the finish. Easy terrain. |
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| First across the finish line!! Pete, race official from SNERRO, announces me as I go past. (from Trails for the Cure FB post) |
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| Point in time results. 46 finishers total in 8-mile, plus another 41 in 4-mile race, the latter of whom were all behind me at halfway course split. The only sub 1-hour finisher in long course. Barely! |
Ecstatic!! I ended up finishing 93 seconds ahead of the next guy, and as my competitors crossed the line, I caught up with them as we introduced ourselves. Jon, aka "Blue Guy", said he "sucked" at downhills and technical. While I didn't use that word, I just said I figured out those weren't the strengths of the group and I used it to my advantage to strategize when to make my move.
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| While the water in the water crossing might not have been pristine, the water behind me certainly was, and that's where I headed next and dove right into. |
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| Runners were treated to wood fired pizza from a portable pizza oven ... |
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| ... where each participant was given a 1/2 pizza (4 slices) of a variety of their choice. (Mine here was margherita.) |
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| My award was a "pink popcorn" plant. (from race FB post) |
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| I actually had my choice of a plant or a homemade bread, and as the plants were soon exhausted but there were a few loaves of bread left over at end of awards ceremony, Jana scrambled and scored both a zucchini AND a pumpkin bread! They're both delicious! |
Besides the win, this was just a fantastic low-key race, very well marked, and with cool and unique awards. And then there's the water crossing. OMG! The pictures don't do it justice. That was just such an incredible blast! Who knows what September of next year will bring, but I'd certainly love to run this race again!
This looks super fun! I might consider actually "racing" it next year!
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