Waterville Valley, NH
Sunday, September 29, 2019
After-effects: As I write this 2 1/2 days after the event, the aftereffects are still with me, as my legs are very sore. It's mostly in the quads, but the calves are talking to me as well, especially when I walk up or down stairs. There is zero pain, so I know I'll come out of this just fine. While there's certainly an element that I'm a bit out of running shape, there is also the realization that this was just a very tough race! And now, a flashback to the race itself...
Background: This was the eighth and final race of the 2019 USATF New England Mountain Circuit. You need to run six out of eight to earn your Mountain Goat status (which comes with bragging rights, a special tech shirt, and guaranteed entry to 2020 Mt Washington). So I was in for this race from the get-go, and figured the only two I would miss would be road races. Since the price first went up way back in February, and I have Scottish blood, I signed up way back then to save a buck (or twenty, actually).
Race day: With the women's race starting at 8:30am and the men's at 10am, I was concerned that we would be handicapped by warm weather. Not the case. While it was a beautiful sunny day, it was a very comfortable 61 degrees at start. After checking in, we had plenty of time for both a warm-up and watching the leaders of the women's race finish. I had studied both the course maps as well as Leslie O'Dell's Strava preview, but in retrospect, still seemed woefully unprepared for this race.
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| Several major climbs and 3,000' of vertical overall awaited me. |
Race start to 1.5 - rolling hills: Kudos to the race organizers for starting the race orderly and punctually. The first 1/4 mile or so was the usual chaotic settling and I was jammed in for a little while. After that, no more bunching issues for the rest of the race.
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| Mass start. Joe Gray from CO, eventual winner, on far right. In fact, 8 out of the top 10 mens' finishers hailed from outside New England. |
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| In green singlet, making my way up. |
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| Not a lot of room to maneuver early on. |
A half-mile in, I felt like everyone was passing me here (uphill). Maine Jeff Walker went by me here as well, and we traded positions again on the next downhill and uphill. After a brief uphill climb on service roads, we had a short but sharp downhill back to the start again, before starting the "Tommy's World Cup Run" ascent. Michael Narcisi went past me here as well; surprised he was still behind me.
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| 1/2 mile in, it's thinned out nicely. |
After this short climb, we had a 300' drop on tall grass ski slopes, and with the legs still fresh, I was really able to bomb down here and pass scads of runners.
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| Bombing the downhills, about middle of picture, to right of two guys, with Maine Jeff Walker behind me. |
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| About to pass this whole section of runners. |
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| Ragged edge of control as I go past them all |
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| The guy behind me will trade positions with me multiple times, but I think I beat him. Two back is Maine Jeff Walker, and three back is the eventual 3rd place winner in my age group. |
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| Downhill over, and now well ahead of the competitors I just bombed past. About to start another uphill climb, where unfortunately a number I just went by will retake me. |
Miles 1.5 to 5 - long climbs: Another climb up a ski slope. I gave words of encouragement to Maine Jeff Walker as he passed me uphill (again) and for the last time. The course turned off the ski slope and onto a very pleasant section of single-track through the trees (or glades in ski parlance). It was uphill, but not steep, and I was really enjoying this. Coming out of the woods we were deposited onto a service road dropping 400' for about 1/2 mile. Again, I picked off many competitors here, including retaking Michael Narcisi.
The next two miles included up Governor's Run and black-diamond ski trails Oblivion-True Grit-Hassle to the 3,840' peak of Mt Tecumseh. This featured about a 1,700' gain and a fair amount of hiking. There was a short 2-way section separated only by rope or caution tape, and you could see of the lead runners going by and cautiously running on the downhill rock scree.
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| Coming up the Governor's Run trail. Beautiful views behind me. |
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| I'm getting tired now, but I think at this point, my form is still better than my competitor behind me. |
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| Yep. |
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| The final ascent. |
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| My form and energy are both totally gone now. It's almost completely a hike for me now to the summit. |
Miles 5 to finish - 2,000' drop! We circled around some ski buildings at the summit, and finally, downhill. This should be great and work to my total advantage. Only by now my legs turned into jelly. Or jello. Or rubber. Take the analogy that works for you, but it's that feeling after a long day or skiing, especially moguls or glades, when your legs just get floppy and you don't have as much control over them as you'd like. A 2,000' drop is a lot and there are plenty of sections that are just way too steep for me to just run out. I did pass a lot of people, but not the way I was passing runners earlier on, as many times it just felt like my legs were going to collapse and I had to back off quite a bit.
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| I'm feeling pretty weak on the final long, 2-mile, 2000' descent. I should be loving this, but I repeatedly feel like my legs are about to collapse from under me. |
With only about 1/4 mile to go, I hit the smallest of berms and was quite sure I felt my legs buckling underneath me and I was about to go down. I was way off balance, but somehow righted myself, and when one I guy had been dueling with suddenly darted by me just before the finish line, I had no response to give.
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| Coming into the finish on very wobbly legs. Not exactly a picture of stability. |
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| ... and we're done. |
Final results: 1:15:32. 65th overall. 4th in age group. Full results here.
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| The two Jeff Walkers, post race (Pic by Leslie O'Dell) |
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| Very proud to have earned Mountain Goat status, by running 6 of the 8 races above. This shirt is part of my award, in addition to bragging rights, and automatic entry into Mount Washington next year. |
Post-race, Steve Brightman asked me if I would run the series again next year. My initial thought is probably not. Some races I loved, some not so much, there are a lot of logistics (time, overnight hotel, etc) to get to some of these races and I'd like to try other trail races as well. He pointed out that running it a second year would be a good comparison against baseline and an opportunity to improve. Well, that is true. Not ruling it out.
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| My own personal take on the series races that I ran this year. |
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