Beacon, NY
Sunday, May 4, 2025
Background: I entered this race on March 10th, but ended up on the waitlist, as I procrastinated and the race sold out. I was 31st on the waitlist, so I wasn't overly optimistic, but three weeks before the race I got an e-mail that I was in!
Fast forward to race weekend, and Matthew and I drove up the afternoon before, had a pasta dinner on the way, and stayed in nearby Fishkill. We encountered some heavy widespread rain on the way, and it was raining when we arrived at our hotel, so we knew the trails would be wet during the race. This was still better than the original forecast of rain during the race.
Had my usual oatmeal two hours out from the race, and then a short 15 minute drive. Parking was kind of wherever you can fit a car, but fortunately there were efficient parking marshals there directing you. Checked in and went for about a 2-mile warm-up, mostly on local roads to minimize climbing pre-race.
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| Parking was tight, but it worked |
Got back with plenty of time to change into my race shoes (VJ XTRM 2), load my 5 gels into my pack, take a final Untapped maple waffle, one more pit stop, and line up for the race. Matthew and about 15 others lined up ahead of me. The RD gave out pre-race instructions, including a reminder that the course would be over a mile longer this year due to some trail construction. There are four major climbs on this 2025 course, and I'll break up the race report in that manner:
Race start and Climb #1: The RD started the race by blowing through some sort of cleaned up and modified exhaust manifold that someone found in the woods and gave to him! There was this weird kind of muffled sound, and we were off.
A 1,000' climb ensued over the next couple of miles on wet gravel/loose rock trails with some mud and puddle sections. So many runners were passing me, which wasn't a surprise given my poor uphill skills. It was pretty congested for the whole climb, and most of the runners were hugging both sides of the trail, where the footing was generally more solid. I was originally on the sides of the trail myself, but then I found so many runners would switch to walking, and then I'd have to weave around them, so I ended up staying in the middle of the trail.
All of a sudden a guy on my left ran right in front of me. I think he was trying to avoid a puddle in front of him. Sensing I was about to crash into him, I put my hands out and grabbed his shoulders. It was just instinctive, and I immediately apologized saying it was that or crash into him. He was fine with it, and said he's not very good at running through puddles, so I think he realized he kind of caused that?
It took me 30 minutes to climb the first hill. One down, three to go. Took my first of five gels, and ran the descent towards the banks of the Hudson River.
Climb #2: 4.5 miles down. The race has been relatively "easy" thus far, but that's all about to change. I ran a little bit longer and made it about 4.7 miles of continuous run, but unlike climb #1, this was much steeper and it was also single-track instead of double-track. The folks in front of me changed to a walk, and I followed suit for the full climb.
From there, the final 1/4 mile or so of the climb was just insane, at least by my standards and experience. We were out on a rock face, and it was a true scramble, and at times a struggle for me to find the next foothold or handhold in the rock where I could grab onto securely enough to pull myself up. I felt like I was going really slow and holding others up, and when we were on safe terrain, I offered to let anyone go by me, but no one took the offer. It turns out there were two ways we could have gone: the "easy way" or the "hard way", and a local told us mid-climb that we were on the "hard way". I had no idea and was just following the person in front of me.
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| Carefully climbing a rock slab section (Photo compliments of RD) |
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| On Breakneck Ridge, with Hudson River below (Professional photo purchased from Goat Factory Media) |
Eventually the terrain leveled off and we were able to run up rock slab to the top of this climb. The terrain going down was steep downhill and very technical. I had one or two people that asked to go by me, and in turn I requested the same of about one or two myself.
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| Really technical downhill! Pay attention to your footing! (Professional photo purchased from Goat Factory Media) |
The final 3/4 of the descent down to the solitary station was on a Strava segment called "Paved road down". Only it wasn't paved at all; worse - it was all cement. As I re-passed a familiar runner here, I said that I hated this cement part. I noticed he was running on the dirt / pine needles on the side to avoid the cement, and he had stronger comments than me on the subject, using an expletive to indicate how upset he was and something about of all the trails in this place, they could have found an alternative to avoid the cement.
I was glad to finally get off the cement myself, and it was just about 0.1 miles from there to the aid station. The aid station was pretty amazing to me, and had so many items, including water, soda, electrolytes, different types of cookies, boiled potatoes, gummies, and various fruit. I had several soft chocolate chip cookies, strawberries, many blueberries, and orange slices, while a volunteer refilled my pack with water. Thanked the volunteers, and off we go ...
Climb #3: This section of the course, "Bull Hill", was apparently added this year due to the trail construction and forced reroute. This was an 1,100' climb, yet this the easiest as much of it was a gravel, non-technical path. But my legs were just cooked by now, and so it was mostly a walk for me, as were just about any uphill sections for the rest of the race.
I could hear bagpipes really close to me, but could not see them. Am I hallucinating? No, I feel alert. It was less than a mile for this climb, but really a power hike, which is really a euphemism for a slow walk. After a while, we got up to a ridge, and now I could see the source of the bagpipe music: Two guys were playing the bagpipes pretty much on the edge of a cliff, with the cool bagpipe sounds filling the canyon that I just hiked up and around.
Climb #4: Final climb, and this one was "only" about 600', but I was just done at this point, the terrain was moderately technical, and there were several false peaks. One runner in this section asked me if I had a watch that tracked the distance thus far. I thought to myself, doesn't everyone? I not only told him the elapsed and remaining distance (approximate), but also the remaining elevation. He kept asking me if this was the final hill, but looking at my watch, I could see we only had 300' left of total elevation for the course, but no, these were composed of several small hills.
Finally, with just about two miles left on the course, we started the ~850' decline. Between the downhill, runnable (albeit through mud and streams), and the excitement of getting near to the finish, I was able to pick up the pace significantly and also reel in so many runners in the final two miles. It was a pretty exciting finish for me.
Final Result: 3:24:05, 58th of 271, 1st in age group Full results here
I actually felt pretty good coming across the finish line. There was a woman at the finish line lying down screaming in pain, and that reminded me of my Boston Marathon post-race state. I was actually out on the course longer today than I was at Boston, but no issues beyond soreness. I ate some more blueberries, whatever electrolyte drink they had, and then went inside where they had some barbeque tacos. They were serving pulled pork, but I asked them if they had a vegetarian option, and they did! And it was pretty good!
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| Delicious tacos made from vegetarian chili and slaw, boiled potatoes, and yet more blueberries, amongst my bib, "medal" (wood), and muddy trail shoes |
Took a large cup of blueberries to go and headed back to the car, as Matthew was there waiting. He had finished more than 40 minutes before me, and went for a cool-down run! Pretty much headed home right away, as we still had a busy rest of the day ahead of us (see below).
What went well:
- Communications leading up to the race and race day itself
- Course markings
- Race organization
- Volunteers, especially at the aid station!
- Ample porta-jons, so almost no wait at any time
- Food both at the aid station and finish
- Very challenging course!
- Scenic course
- Great photos for only $7 per shot
What could have gone better:
- Results took more than 48 hours to be posted! To be clear, the RD pre-race instructions said "Please be patient post-race. I realize in this day and age 20% of you will want to see where results are posted near immediately. We’ll try to have them up within a few days." I'm not in the 20% that need to see results for a trail race immediately, BUT end of race day at latest, please. Sure I know my own finishing time from my watch, but I'm curious how I did relative to others, especially my age group peers. We paid over $100 for entry, they had a professional timing company that used chips and the Chronotrack standard system, so I don't get it.
Other than that, great race, very challenging, and quite enjoyable! Glad I ran it.
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AC/DC at Gillette Stadium!
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| Second time seeing AC/DC in the past nine months! Last August in Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland. And today at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA |
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| Back in Black is always a crowd-pleaser. One of my favorites. |
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| Super cool when the bell lowers for Hells Bells! |
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| At age 77, I wonder if Brian Johnson (inset right) will return for another North American tour or if this is it. |
Honestly, as much as I love AC/DC, I was pretty tired at the end of a long day with a trail race in New York, drive home, and then drive to Foxborough. The sporadic rain didn't help. Having seen them just nine months ago, I could've done without the less popular songs this time and maybe without Angus' extended 25-minute guitar solo. But, the acoustics were better and clearer than they were in Dublin, we had awesome seats, and it's still awesome to see AC/DC live!
