Bimbler's Bluff 50K!

Guilford, CT
Sunday, October 23, 2017

Background:  I have had an ultra in my sights for the past few years.  Wrote it down formally as a 2017 goal back in January.  It's easy to have a lofty goal; it's executing on it that requires just a tad more work and commitment.  Feeling good with my running over the summer and into the fall, I took the next step of running a "Bimbler's Bite" in late September.  This was a 15-mile group run preview of the toughest part of the course, and while it was tough, it was the confidence I needed to go ahead and register.

Pre-race:  I had spent the evening before re-reading Crutch's and Seth's prior year race reports; both were helpful in painting a picture of the race and potential pitfalls. Given a race start of 8am and an hour ride to Guilford, CT, I left the house in the dark at 6am.  I was a bundle of nerves as I pulled into the parking lot at Guilford Lakes Elementary School, the start and finish of the race.  At the time, it was 53 degrees.  As I walked from my car to registration, I heard my name called out.  Turning, I saw it was Rob Buttermore calling me from his vehicle.  I went over to talk to him and this definitely had a calming effect.  After checking in, I retreated back to the car to decide on final garb (short shorts and a singlet), affix bib, and fill up my CamelBak.  Not wanting to make it too heavy, I opted for 24 ounces of Gatorade, and put 6 GU packets into one of the pockets.  Good to go.  On to the start line, where I spent time catching up with additional familiar faces:  Stan Mickus, Kenny Shardlow, Crutch, Eric Winn, and Molly (a fast NH runner that I had met at the Bimbler's Bite a few weeks back).

With Stan, just before race
start, at national anthem.

The stick - going up:  I suppose I should start out explaining what is meant by the "stick":

Lollipop course:  Starting at the bottom of this pic,
you make your way up the stick (~ 9 miles), before running the
lollipop head CW (~14 miles), and then making your way
back down the stick to the finish (~9 miles).
Each blue pin represents an aid station.

The race started immediately after the national anthem, and we first ran around a small school field to help spread out before entering single-track across the street.  I heeded advice that you want to get out to the single-track fast to avoid being stuck in a jam of runners, but I overdid it going out fast.  Rob went out in 2nd and I hung just behind him for the first half-mile or so, before I pulled ahead of him.  It felt odd and wrong to be in 2nd place, but that didn't last long, and when a runner went past me quickly about a mile in, I somehow felt relieved.

The course was well marked at all intersections ...

... and orange streamers as "confidence markers" were
very much appreciated, especially as no one was near for
the vast majority of the race.
(Note all pics in this post are from Bimbler FB page,
except the three up-close pics of me, which I
purchased from the race photographer.)

At about Mile 3, someone came right up behind me and stayed on my shoulder.  The trail opened up to double-track and eventually my competitor came up next to me for a while.  His name was Chris, from NH, had a similar running experience of going from road marathons gradually into trails, but he had already run a 50-miler and had his sights on a 100-miler.  Chris and I ran and talked for the next few miles until he started to pull away about Mile 7 and I made the decision to let him go and he was quickly out of sight.  Being my first 50K, I really had no idea how to pace.  I knew I could I run faster than this, but took it conservative with fears of crashing later in the race.

Crossing Route 80 about 3 mile in,
with Chris in tow

Lollipop:  I was really happy to reach the base of the lollipop, and start on this section.  I knew it would be the toughest section, but mentally it allowed me to also check off that I was done with the stick upward section.  Once I hit the lollipop, the double-track was done, and twisty, hilly single-track began pretty much immediately.  After meandering up, down, and around rock piles, we cross Route 77 and enter the Mile 10 Bluffs Head aid station.  I'm reminded that I'm in 4th place, and I can hear the cowbells ringing signaling that the 5th place runner is coming in behind me now, so I down a drink, grab a couple of chocolate chip cookies, and saunter off to begin my climb.

Coming into the Mile 10 aid station

Mile 10:  Mix of snack food and drink

Mile 11 is a 400' climb up Bluff's Head with some loose, rocky scree.  I run as long as I comfortably can, but then find myself power-hiking two of the steeper sections.  You spend about three miles running at the top of the bluff, before you start some steep descents.  After descending off the Bluff at about Mile 14 and onto the Lone Pine Trail, I see another runner up ahead.  It's Chris (the guy I ran with miles 3-6) coming back to me!  As I get closer, I hear "Is that Jeff?", and as I go past him, I heard off some words of encouragement.  Shortly after this, I run into a couple of hikers with a map and ask if I can help.  (Obviously they have no idea I'm in the middle of a race.)  I apologized, saying that I was from out of state and didn't know the area.  (I wouldn't have stopped and jeopardized my race anyway, but hopefully my version sounded kinder.)

It's easy to get distracted while running on top of the bluff,
with distant valley views

Next, I head into the aid station "Braeburn" at Mile 16, re-crossing Route 77.  At this aid station, I stop a little longer and take off and hand over my CamelBak to a kind volunteer that refills it for me, while I scarf down some Fig Newtons.  I guestimate that I was stopped for a full 90 seconds, yet I must have put distance on Chris, as I left the aid station before he came in.

A runner leaving the Mile 16 aid station

Leaving the Mile 16 aid station, other than an immediate climb, the next few miles of terrain are much easier.  At exit 18, we exit onto a dirt road for a while.  There are several people out walking, some with leashed dogs, none making any effort to get out of my way, and all who seem oblivious that there is a race going on.  We exit the dirt road for single-track, and a hiker coming my way asks me how to get to "the pond".  I guess I can't blame him if he has no idea I'm in a race (isn't the bib a clue?), but I just remember my patience getting rather thin about now.

At Mile 21, I can see the pond/marsh that we circumnavigate, and from my training run, it reminds me that I'm getting close to the Renee's Way aid station at Mile 22.  There are many home-made signs along the trail as we get close, everything from "You're approaching the best aid station in the world!" to good luck to so and so.  I remember Renee's Way aid station well.  The volunteers were very upbeat and shouted "there's a runner coming!".    One woman offered me soup.  Soup!  Yes, I like soup, but how does one eat soup on the run?  I politely decline, saying the temperature is too hot for me already (it was getting very warm by now).  Another volunteer asked me at least to try one of their famous pickles, which I also declined, saying I didn't want to try anything different mid-race.  I was probably at this aid station for less than 30 seconds, as I grabbed a single cookie, a cup of water, thanked the volunteers and got to keep moving.  I felt really good through here, like I could easily run another 10 miles.  Little did I know ...

Mile 22:  Yes, despite temps in the 70s, there really was soup served.
Appreciative of all the volunteers and offerings, but soup didn't fit for me.

The cheery aid station volunteers and various offerings.

After Renee's Way aid station, it was only another mile back to the end of the lollipop and the return to the top of the "stick".  There was one guy, not in the race, running towards me on the trail, saying I was looking good and in 3rd place.  I had forgotten that this mile was technical and that a number of rock gardens awaited me. 

The stick - return to finish:  I rejoiced as I started my way back down the stick.  It was a net downhill and a "mere" 9 miles to the finish now.  Unfortunately, I was now having a full bladder issue with a "sloshing" feeling in my stomach.  I sucked it up for another couple of miles, but it was getting really uncomfortable, so at about Mile 25, I just stopped on the side of the trail.  If felt so good to pee (is that weird?  is that TMI?), but there was a cost to pay.  After stopping this time, it was just so hard for me to get going.  I felt like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz; the legs just did not want to move.   For the next few miles, on terrain that I had been running 8-minute pace on the way up, I was now running 10 minute pace.  By Mile 27, I was completely ready to be done.  Why couldn't this "just" be a marathon?  My pace continued to slow, and while I'm proud that other than the steepest sections of Bluff Head climb, I had run everything up until now, I found that on two hills of a mere 50-80' climb, I lacked the energy/motivation to do anything but walk the hills.

There was a lot of creaking and groaning coming from my legs,
but not much forward inertia.

One more problem:  it's very warm by now (thankfully I opted for the singlet!), I'm feeling dehydrated, and my CamelBak is almost dry.  WHERE THE HELL IS THAT AID STATION?!!  At Mile 29, I sense a person coming right up on me.  My slowing and walking had cost me and the wolves are now upon me.  My watch shows 29.7 miles as the final aid station comes into sight.  I stop and see that it's Molly that has caught me.  Wow, is she strong!  (She will later tell me that she felt bad for me at the final aid station, as she said I didn't look good.)  There are only 2 miles left, and I know that I should just continue, but I'm out of water and parched, and I ask the volunteers to fill just 1/4 of my hydration pack and I grab a brownie (yes, a brownie!) and wave Molly on.  She says she'll see me in a few minutes.

Mile 29:  Costumed aid station volunteers.  Thanks for the much needed pack refill!

Fun aid station!

With my pack partially filled with water, I saunter on.  I'm just kind of shuffling my feet along, probably nearly scuffing them on the ground.  Until I trip on a rock and fall.  I get up and get going ... into a ROCK GARDEN!  This was acceptable even as late as mile 23, but NOT at Mile 31!  This is just cruel!  It's a real effort for me to pick my feet up and over the rocks.   I can hear traffic on a road and know we're getting really close.  I can also hear someone behind me now, and although I have next to nothing left, I hobble faster, get across the finish line, and hold off my next pursuer by 17 seconds.  FINISHED!!!  50K in the bag!

A sight for sore eyes!

Final results:  4th overall of 134 finishers on the day (10 would either drop out or be pulled from the course for not making time cutoffs).  1st in age group.  Full results here.

Post-race:  There was a cadre of volunteers at the finish line, but in particular Michelle was like an angel to me.  With only three finishers ahead of me, I got some focused attention (unsolicited but very much appreciated!).  I must not have looked good, as she came right over and took my arm to keep walking as we made a couple laps under the shaded canopy (it was direct sun and about 74 degrees now).  The cold water she served me tasted like nectar of the gods, and the chocolate milk was heavenly and restorative.  I followed that up with a slice of cheese pizza and an apple, before finally taking off my shoes and socks and plopping in a chair that she had set up.  I hung around for about 45 minutes total, alternating between standing, sitting, and lying down.  When I was finally leaving, she picked up all my stuff, even my filthy shoes and socks, and brought them over to my car and put them inside!  She said she was a veteran race volunteer (which I can believe!) and her husband was still out in the race.

A hat and glass for finishing,
and an apple pie for winning my age group!

I said good-bye to my new NH competitors Molly and Chris, who finished two minutes ahead of and behind me, respectively, Rob Buttermore, and Kenny Shardlow who had just finished his 6th Bimblers 50K.  I would have liked to have seen Stan and Crutch come in, but was feeling uncomfortable, and felt good enough to drive now.  A very sore and mildly painful afternoon followed, but I basked in the delight of finishing my first 50K race and placing well on top of it all.

Weekly Log 23-Oct to 29-Oct-2017: Recovery Week

Post Bimblers-Bluff week.

Monday:  4
Wanted to get into WHS XC trails to check out conditions prior to a Westerly - Stonington non-league XC meet.  One small tree down that will need a chainsaw.
Very, very slow running the day after the 50K.

Tuesday:  0
Had originally planned to get in a few miles part of setting up and taking down the course markers.  With the meet cancelled due to impending rain and the legs still sore, opted for a run-free day.

Wednesday:  5
Needham, MA.  Slogged out 5 rainy miles on roads.  Legs have a ways to go to recovery.

Thursday:  0
Give the legs another day.

Friday:  4
Wahaneeta Preserve, late afternoon after work.  I had no sooner gotten started, when crossing my first bridge (near field/pond/dam), I broke right threw one of the bridge boards and went down hard, twisting my ankle in the process.  Ugh!
Just lay there for a while, before I got up and fortunately was able to resume my run.  Fished the broken board parts out of the stream below, and later e-mailed the Westerly Land Trust about the incident and offered to help, but they thanked me for the heads-up and said they'd be out this weekend to repair.
Mid-run I ran into Beth and Gus, which was a much more pleasant encounter than my encounter with the bridge!

Saturday:  7
The most successful leg test yet!  7 miles at Canonchet Preserve with Jonathan and Muddy.  This was my first foray into the property.  Much is blazed, but still not always the easiest to follow.  Some areas fairly technical jumping over rocks and logs, other areas had nice features of boulders, streams, and remains of stone cellars.  Thanks to Jonathan for putting this one together.

Saturday afternoon we spent the afternoon up at Ponagansett (Glocester, RI) watching the 2017 Class B RI High School XC Meet.  For the boys' run, you'd think I was personally running it based on my nervous excitement both before and during the race.  I'll defer to Matthew's write-up for his more in-depth and no doubt more accurate description, but it's a very spectator-friendly course where I saw him go by six times, so I'll chime in briefly with my vicarious running of the course:  After the dust settled, and pretty much for the vast majority of the race from my vantage point, Matthew was in 2nd place, trailing the Classical High School leader by anywhere from 5 to 30 meters.  When we saw him re-emerge from the Covered Bridge Trail onto the fields for the final time, my Mom saw him in the lead before I did, and it was just an ecstatic moment from there on as he increased his lead to the finish.  16:05.  2017 RI Southern Division Champ, and now the 2017 RI Class B Champ as well!  Awesome!  RI State Championships next week, followed by New England Championships.

A great day for Matthew and the Westerly team!

3-minute post race interview with Matthew

Sunday:  6
Finally everything aligned for me to get in a run with Tommy.  It had been a few weeks.  Ran through Woody CCW to mix it up, and had a good time catching up on everything from Haley's swim lessons, Matthew's races, Bimblers, and spring marathon plans.  Pretty much recovered.

Weekly Mileage:  27

Weekly Synopsis:  Lowest mileage week since June 2016.  That's OK, though.  This was a recovery week that took a little longer than I had expected, and with a few ups and downs.  I'm happy to have completed my first 50K trail race, and a recovery week was very much in order.  Now, onwards and upwards.

Weekly Log 16-Oct to 22-Oct-2017: From Wisconsin to Bimblers

Monday:  10
AM:  6 miles at University of Wisconsin, main campus in Madison.  Beautiful campus.  A mix of paved bike path and dirt trails.

Early morning crew team out at sunrise on Lake Mendota

Nice building architecture at the University of Wisconsin

Trail's end at Picnic Point

Separate trails for runners and cyclists

PM:  4 miles on University of Wisconsin cross-country course, a few miles from downtown.

Manicured, well-signed XC course.  Site of 2018 national collegiate championships.

Tuesday:  6
Back to Rhody after being away five days.  Ran Vinny, Sammy, and Lenny trails at Burlingame.  Pushed Sammy C's hard and took 2nd position on the segment, 20 seconds behind Jonny.  (Editor's note:  that was before Jonny came back to crush his CR further and Muddy jumped in to take 2nd.)

Wednesday:  6
Hale Reservation, Westwood, MA.  Got myself temporarily lost.  Slow and easy ahead of Sunday's epic race.

Thursday:  5
Barn Island mid-day run.  Slow and easy.

Friday:  0
Planned day off tapering into Sunday.

Saturday:  5
Flat, easy run at Ninigret.

Sunday:  32
Completed my first 50K!  Awesome and brutal at the same time.  Write-up coming shortly.

Weekly mileage:  63.  Just edged out Jonny for first on the club mileage leaderboard.

Weekly synopsis:  Thrilled to complete the 50K!  Cross one off the bucket list.

Weekly highlight:  See above!  2nd place to running for the first time ever in Wisconsin,

Weekly Log 9-Oct to 15-Oct-2017: Rambling Travels

Monday:  7
Mid-day Columbus Day Burlingame trail run with Matthew.

Tuesday:  5
Local roads.

Wednesday:  7
Tommy was looking for a morning run, and was amenable to trails, so we went to Burlingame.  I both underestimated how late sunrise is now, plus didn't realize Tommy had never run trails in the dark, so it made for an interesting experience.  All went well, and finally it did get light.

Thursday:  9
Honeymoon Island State Park, Dunedin, FL.  Arrived mid-day on a direct flight from Providence to Tampa for just $39!!  New no-frills airline Frontier made it an easy decision to go down for Mark's Friends & Family Weekend at University of South Florida.

Yikes!

Osprey!

I actually wouldn't visit Mark until Friday, and I had the afternoon free before visiting a high school friend, so I researched someplace different and found this island park to run in.  I avoided direct sun by running wooded trails, but the downside was that any time I stopped for just a second to gauge direction, tiny insects would eat me alive and draw blood.  Ended up running more on the beach where it was hot and sunny, but insect free.

Miles of deserted beach

Home to plenty of birds we don't have in RI

Friday:  5
Lettuce Lake State Park, Tampa.  Interesting mix of paved trails, dirt trails, and wooden boardwalk, the latter despite signs indicating "NO jogging".  I played dumb and was glad I got out there, as I saw a gator just off the boardwalk.  Rain kept the run from getting too hot on yet another day in the upper 80s.

Friday afternoon run site

Fun running on the boardwalk

Check out this guy!



Post-run, went to visit with Mark and embarrass him
(I'm pretty sure he's thinking "I wish my dorky Dad stayed home")

Late afternoon kayak with Mark. Saw many alligators.

Saturday:  15
AM:  6 miles.  A mix of trails and roads near USF, but I underestimated the amount of road section and it left me too little time to explore on the trails.  Interesting flora.

Saturday's trail run.  We don't have this kind of vegetation
back home.

After running, met up with Mark for a morning at the ropes course.  This was part of the Family & Friends Weekend.  Had a fun time on the course, and despite my trepidation on the zipline, for me it was just stepping off the platform and after that I was fine.  I had thought we were going to lunch after that, but he said he had plans with his friends.  I had actually thought to lash out with something like "I paid good money to come down here to visit you", but that would leave the thus-far very good weekend on a sour note, and I totally get that a gregarious 19-year old would rather hang with his friends than his old man, so it's all good.  He did spend the better part of 24 hours with me, and he'll be coming home next month for Thanksgiving.

Isn't this guy a beauty?!  So happy to see him right near the base of the ropes course.
(I'd say this was for Mikey, but don't think he reads blogs anymore.)

Ropes course fun!

Here's Mark, still half-asleep, or
looking kind of glum ...



... and a picture he posted on social media,

later that day with his friends.  The mood looks a little different.

(I think he's missing his old man in this pic.)

PM:  9 miles.  I had one final afternoon to myself in Florida, and I intended to make the most of it.  Drove to Fort Desoto Park, in Tierra Verde just south of St Petersburg, and totally enjoyed myself exploring the island.  Was concerned about the 91 degree temperature, but two rain showers and an ensuing island breeze cooled things down at least a little bit.

Pelicans!

This pic and the next remind me of the one trip I made decades ago to Saipan.

Fort Desoto.  Built to defend in the Spanish American War, but never saw action.
Unlike some of the forts in RI, this one you can actually walk into the underground bunkers.

More miles of deserted beaches.
The amorous couple that I interrupted did not seem happy to see me.

Cactus!  Didn't even know they existed in Florida.
A local man told me these are Prickly Pear Cactuses
(or do you prefer "cacti"?)

Sunday:  8
Rock Cut State Park, largest park in northern Illinois.  From Florida to Illinois.  Go figure.  It was actually a handoff from one son who loves the heat (Mark) to the other who is more cold-blooded (Matthew).  After flying in the night before in scary thunderstorms, I picked up Matthew at O'Hare en route to visiting the University of Wisconsin, where the head XC coach would be waiting for him Monday morning.
A good half-way point seemed to be the Rock Cut State Park, and it worked out great.  A little bit of park roads, but mostly dirt trails and grass comprised our run today.  Running around the lake was rather scenic.

CCW trail run around Pierce Lake

Herons and pelicans have been replaced with Canadian geese

Weekly mileage:  57

Weekly synopsis:  Fun, but tiring week.  Had fun running in Florida despite the heat, and still got in a good mileage week as well.

Weekly highlight:  Exploring Fort Desoto Park.

Pumpkins 2017

Westerly, RI
Saturday, October 7, 2017

Background:  One of my favorite races of the year had arrived!  This was the 15th running of the Run for the Pumpkins, but only the 3rd installment on trails.  In 2003, the Town of Westerly Recreation Department started this run on local roads starting and ending at Cimalore Field.  Not being in the "running business", and with 5K road races in October being rather ubiquitous, the race numbers seldom got north of 40 or 50.  When a record low entrants of 17 was recorded, the Town approached the WTAC and asked if we could co-host the race and manage logistics.

These flags are shown before we cleared the new 1/3 mile Pumpkins Connector
trail, but nonetheless you can see the terrain is fairly hilly with some rugged features.

The race entrants did increase, but only topped 100 once we switched it up completely by moving it to new trails at Bradford Preserve.  With town permission, we cleared a number of overgrown trails and also created new trails, including a connector to Bradford Preserve field and another connector to Woody Hill Management Area.  Each successive year I feel the need to make some tweak.  Last year, it was building a very short connector trail to bypass a loose gravel and rock sketchy downhill, and this year it was building a 1/3 mile twisty connector trail to combine the XC course and Pumpkins 5K course and make an optional 8K.

Race day:  Showed up at 7:30am (2 1/2 hours before race start) and met up with partners in crime Muddy, Jonny, and Mikey.  We came armed with 800 flags (yes, 800!), about 25 directional signs, and Mikey brought 6 mile markers (4 for the 8K, 2 for the 5K).  Only these weren't ordinary mile markers; each one was a real pumpkin.  Not sure how, but Mike lugged 5 of these pre-painted beauties out into the woods.  The 6th one he asked me to bring, and fortunately I was able to shirk my duties and con Muddy into carrying it.  This time we gave enough time and I wasn't running around at the last minute trying to finish things.

Mile 1:  After my RD pre-race remarks, we also lined up on the starting line.  Then some idiot (that would be me) looked down and saw that he didn't have his bib.  That should have been grounds for DQ, but fortunately the crowd tolerated me as I quickly got my bib (thanks Jana!) and pins (thanks John!) and lined back up.   The bell (yes, a bell from timing company!) went off, and a number of us went out pretty hard to jostle for position entering the woods.  After 1/4 mile, we exited the field into the woods to start the 100' trail climb.  After I passed an unknown runner, I was passed by Muddy and Jonny, putting me in 5th position.  A 31-year old guy from Providence was leading, with Tommy 5K in tow.  At the top of the hill, Jeff Vuono did an awesome job as course marshal at the course split for 5K and 8K.  The next 1/2 mile is a slow incline on the XC course.  I could see Jonny a little ways ahead of me, but no one else.  6:51.

Start of the 2017 Run for the Pumpkins:
Tom on far left, shirtless Jonny behind me, and me to their left.
Looks like Mikey B in a cap a few places back.

Mile 2:  As we entered the upper field, I pulled up very close to Jonny.  I was feeling good, but knowing the next mile would drop over 100' (which plays to my advantage), I held steady.  Once we left the field and got into a downhill, I passed Jonny.  He gave me some encouragement, but I told him he'd like me retake me on the uphill.  I accelerated downhill and soon saw and caught up to Tom (Muddy must have passed him somewhere along the way).  I know I should pass on the left, but I was on the ragged edge of control on one of the steeper descents and just yelled "On your right" as I went by.  When the trail flattened out, I could hear Tom right on me and thought he'd pass, but I made it to the end of the 2nd mile just ahead of him.  6:12.  Very fast trail mile!

Mile 3:  The hardest part of the course would be the next 1/3 mile of twisty newly cut trail, and I would both suffer and revel in it.  At switchbacks, I could see Muddy ahead of me holding down 2nd place, and when I glanced who was trailing me, it was Jonny on my heels!  Not a good thing to be hunted by him on trail uphills.  I had home course advantage knowing every single turn on the course, and maybe that was a factor as I held my position through the Pumpkins Connector climb and the rest of the mile, bring us into Woody Hill.  8:05.  Not surprisingly my slowest mile.

Mile 4:  This mile brought us into and through the Hansel & Gretel twisty trail.  We started to catch the back of the 5K'ers at this point, and all were graceful to step aside where appropriate.  I feel I'm reasonably fast on this, but just could not shake Jonny.  Muddy was not far ahead of me, but the distance wasn't narrowing either.  Passed Beth towards the end of this mile and somehow had the strength to mumble "Thank you". 7:12

This year I extended the rock portion of the Hansel & Gretel
section of trail by exposing more rock (above), but
also gave the anti-rock crowd a bypass option.

Mile 5:  Fearing that Jonny was about to run me down, I knew I had to push real hard this mile to stay in the game, and fortunately it was another downhill.  I caught right up to Muddy on a downhill and was about to try to pass, but we got jammed up with about three 5K'ers that he was working on going around himself.  Fortunately, I got one more chance on a final downhill and passed him.  Knowing the hill was ending soon and we'd be exiting onto a flat field where both Muddy and Jonny are faster than me, I just hammered with everything I had and hoped for the best.  Success!  In my sprint, I not only held off my chasers but also narrowed the gap on the winner and finished just 5 seconds behind him!  Muddy was 8 seconds behind me in 3rd, Jonny a mere 1 second behind Muddy in 4th, and Tom came in behind him, with a number of WTAC runners to follow suit.
Final split:  5:54 pace!

Final results:  33:19.  2nd overall out of 44 finishers in the 8K.  1st in age group.  Full results here

Would wearing trail minimus shoes have benefitted me in
my performance at all?  I love the light feel, rotate them in with other
shoes, but this was the first time ever wearing them in a race.  7.2 ounces.

Super psyched with the results!  I gave it my all, and came out with better than expected results.  For the event overall, we had about 100 paid entrants, and over 100 total finishers in the 5K, 8K, and Kids' 1K run.  The rain held off until afternoon, and the next two days were washouts, so we got lucky.  I love the whole fall feeling to this race (ghosts, pumpkin mile markers, apples, cider, pumpkin muffins, etc), the family event with the kids' race inclusion, and the fact that this 100% on trails, some with a good challenge.

Fall decorated trail race course

More fun decorating the course

 

Weekly Log 2-Oct to 8-Oct-2017

Monday:  6
Road run.  Local hospital loop.

Tuesday:  8
Bradford Preserve.  Flagging and course setup for Matthew's final home WHS XC meet ever.  :)
So proud to see Matthew wrap it up with 1) the overall individual win, 2) course record, 3) establishing himself as 2017 Southern Division champ, 4) leading the team to a win, and 5) first time WHS boys qualified as a team for states since 2008.

Wednesday:  4
Morning run at Woody.  Lazily got up too late and had to cut my run short to make it back in time for a work meeting.  No one to blame but myself.

Thursday:  8
Ran Rhody course at 6am, starting and ending on Buckeye Brook Road.  Abdominal pain the entire way.  Every root I hit or rock I jumped off felt jarring.  Really uncomfortable.

Spent two hours in the evening putting on final touches on the Pumpkins Connector Trail, including some minor snipping with loppers and smoothing/rounding out a few sections where turns were just too tight to run at a fast pace.

Friday:  4
Ran and lined the Pumpkins course with ghosts and graves.  Pumpkins race in the morning!

Saturday:  13
Run for the Pumpkins!  Write-up to follow shortly.

Sunday:  10
Back to Bradford Preserve and Woody Hill.  Narrowly missed the rain, but suffered through humidity.  Ran with Matthew.  Had originally planned to tack on more miles, but the tired and sore legs had other ideas.

Weekly mileage:  52

Weekly synopsis:  Not bad mileage, especially for cutting a couple of days short.  Consciously trying to mix in at least one day of roads each week, which I did.

Weekly highlight:  The Pumpkins trail race!  Nothing else even came close.  Awesome time; awesome race.

 

Weekly Log 25-Sep to 1-Oct-2017: Indian Summer Continues

What should the caption here be?
Perhaps "You know you have a problem when ..."?
Or "Imelda Marcos would be proud"?

Monday:  5
Evening beach run on a rather hot late September fall day.  Stepped awkwardly (barefoot) through a pile of rocks and bruised the arch of my right foot.  Otherwise, it was all good on a warm evening and I finished up with a jump into the ocean.

Tuesday:  6
Hot, hot day for late September.  83 degrees and hot high Noon sun.  Made a poor choice to run roads and paid for it.  North End roads.  Slow pace at almost 8 minutes and quickly dehydrated.  Not fun.

Weird thing happened in the evening.  Was grilling in my backyard when I heard a loud rustling sound that seemed to be emanating from my woods.  Walked out there to find a neighbor dragging cut tree branches onto my property, and I asked what he was doing.  He said the tree branches looked ugly near his house, so he was dragging them back here.  Oh, so YOUR trees that YOU cut down looked ugly on YOUR property, so you dragged them on to my property.  While I believe him that he truly didn't know where the boundary was, it still frosted me that he illegally dumped on my property and blocked my perimeter trail in many places so that it's not even passable anymore.  He did agree to drag them all back.   This is at least the 4th time that someone has dumped yard waste on some portion of my property.  End of rant.  Harumph.

Wednesday:  6
Dedham, MA.  Body just didn't want to move.  Had originally thought of running repeats on Wilson Mountain, but clearly that wasn't happening.  Ran a 2-mile loop through Whitaker Woods, and then connected to run a single loop up and around Wilson Mountain.

Thursday:  11
AM:  5 miles on local roads out to Avondale.  73 degrees and dripping humidity at 6am made this run just plain unenjoyable.
PM:  6 miles setting up WHS XC course for their meet.  Other than forgetting to bring the mile markers, all went well.

Friday:  3
Late afternoon mowing of upper field XC trail at Bradford Preserve.  Includes running to and fro with a can of gasoline.

Saturday:  15
Met up with Tommy and Mikey at 7am for a trail run / workout in Bradford Preserve and Woody.  After a short warm-up, we ran 10 x (1-minute hard, 1-minute easy).  On downhills and twisty stuff, I could stay pretty close to Tommy; the rest of the stuff I was trailing him.  After the workout, Mike surprised me by asking to run the new RINEMBA trails, so that's what we did!  Pour Judgment is clearly my favorite of the lot.  We finished with about 11 miles, and I went out for a few more solo.

The afternoon and evening got really weird and a bit scary.  At the risk of TMI, I've been having some mild, dull lower abdominal pain for about 3 weeks now.  It was dull enough that I ignored it hoping it would go away.  (That's the proper response, right?)  Fast forward to today, as when I got home the pain turned acute to the extent that it hurt any time I walked or moved.  Something is wrong, so when the sharp pain continued after lunch, I went to South County Urgent Care to have it checked out.  After two hours, I finally got seen and after some poking around, I was told that I likely had appendicitis, but they needed a CT scan to confirm, so I needed to go to SC Hospital ER right away, and they first suggested an ambulance.  Between the ambulance suggestion and Google results showing the solution is immediate surgery, I was starting to get scared.  My first concern was all the running I would miss, much like my ventral hernia surgery a few years back when I lost three weeks of running and was going stir-crazy.  At about 8pm, I had fallen asleep in my hospital bed in the ER, when they came in to give me the results.  Good news:  I do NOT have appendicitis, there is nothing dangerous or concerning, and I mostly likely am having some sort of abdominal muscular issue that they are asking me to avoid heavy lifting or strenuous work, and are referring me to my PCP for.  Whew!  What a relief!  No surgery, and no running interruption.

Sunday:  14
Made an early morning trek to Madison, CT for a "Bimbler's Bite", which is a series of samples of the Bimbler course.  Got there 10 minutes early.  Sat in my car looking at my phone like the introverted geek that I am.  When others started to get out about 5 minutes before, I joined them.  A woman named Molly looked at my license plate and asked if I really drove all the way from RI.  I thought that was an odd question given that she had NH plates (she and I were the only out-of-staters).  Anyway, a few of us were talking and it seemed like I was the only one that had never run a 50K race before, so I felt out of place, until we started running and then all was good in my world.

We started out with a group of 16, but quickly broke into separate groups based on pace.  A group of six of us formed the lead pack, led by a runner named Joe who had run Bimbler's 6 times before and had the course map loaded on his watch.  Mostly I ran and talked with Molly, as we ran 2nd and 3rd place, and it was easy to talk to her about our respective running backgrounds and races.  At points Joe would have us stop and wait for the rest of our merry band to regroup.  A few times I felt I wanted to pick up the pace more, but as a guest on the run, I didn't want to be a d!ck and constantly run ahead of the leader (which I inadvertently did once).  The climbing and terrain were more than I expected and by the end of the run, my legs had had enough, and I was already gone longer than planned, so I quickly got in the car and headed back to RI.

View from Bluff Head

View from Bluff Head

Neat farmhouse, framed by a view of the bluff we had just run down from

Weekly mileage:  59

Weekly synopsis:  Happy with this week's volume and getting two medium-long trail runs in during the weekend.  Finally, the weather turned more fall-like as we headed into October with Sunday's run 43 degrees at the start.  Next week we have the Pumpkins race, but falling on a Saturday of a long weekend, I'm hoping for another reasonably high mileage week.

Weekly highlight:  The Bimbler's Bite trail run.  Got me out of my comfort zone of only running with people I know, ran in an entirely new area to me, and took in some great single-track trails and views.