HATs Off

One would assume that after my recent experience at the Seneca Creek Greenway Trail Marathon I would be taking it easy for awhile. That was my plan until one of my running buddies offered me his entry in the HAT 50 K ultramarathon. How could I resist. This race was run in scenic Susquehanna State Park this past Saturday, March 24, 2007. Once again it rained the day before the race and the course was muddy---nothing like the SCGTM---but there were more and bigger hills which ensured a equally memorable race. The drive northeast to the park at 6:30 in the morning was marked by a nice steady rain that abated minutes before racetime. 400 runners began the race which started in a nice grassy field and contiued there for the first mile before entering the woods--approximately 323 runners finished. The high drop-out rate is due to the course being two loops of 16 and 15 miles and some runners choosing or conceding defeat after the first 16 miles.

Anyway, the picture above was my view (from the back of the group) of the long stream of runners entering the wooded section after having run the first mile. The first 10 miles or so was a lot of stop-and-go running as many traffic jams formed around muddy/slippery downhills, steep uphill climbs and a couple of wonderful creek crossing. On the right is a picture of a woman runner pictured going through the second creek crossing (which we had to do twice). The water here was pretty deep depending on which path one chose to cross the creek. I followed the same line as her and was surprized when water was swirling around mid-thigh with waist-level splashes.

I started the race along with a couple of running friends but after the first mile we got separated as I sped ahead. However, they eventually caught and then past me in the last few miles of the race teaching me a good lesson in humility. Anyway, the course was very scenic and I really enjoyed running through the forests although, as I mentioned earlier the course was very hilly, so much of the time in the woods was spent either going up or going down. You would round a bend along the trail to be greeted by the sight of runners toiling up steep switchback trails (see picture above) that, especially on the second loop, took the wind out of my sails. At times like these, Jane and I often refer to the scene in the opening of GI Jane (a movie about a fictional first woman navy seal, played by Demi Moore) when the Master Chief recites a poem by D.H. Lawrence, entitled "Self-Pity" to the navy seal wannabes.

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself,
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough,
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

Well, I know pretty well by now that I am not a wild thing because I'm capable of extraordinary levels of self-pity. I was feeling mighty low as I battled nausea from miles 18 to 27. I know....excuses, excuses!!! Around mile 27 or so the course takes runners really close to the finish line (even though you have the toughest miles to go including a gargantuan hill) and you can hear in the distance the race announcer welcoming the finishers and cheering spectators. It's a little surprize the race organizers thought-up to test the mettle of runners who dare to enter their race. It was here that my friends caught up with me and soldiered on with a steely look of determination in their eyes and more energy than I thought I could summon to follow them.
Luckily, I hooked up with another runner, Sal, and we hoofed the remaining miles to the finish line together mainly talking about how tough this race was. Sal had a large contigent of family and friends there to cheer us on to the finish line. I knew they weren't cheering for me, but oddly the effect was the same as if they were and it help me push-on to the finish. I was so fatigued at the end that, even though I looked at the race clock and heard the race announcer call my time, I couldn't register that information and had to wait a couple of days for the race results to be posted to learn my overall time. Looking back I enjoyed the race and even though I may have wallowed in self-pity, this bird didn't drop dead.
Here I am leaving the aid station after completing the first 16 miles in 3 hours, 15 minutes (or a little over 12 minutes/mile). I won't mention the mile/minute pace during the second loop.

George and Jane's Greenway Adventure

On March 3rd, 2007 Jane and I finally ran the Seneca Creek Greenway Ultra-Marathon we had been preparing for. We opted to do the marathon trail distance of 28 miles rather than the full 50K distance, which was a wise choice. The race turned out to be a far greater challenge than we had expected and we were tested to the maximum of our abilities by the horrendously icy and muddy conditions of the course. But, we both won the day completing the race with heads held high. I won't recap the entire race--the memories, although fun to privately relive, are still painful. Instead, I'll borrow a few qoutes from other hard-core ultra-runners as there seemed to be a collective need to share these common stories of misery with each other in the days following this race.

THE BEGINNING:

"There were plenty of runners on-hand, milling around on this pretty, sunny morning. We received a plethora of instructions before the race started and everything was rather low-key... I have run plenty of laid-back races before but when the instructions end like this: "So, be careful and have fun. *2 second pause*. All right, get going", I knew I was in for a different race."

"Rain a few days before and the nighttime freezes ensure long stretches of path covered in a thick, smooth glaze. As the race leaves the road at the start and enters the trail in Damascus Regional Park, I see where here and there a little sun finds its way to the path. In these places, week-old footsteps in the snow have become packed down, re-frozen slush, slick and craggy as a D.C. lobbyist."

"...the melted ice and snow had settled in to form the most slippery surface I had ever run on. "

Early in the race we crossed a sizable stream flowing with frigid water that completely numbed our feet by the time we reached the opposite bank. Man! I remember my feet hurt for the next hundred yards after wading the creek. TKH

"A runner in front of me slides down the slick side hill on his side towards Seneca Creek. Just before going airborne over the embankment and into the drink, he grabs a small tree at the edge and hangs on. I hear later that another runner misses the little tree here and takes the plunge. Most slide down on their butts, a few inches at a time."

THE MIDDLE:
"as the rest of the race would show, if you could jump off the trail to run around mud, ice, or shin-deep water, you would. "

"Every step was an adventure and if I was not sliding uncontrollably on my ass....I was doing my best to make sure my shoes did not get sucked in by the quicksand ice-mud."

Compared to the ankle-deep slick mud the ice was merely a mild nusaince. TKH

"Then they appear. The signs. Excuse me, the stupid signs, as the last of many to come self-admits. Tofu. A non-MCRRC runner near me asks “what the hell is that?”, pointing to a small sign stuck in the mud advertising “Tofu to come – mmm”. I explain that I do not really know, but I suspect that a bored race volunteer with a clinically abnormal sense of humor is advertising the goodies to come at the Sugarland Aid station. This station is MILES away still and soon we are on another sign advertising the fruit of the bean curd. Tofu torture."

"Even after running through streams and splashing water and mud up on me, let alone falling down, they (this runners legs) were still covered in rivulets of blood from the wounds I had sustained so far. "

Personally, I liked Tofu Town they had lots of good snacks--M&Ms, Milky Way candy bars, Girl Scout cookies, PBJ sandwiches--everything you needed for fuel to grind out the last seven miles. TKH

THE AFTERMATH

"As the last person finished in 8:25 minutes or 16 minutes and 17 seconds per mile this guy gets an unbelievably "waytogo" from me. That type of strength takes a set of stones I do not have in order to be out there that long and still finish."

"While there was no t-shirt (who cares), and no medals......a small medal would have been nice. The scars and cuts on my legs are nice proof of the effort I put forth but.....I would like a little more to commemorate my time. Just a little something that I will be able to look back upon and shake my head at what was one of the hardest races I have ever done."

"I regard running this “race” with a weird mixture of dissatisfaction, ......yet with an odd sense of pride at having finished."

"On the long trudge back to my car, I wonder if this race, flawlessly organized and supported as it was, should have been held today under these trail conditions. Now, it is well known that a race day forecast of a hundred-year flood, golf-ball-sized hailstones, and an impending asteroid collision would not deter trail runners from starting any trail race and, most likely, not from finishing it. Were these events to actually occur, these runners would just say “the course was tough, dude”. But this ice, this was crazy."