Two years ago, I started mixing trail running into my workout regime for cross-training. Since then I've run a handful of short cross-country races including 6 out of 7 in the Bolton Summer XC series last year (2.4 miles). Unbeknownst to me until I took a greater interest in racing, the Nipmuck Trail Marathon starts a few miles from my house and the course passes within a couple miles of my front door.
The iconic Nipmuck race uses the Connecticut blue blazed trail system and is part of the Grand Tree Trail Race Series. Last fall, my wife and I volunteered at the marathon (in a torrential downpour) and later joined the Shenipsit Striders who organize many of the trail races in Connecticut including the Nipmuck. Despite the adverse conditions the runners faced in the 2013 race, the idea of running the Nipmuck the following October started percolating in my head. The timing was about right since running San Francisco would probably preclude running my usual October marathon. What better time to debut at a long-distance trail race?
I'm a pretty good runner. Not great, but I usually finish comfortably between the elite age groupers and the main pack. That kind of success hadn't manifested itself in the few trail races I'd entered, but I'd still done reasonably well. The main goal in entering the Nipmuck mostly would be to finish in a reasonable time, not necessarily to be competitive. As part of preparing for a possible Nipmuck run, I decided to run the Soapstone Mountain 24K, also organized by the Striders, in May. This also coincided nicely with increasing my training miles for TSFM with the added bonus that the Soapstone course included over 2000 feet of elevation gain. TSFM course is hilly, so racing some hills would certainly help build more strength.
I arrived at the race resplendent in my TSFM Ambassador gear with my wife in tow. She was just three weeks off of hip surgery to repair a torn labrum, but she thought this would be a good opportunity to get out of the house for a little while. I announced to her that she could expect me to finish in 2:00, perhaps 2:15 since it was such a challenging course. This is important information since it provides her an ETA for brunch.
A major difference between me and a true trail runner is our differing reaction to a "muddy course" announcement. The trail runners screamed with delight when they heard the course was going to be muddy. I started thinking about running in squishy, waterlogged shoes and planning how to keep the car clean on the ride home. We had had some rain recently, but none for a couple of days. As the race started, there was no particular evidence of a messy course despite the warning. There was however a quarter mile ascent at 26% that started at mile 2 (Soapstone Mountain). This essentially meant climbing on all fours as the steepest sections were at more than a 50% grade. Still things went relatively well until mile 6.5 where a 1.1 mile decent in a creek bed started. The creek was filled to the brim with 6-10" of cold runoff water and mud. Unlike earlier sections of the course, there was no way to avoid the obstacle. Somewhere near the halfway point as I started ascending another long climb, I began to suspect that I may have underestimated my finishing time. By mile 12 crossing Soapstone Mountain again from the other direction, I began to fear that my wife had ignored the doctor's prohibition on driving and had left me to find another way home. I also became increasingly bewildered knowing that trail racers typically run 31, 50, 100 miles (or even longer) over similar terrain. I crossed the finish line spent after 2:51 minutes had passed and a finishing placement near the bottom 1/3.
There is great value in doing things at which you're not particularly adept. Focusing on what you're good at leads to stagnation. Taking on new challenges will make you faster, stronger, better. That said, recovering from the Soapstone took much longer than I expected. I reduced my training load for a couple of weeks following the race. It was as challenging, if not more so, than some marathons I've run on the road. I will continue to run trails, because I enjoy the experience of being in the woods. Whether I will enter any more long distance trail races anytime soon is an open-ended question. I might volunteer at the Nipmuck again this year.
The iconic Nipmuck race uses the Connecticut blue blazed trail system and is part of the Grand Tree Trail Race Series. Last fall, my wife and I volunteered at the marathon (in a torrential downpour) and later joined the Shenipsit Striders who organize many of the trail races in Connecticut including the Nipmuck. Despite the adverse conditions the runners faced in the 2013 race, the idea of running the Nipmuck the following October started percolating in my head. The timing was about right since running San Francisco would probably preclude running my usual October marathon. What better time to debut at a long-distance trail race?I'm a pretty good runner. Not great, but I usually finish comfortably between the elite age groupers and the main pack. That kind of success hadn't manifested itself in the few trail races I'd entered, but I'd still done reasonably well. The main goal in entering the Nipmuck mostly would be to finish in a reasonable time, not necessarily to be competitive. As part of preparing for a possible Nipmuck run, I decided to run the Soapstone Mountain 24K, also organized by the Striders, in May. This also coincided nicely with increasing my training miles for TSFM with the added bonus that the Soapstone course included over 2000 feet of elevation gain. TSFM course is hilly, so racing some hills would certainly help build more strength.
I arrived at the race resplendent in my TSFM Ambassador gear with my wife in tow. She was just three weeks off of hip surgery to repair a torn labrum, but she thought this would be a good opportunity to get out of the house for a little while. I announced to her that she could expect me to finish in 2:00, perhaps 2:15 since it was such a challenging course. This is important information since it provides her an ETA for brunch.
A major difference between me and a true trail runner is our differing reaction to a "muddy course" announcement. The trail runners screamed with delight when they heard the course was going to be muddy. I started thinking about running in squishy, waterlogged shoes and planning how to keep the car clean on the ride home. We had had some rain recently, but none for a couple of days. As the race started, there was no particular evidence of a messy course despite the warning. There was however a quarter mile ascent at 26% that started at mile 2 (Soapstone Mountain). This essentially meant climbing on all fours as the steepest sections were at more than a 50% grade. Still things went relatively well until mile 6.5 where a 1.1 mile decent in a creek bed started. The creek was filled to the brim with 6-10" of cold runoff water and mud. Unlike earlier sections of the course, there was no way to avoid the obstacle. Somewhere near the halfway point as I started ascending another long climb, I began to suspect that I may have underestimated my finishing time. By mile 12 crossing Soapstone Mountain again from the other direction, I began to fear that my wife had ignored the doctor's prohibition on driving and had left me to find another way home. I also became increasingly bewildered knowing that trail racers typically run 31, 50, 100 miles (or even longer) over similar terrain. I crossed the finish line spent after 2:51 minutes had passed and a finishing placement near the bottom 1/3.
There is great value in doing things at which you're not particularly adept. Focusing on what you're good at leads to stagnation. Taking on new challenges will make you faster, stronger, better. That said, recovering from the Soapstone took much longer than I expected. I reduced my training load for a couple of weeks following the race. It was as challenging, if not more so, than some marathons I've run on the road. I will continue to run trails, because I enjoy the experience of being in the woods. Whether I will enter any more long distance trail races anytime soon is an open-ended question. I might volunteer at the Nipmuck again this year.
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